UNIT I- Optical Fibre based Devices

Introduction to optical Fibre -Fused single mode fibre directional coupler, Polished single mode fibre
directional coupler- Fibre polariser; Wavelength multiplexer and demultiplexer - Optical fibre switches
and intensity modulators - Optical fibre phase modulator - Optical fibre frequency modulator - Optical
fibre amplifiers
.

Optical fibres
A thin flexible and transparent wire prepared for light propagation is called optical fibre. The optical fibre
has been constructed for the following reasons:
 The light wave cannot traverse long distance in air without any losses.

 To make loss less light wave communication, the optical waves can be guided through optical fibre.
The optical fibre can be used for the many of industrial application and medical applications as well. The
optical fibre consists of two media kept one inside the other. The centre transparent medium of optical fibre
is called “core” and the outer is cladding. The refractive index of core will be always higher than the
refractive index of cladding.
Outer protective
Core
Cladding

1. The propagation of light in optical fibre.

The light propagates through optical fibre through “Total internal reflection”. The total internal reflection
appears due following reasons.
 When light traverse from optically rarer medium (like air) to denser medium (glass) the refracted ray
moves towards the normal drawn on the interface of media as in Snell’s law. Conversely, if light
traverse from denser to optically rarer medium, the refracted ray moves away from the normal drawn
on the interface of the medium fig.(1a)

 If the angle of incidence increases (fig.1b), to certain value for which the refracted ray happen to be
on the interface of medium. The angle of incidence s known as critical angle (θc)(fig.1c).

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  If the incident angle (fig.1d) increases more than critical angle, then the refracted ray falls on the
same denser medium with no refraction. “This reflection of light is called total internal reflection”.
Thus, following are the conditions for total internal reflection:

1. The ray of light should be traverse from denser to rare medium.

2. The incident angle should be more than the Critical angle (θi >θc

Fig propagation of light from rarer to denser medium

Fused single mode fibre directional coupler

Fiber optic data link, two stage conversion i.e. electric – to – optical and optical – to – electrical besides
transmission of optical information through the optical fiber is a requisite operation.
The type and behavioral characteristic of optical power transmission between fibers is important to define
basic operating principle of an all optical devices. In this chapter, it has also been explained that how transfer
of optical power from one component to another takes place between the fiber optic connections. As
compared to the point to point data link, designing a fiber optic data link is complex and requires utmost care
for its best use and compatibility with other kind of networks. Such optical data links includes variety of
devices/components like splices, switches, couplers, etc. In permanently connected optical links, splices are
used to join the optical fibers tightly. In general, two types of splices namely mechanical splices and fusion
splices are used to make a permanent joint between the fibers. However, for easy coupling and uncoupling of
optical fibers, reconfigurable connectors resembled to electrical plugs and sockets are mostly used these
days. On the same way, the optical couplers are used to couple optical power from one fiber to other fibers
or many fibers.

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 During connection between two fibers, alignment of connected fibers with each other needs to be
taken care of in a serious manner to avoid alignment generated coupling losses. Other reason for coupling
losses between the fibers is difference of their optical properties. These properties may include difference in
the numerical apertures, core and cladding diameters, and refractive index profiles. Similarly fiber optic
coupler is used for redistribution of optical signals. That means, it can distribute the optical signal (power)
from one fiber among two or more fibers. On the other hand, the fiber optic coupler is also used for
combining the optical power from two or more fibers on to a single fiber. In comparison of typical connector
or splice, fiber optic couplers attenuate the signal much more. Based on the working principle, the optical
couplers can be classified as active and passive couplers, splitters, combiners, X couplers, star couplers, and
tree couplers. 2.1.1 Fiber Optic and Waveguide Couplers In splitting function, the fiber optic coupler split
the input signal in two or more outputs. Such types of couplers are known as optical splitters. On the other
hand, optical combiners are used to combine two or more inputs into one single output. Fiber optic coupler
can be classified as Y couplers and T couplers and are depicted in the figure 2.1. Y type of coupler is also
called optical tap coupler. Such couplers are used to divide the power in to two outputs. However power
distribution ratio has to control precisely in order to generate user or application specific 25 coupling
function like in the ratio of 10:90 percent, 20:80 percent, 30:70 percent, 40:60 percent or 50:50 percent

(a)

(b)

Figure : (a) Y type and T type fiber coupler (b) Popular coupling strategy used amongst optical fiber
links

The basic operation of a T coupler is also same as for Y coupler. T couplers can be cascaded to connect
multiple terminals on a network, as shown in figure 2.1 (b). In such type of couplers, the split ratio must be
maintained either 10:90 percent or 20:80 percent, so that power to next stage can coupled efficiently.
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Generally T couplers are used in small networks, where port counts are less. In optical communication
networks, the simplest waveguide is made up of straight lines. However complex patterning of various
waveguides are used to formed for efficient coupling between the fibers. Examples of such complex
patterning are branch or merge waveguides. Figure 2.2 depicts a simple Y-branched waveguide coupler,
which divides input waveguide into two outputs. If the 26 output waveguide split at equal angles, the light
divides equally between them. When specifying optical couplers, the fiber optic cable or type and structure
of the waveguide, the coupler type, signal wavelength, number of inputs and outputs, as well as insertion
loss, splitting ratio, and polarization dependent loss (PDL) have to be considered.

Figure : Y-shaped waveguide coupler

In some cases, such as design of complex optical data links, requirements of multi-port or other type of
connection are fulfilled with use of complex system architectures as shown in figure 2.3. In such cases, the
fiber optic data links looks different from the simple point-to-point connections. Such complex architectures
may include fiber optic or waveguide components, that can redistribute (combine or split) optical signals
throughout the system in requisite manner.

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Figure Complex architectures: (a) Single and dual ring architecture (b) The Bus architecture and (c)
The Star architecture

Optical couplers can be selected based on the bandwidth or window. Regardless of the port types used, fiber
optic couplers can be designed for single window, dual wavelength or wideband transmissions. In single
window couplers, narrow wavelength window is required therefore such couplers can be designed to
incorporate a single wavelength within it. While dual wavelength couplers have a wider wavelength
windows and can work with two wavelengths at a time. In similar manner, wideband couplers can be
designed to work with a single wavelength covering a range (wider) of wavelengths
Fibre polariser

• Fiber Optic Polarizers are designed to polarize the output from a light source or fiber and launch it
into an output fiber.
• These polarizers typically consist of input and output collimators with a plate polarizer in between.
• Broadband polarizers are used, so the power extinction ratio is maintained for up to several hundreds
of nanometers. The same polarizer, for example, may be used for 1300nm to 1600nm.
• The power extinction ratio is the ratio between maximum and minimum output power as the input
polarization state is changed. This is different from the output polarization extinction ratio, which is a
measure of the ratio between the power in the two axes of polarization maintaining fiber.
• This value is dependent upon the extinction ratio of the polarizer, the alignment of the output fiber
axes to the polarizer and the extinction ratio of the output fiber. When an output extinction ratio is
specified, it is the polarization extinction ratio. This value is only applicable when the output fiber is
polarization maintaining fiber.

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Wavelength multiplexer and demultiplexer

A single optical amplifier can handle many wavelength channels simultaneously; otherwise, an equivalent
number of opto-electronic regenerators plus a wavelength multiplexer and demultiplexer would be needed,
which is clearly more costly, requires more maintenance and powering, and requires a sizeable adaptation
effort when the system needs to be upgraded with more wavelength channels.

Benefits of the WDM dimension in multiplexed architectures

This advantage was raised many times in circuit switching platforms. If we want to exploit the same WDM
infrastructure while introducing packet techniques, the notion of band can then be advantageously exploited
to reduce the latency in the transmitting parts. In fact we can exploit the statistical time multiplexing of
packets over a group of wavelengths to increase the chance to insert packet in the line when we can have
access to a group of wavelengths instead of one. In summary, we can see that for optical rings, the WDM
dimension can relax physical constraints and, in addition, improve the performance in packet rings in terms
of latency. To illustrate the benefit of the WDM dimension, the IST DAVID project is proposing a multi-
ring optical packet MAN exploiting the WDM dimension for these two main aspects.
In backbone networks
In backbone networks where the topology is generally meshed, the WDM dimension is exploited for
four main reasons:
1. Cost and compactness reasons. In optical cross-connect/packet switching architectures, the WDM
dimension can be exploited to reduce the number of switching components to make the architecture
compact and low cost. The objective is to switch in the WDM dimension as much as possible in the
limit of the required power budget. In cross-connect architectures, the dynamic management of the
wavelength dimension can, in addition, contribute to a drastic reduction of the number of
interconnected fibres.

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 2. Power consumption reasons. By exploiting the WDM dimension, the processing is done at the
WDM dimension. In electronics, a double demultiplexing is required: at the wavelength level, and at
the bit rate level. This is, for example, the case for coarse synchronization stages where the WDM
dimension can be exploited efficiently at the WDM level to reduce the complexity of many electronic
structures.
3. Physical reasons. The number of channels switched can also vary inside the architecture to preserve
the optical signal-to-noise ratio at the output. For example, in the first stage of an optical architecture,
the WDM switching can be done on a large number of channels (8 or 16), and then progressively
reduced to a lower number, converging then to one channel switched.
4. Performance reasons. In packet architectures, the WDM dimension can be exploited, to reduce the
packet loss rate and the latency at the same time. When the packets can be addressed onto different
wavelengths, the statistical multiplexing on these wavelengths let a freedom degree for the choice of
the wavelength at the output of an optical packet switch. By this way, the contention can be avoided
simply by re-affecting a new wavelength to a packet instead of putting it in a queue. The benefit is
double since the packet loss rate can be improved, with the same amount

Why optical switching?

To give some arguments we must list the advantages and the drawbacks of optics.
Main advantages of optics:
 Low power consumption: as an example a laser exploited in direct modulation. A laser operating at
622 Mbit s21 or at 2.5 Gbit s21 will be electrically modulated with the same electrical modulation
amplitude.
 High reliability: for passive devices it is evident, for active devices (lasers, EDFAs, semiconductor
optical amplifiers (SOAs), etc) the reliability is quite high since we exploit a carrier density dynamic,
characteristic of the material used.
 . Good mode adaptation: The default on the coupling simply introduces losses and the reflection can
be easily managed by exploiting tilts.
 Low power dissipation: the interaction photon – photon dissipates less energy than electron –
electron, mainly because of the mass.
 High bit rate compliant: a passive guide is a priori a high bandwidth medium capable of supporting
several terabits of capacity.
 Management of large granularity: The switching can be done at the wavelength level but also at the
waveband (group of wavelengths) level.
 Main drawback of optics:
 Slow progress in integration: Still a debate between monolithic and hybrid integration.
 low progress in low cost packaging: the coupling between passive and active guides still remains a
costly technique.
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  Polarization sensitive: The characteristic of some materials often depends on the polarization stateof
the light.
In summary, optics is very interesting when the switching granularity is high, exploiting the wavelength
division multiplexing (WDM) dimension to make simple structures. In electronics we need to
demultiplex at the wavelength level and then at the bit rate level, in optics we simply need one device.
To switch at the WDM granularity, we have commercially available devices like opto-mechanical
switches, thermo-optical switches, electro-optical switches, MEMs, etc for slow switching applications
and for fast switching SOAs, digital optical switches, etc.

Optical Fibre Modulation

 The application is the digital fibre optic communication systems. The advent and widespread use of
the Internet increased the data transmission rates drastically. The demand for more bandwidth
continues on an ongoing basis.
 Fibre optic communication networks have the capability to deliver such demand.
 At present, 40 Gbit s21 fibre optic transmission systems are being developed and installed all around
the globe.
 This requires the modulation of the optical signal at such rates. Since most data generated are in
electrical form, some form of electrical to optical modulation is required. This can be achieved by
directly modulating the output of a laser diode through its drive current.
 There are laser diodes with small signal modulation bandwidths approaching 40 GHz [1]. Although
this approach is simple, typically it is not used over 2.5 Gbit s21 mainly because of the chirp of the
directly modulated laser output [5].
 The undesired frequency modulation associated with amplitude modulation severely limits the
transmission distance over the fibre at high bit rates. This difficulty necessitated the development of
external optical modulators.
 Transmission of analogue signals also requires external modulators. Analogue transmission is
typically used to carry and distribute analogue cable TV signals. Such distribution eliminates
frequent microwave amplification needed on a coaxial distribution system, improving the reach and
reliability [2].
 Subcarrier multiplexing is another scheme that allows transmission independent of data format. It can
be combined with digital transmission to improve functionality, such as optical labelling and header
recognition [3].
 Modulators are also used in military applications, especially in phased array radar [4].
 Control signals to different radiating elements can be carried over the optical fibre, allowing for large
separation between the antenna and the control site in radar.

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  Furthermore, much other functionality in the microwave domain, such as tunable filtering, tunable
delaying and high-speed analogue to digital conversion, can be performed using photonics
techniques.
 All these microwave photonics applications rely on optical modulators for electrical to optical
conversion. However, the required properties of the modulator for each one of these applications are
different.
 Digital applications typically require low drive voltages, wide bandwidth and adjustable chirp. On
the other hand, analogue applications require a high degree of linearity and very low insertion loss.
These requirements are most often conflicting and impose significant challenges on the modulator
design and fabrication.

Optical fibre frequency modulator

Compare Analog Modulation Digital Modulation
S.No Analog Modulation
1 Both message and carrier waves are continuous.
2 Requires higher SNR
3 Good for only low frequency and low
bandwidth signals.
4 High current levels are needed for
modulating higher bandwidth signals
Digital Modulation
Message signal will be in continuous
form and carrier will be digital
Requires low SNR
Good for high frequency and high
bandwidth signals
Lower current levels is needed for
modulating higher bandwidth signals

Briefly explain about the Analog and Digital Modulation

 Modulation is the process by which the waveform of a high frequency carrier wave is modified
suitably to transmit information.

Modulation is classified into two types they are

i)Analog

ii)Digital

 Thus these two classifications of modulation were identified according to the final shape of carrier

waveform. This carrier waveform is usually a sinusoidal waveform (i.e.) continuous waveform.

 In Analog modulation, the information signal or waves varies the light from the source, or the high

frequency signal in the continuous manner. Thus, both could be sinusoidal. There is always a one to

one correspondence between the information signal and the magnitude of the modulated carrier.

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  In Digital modulation, discrete changes in the intensity of the carrier caused by the information

signal. Information is then transmitted by the high frequency signal as a series of discrete pulses.

 Trough simpler in concept and implementation, analog modulation suffer few practical drawbacks. It

requires higher signal to noise ratio at the receiver.

 Analog modulation may be more suitable for low modulation frequencies. Digital modulation is

more suited for large bandwidth optical transmission and reception.

 These can be described in the basic forms of modulation to described the devices basically amplitude

and phase modulator. Continuous wave light can be used as external modulator in those both digital

and analog schemes.

(a). Analog signal

(b).Digital signal

Optical fibre amplifiers

General amplifier concepts

Ideally, an optical amplifier would amplify the signal by adding, in phase, a well-defined number of photons
to each incident photon. This means that a bit sequence (or analogue optical signal) simply would increase
its electromagnetic field strength, but not changes its shape by passage through the optical amplifier. Figure
shows the basics of optical amplification. In a perfect amplifier, this process would take place independent
of the wavelength, state of polarization, intensity, (bit) sequence, and optical bandwidth of the incident light

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signal, and no interaction would take place between signals, if more than one signal were amplified
simultaneously. In practice, however, the optical gain depends not only on the wavelength of the incident
signal, but also on the electromagnetic field intensity, and thus the power, at any point inside the amplifier.
Details of wavelength and intensity dependence of the optical gain depend on the amplifying medium. An
amplifying medium needs to be pumped. For example, a sufficient number of erbium ions must be excited so
that a population inversion is reached, otherwise the erbium ions will attenuate rather than amplify the beam.
All amplifiers described here need to be optically pumped, with the exception of semiconductor optical
amplifiers. Laser diodes are the only acceptable pump sources for telecom applications, because of their
efficiency, reliability, and small size. The development of suitable pump diodes has therefore been an
integral part of the development of optical amplifiers.

Figure1. Optical amplification. In this case, the amplifier is fibre coupled, so that the input and output signals
propagate in an optical fibre.

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UNIT II- Integrated Optics based Devices

Optical directional coupler - directional coupler wavelength filter, polarisation splitting directional
coupler -Polarisers: leaky mode polariser , metal clad polariser; Phase modulator - Optical switch -
Acousto-optic devices : mode converter , tunable wavelength filter, Bragg type modulator, Bragg type
deflector - Magneto-optic devices : TE-TM mode converter, modulators and switches, Ti/LiNbO3 based
optical devices.

.1 Define waveguide.
A waveguide is a dielectric region through which light is propagated. These regions were also
surrounded by dielectric regions or air having smaller dielectric medium.
2 Mention the types of waveguides.
The different types of waveguide are,
 Ridge waveguide

 Buried channel waveguide

 Strip-loaded waveguide
3 Explain briefly about directional coupler.
This is simplest coupler formed by the integration of optical circuit. This is useful in transferring energy
from one waveguide to another. It consists of 2 parallel waveguides. Transfer of optical energy takes place
between these 2 waveguides.
4. Define the term birefringence.
Birefringence refers, for a linearly polarized wave that is propagating in z-direction, itspolarization vector
will depend on the direction of electric field. Due to this effect, the amplification of electric field in one
direction will not be same in opposite direction.
5 . What are magneto-optic devices?
These are devices which work under magneto-optic effect. A magneto-optic effect is aphenomena in which
an electromagnetic wave propagates through a medium that has been altered by the presence of a quasistatic
magnetic field. In such a material, which is also called gyrotropic or gyromagnetic, left- and right-rotating
elliptical polarizations can propagate at different speeds, leading to a number of important phenomena
6 . What are acousto optic devices?
Acoustoptic devices are devices which work under acoustoptic effect. Acoustoptic effect refers to there will
be a change in material permittivity ‘e’ due to mechanical strain ‘a’.
7 What do you mean by Kerr effect?
Magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) is one of the magneto-optic effects. It describes the changes of light
reflected from magnetized media. The light that is reflected from a magnetized surface can change in both
polarization and reflected intensity. The effect is identical to the Faraday effect except that the magneto-
optical Kerr effect is a measurement of the reflected light, while the Faraday effect is a measurement of the

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transmitted light.

Long questions

Directional coupler wavelength filter

The directional coupler consists of two parallel waveguide between which the transfer of optical energy
occurs due to the overlapping of waveguide modes.

 This energy exchange requires that the light propagation in both guides have nearly the same velocity
and propagation vector.

 If these parameters in the two channels are exactly identical, then the power propagating in the two
guides is given by,
𝑃1(𝑧) = 𝐶𝑜𝑠2(𝑘𝑧)𝑒−𝛾𝑧
𝑃2(𝑧) = 𝑆𝑖𝑛2(𝑘𝑧)𝑒−𝛾𝑧
Here z is the direction of propagation and k is the coupling constant given by

𝐾 = 2𝛽𝑦2𝑏𝑒−𝑏𝑑 / 𝛽𝑧𝑊(𝛽𝑦2 + 𝛽𝑧2)

where b is called the extinction coefficient, d is the separation between the guides, w is the width of each
guide, and βz and βy are the mode propagation constants in the propagation and transverse direction,
respectively.

 The coupling length of a directional coupler, lc, defined as the length at which total transfer of power
takes place, is given by
𝐼𝑐 = (𝑚 + 12) 𝜋𝑘 , 𝑚 = 0,1,2 …
where b is called the extinction coefficient, d is the separation between the guides, w is the width of each
guide, and βz and βy are the mode propagation constants in the propagation and transverse direction,
respectively.

 The coupling length of a directional coupler, lc, defined as the length at which total transfer of power
takes place, is given by

𝐼𝑐 = (𝑚 + 12) 𝜋𝑘 , 𝑚 = 0,1,2 …
It should be remembered that in real couplers the two guides may not be identical, and the propagation
constants may differ by a small amount Δβz.

 The coupling constant is then given by

𝐾𝑟2 = 𝐾2 + (𝛥𝛽𝑧/2 )2
 The photomicrograph of a straight ridge waveguide dual-channel coupler is shown in

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Photomicrograph of a GaAs dual channel single mode rigid waveguide coupler with w=2𝝁𝒎 and
d=1.5 𝝁𝒎

For the bends to be nearly loss-free the radius of curvature at the bend must be much larger then ƛ, the
wavelength of the light propagating in the guide. Finally, there are various forms of leaky guides and
couplers where the index of the coupling region is so adjusted that most of the radiation leaks out into an
optical detector or other such device. Other passive components that are required in integrated optics are
lenses, mirrors, and gratings, for the purposes of beam focusing, reflection, and filtering.

 Branching networks divide optical power among two or more outputs or combine power from two
are more inputs.

 An important commonly used branching networks is the waveguide γ-structure, shown in fig, which
can be used as a symmetric power divider or combiner.

 The mode at various points of propagation are also illustrated for the symmetric combiner in fig.

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 Fig:Symmetric waveguide Y-combiner.
 At point l1, the two arms are uncoupled and behave as independent single mode guides, supporting
the lowest order mode.

 Near the taper, the structure transition from a single waveguide of width 2w (at l2) to a waveguide of
width w. At l2, therefore, both the symmetric and antisymmetric modes are supported.

 As these propagated towards point l3 the antisymmetric mode is cut off and its energy is radiated into
the substrate. At l3, single mode characteristics are again restored.

 Foe equal inputs intensities in the two arms, the Y-combiner essentially behaves like the 3-db
direction coupler.

 More complex various of directional couplers and Y-structures are shown in fig.

Fig:Power splitter based on directional couplers and Y-structure.

Explain the Magneto-Optic Devices:

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Magneto-optic materials have unique physical properties that offer the opportunity of constructing devices
with many special functions not possible from other photonic devices. The most significant of these
properties are that the linear magneto-optic effect can produce circular birefringence and that, unlike other
optical effects in dielectric media, it is nonreciprocal. The presence of magnetic field may also affect the
optical properties of some substances thereby giving rise to number of useful devices. In general however an
electric field is easier to generate than magnetic fields, electro-optic devices are usually preferred to magneto
optic effect.

Faraday Effect:
 This is the simplest magneto-optic effect and the only one of real interest for optical modulators, it
concerns the change in refractive index of a material subjected to a steady magnetic field.

 When a beam of plane polarized light passes through a substance subjected to a magnetic field, its
plane of polarization is observed to rotate by an amount proportional to the magnetic field component
parallel to the direction of propagation.

 This is very similar to optical activity which results from certain material having different refractive
indices Ƞ𝑟and Ƞ𝑙for right and left circularly polarized light.

 In the faraday effect the sense of rotation of the plane of polarization is independent of the direction
of propagation. This is in contrast to optical activity where the sense of rotation is related to the
direction of propagation.

 The rotation of the plane of polarization is given by,

𝜃 = 𝑉𝐵𝐿
Where V is verdet constant, B is the magnetic flux parallel to the direction of propagation and L id the path
length in the material.

 We can also express 𝜃 in terms of the refractive indices Ƞ𝑟and Ƞ𝑙 ,

𝜃 = 2𝜋 𝜆 (Ƞ𝑟 − Ƞ𝑙 )𝐿
 A faraday rotator used in conjunction with a pair of polarizers acts as an optical isolator which allows
a light beam to travel through it in one direction but not in opposite one.

 It may therefore be used in laser amplifying chains to eliminate reflected, backward travelling waves,
which are potentially damaging. The construction of a typical isolator is shown in fig.

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 Fig: optical isolator based on the Faraday effect.
Light passing from left to right is polarized in the vertical plane by polarizer 𝑃1. The faraday rotator is
adjusted to produce a rotation of 450 in the clockwise sense.
 The second polarizer 𝑃2is set as 450 to 𝑃1, so that it will transmit light emerging from the
rotator.

 One potential application of magneto-optic currently receiving attention is large capacity

computer memories. Such memories must be capable of storing very large amounts of
information in a relatively small area and permit very rapid readout and preferably random
access.
The magneto-optic memories developed so far are read via the faraday effect or the magnetic Kerr effect,
which relates to the rotation of a beam of plane polarized light reflected from the surface of a material
subjected to a magnetic field. Writing may be achieved by heating the memory elements on the storage
medium to a temperature above the curie point using a laser beam. To read the information the irradiance of
the laser beam is reduced and tehn directed to the memory elements.

Explain about Acoustic optic effect

The acousto-optic effect is the change in the refractive index of a medium caused by the mechanical strains
accompanying the passage of an acoustic (strain) wave through the medium.

 The strain and hence the refractive index varies periodically with a wavelength 𝝀 equal to that of the
acoustic wave. The refractive index changes are caused by the photoeleastic effect which occurs in
all materials on the application of mechanical stress.

 We consider the monochromatic light wave , wavelength 𝝀 incident upon a medium in which an
acoustic wave wave has produced sinusoidal variation of wavelength Ʌ in the refractive index.

 The situation is shown in fig where the solid horizontal lines represent acoustic wave peaks(pressure
maxima) and the dashed horizontal line represent acoustic wave throughs (pressure minima).

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 Fig:Schematic illustration of acousto-optic modulation.

 The wavefront in the medium therefore soon acquires the wavy appearance shown by the dashed
curve. The acoustic wave velocity is very much less than the light wave velocity, so we may consider
the variation in the refractive index to be stationary in the medium.

 As element of the light wave propagate in a direction normal to the local wavefront, almost all the
wave element will suffer a change in direction leading to a re-distribution of the light flux, which
tends concentrate near the regions of compression.

 There are two main cases of interest namely i) the Raman-Nath regime ii) the Bragg regime.

 In Raman-Nath regime the acoustic diffraction grating is so thin that the diffracted light suffers no
further redistribution before leaving the modulator. The light is diffracted as from a simple plane
grating such that

𝑚𝜆0 = Ʌ 𝑆𝑖𝑛 𝜃𝑚

Where m=0,±1, ±2, … is the order and 𝜃𝑚 in the correspondence angle of diffraction as shown in fig.

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 Fig:Geometry for Raman-Nath acousto-optic diffraction grating modulation

The irradiance I of the light in these orders depends on the ruling depth of the acoustic grating, whichis
related to the amplitude of the acoustic grating.

The fraction of light removed from the zero order beam is

Ƞ = 𝐼0 – 𝐼/𝐼0
Where 𝐼0 is the transmitted irradiance in the absence of the acoustic wave. Thus amplitude variations of the
acoustic wave are transformed into irradiance variation of the optical beam. Consider a plane wave front
incident on the grating planes at an angle of incidence 𝜃𝑖 as shown in fig. significant amounts of light will
emerge only in those direction in which constructive interference occurs.
The conditions to be satisfied are
i) light scattered from a given grating plane must arrive in phase at the new wavefront and
ii) light scattered from successive grating planes must be an integral number of wavelengths.

The first of these conditions is satisfied when 𝜃𝑑 = 𝜃𝑖 , where 𝜃𝑑 is the angle of diffraction. The second
condition requires that,
sin 𝜃𝑖 + sin 𝜃𝑑 = 𝑚𝜆 Ʌ
Where 𝑚 = 0,1,2 … the two conditions are simultaneously fulfilled when.

sin 𝜃𝑖 = sin 𝜃𝑑 = 𝑚𝜆 2Ʌ. The diffraction is similar to that obtained with a plane grating, but only for special
angles of incidence; the angle of incidence must equal the angle of diffraction.

19
 UNIT III- Optoelectronic Devices

Semiconductor Lasers: homojunction, heterojunction and surface emitting lasers - surface

emitting lasers , quantum well lasers- Modulation of lasers -Photodetectors: PIN- Avalanche
photodiodes- Brewster’s angle- Optoelectronic modulation and switching devices- Electro-optic
Devices- Optoelectronic Integrated circuits- SiO2 / Si based optoelectronic devices .

Lasers (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission)

Photon emission processes:

Absorption Photodetectors Spontaneous emission LEDs Stimulated emission Lasers

Semiconductor diode laser

Homojunction semiconductor laser (Ga-As Laser)
The pn junction are made by same semiconductor material on both sides of the junction is known as
homojunction diode laser. Eg: GaAs laser
Principle
When the p-n junction diode is forward-
biased the, electrons from n-region and holes from
p-region cross the junction and recombine with each
other at junction. During the recombination process,
the light radiation (photons) is released from a
certain specified direct band gap semiconductors like
Ga-As. This light radiation is known as
recombination radiation. Fig. Semiconductor diode laser principle
Construction
The construction of semiconductor laser is shown in fig. The active medium is a p-n junction diode
20
made from a single crystal of gallium arsenide. This crystal is cut in the form of a platelet having a thickness
of 0.5 mm. The platelet consists of two parts having an electron conductivity (n-type) and
hole conductivity (p-type). The photon emission is stimulated in a very thin layer of pn junction (in the
order of few microns). The electrical voltage is applied to the crystal through the electrode fixed on the

upper surface. Since the refractive index of GaAs is high,

the reflectance at the material-air interface is sufficiently
large. So the external mirrors are not necessary to produce multiple reflections. The end faces of the junction
diode are well polished and parallel to each other. They act as an optical resonator through which the emitted
light comes out.

Fig.Homojunction semiconductor Fig. Energy level diagram of Homojunction

diode laser semiconductor laser
Working
The energy level diagram of semiconductor laser is shown in fig. When the pn junction is forward-
biased with large applied voltage, the electrons and holes are injected into junction region in considerable
concentration. The region around the junction contains a large amount of electrons in the conduction band
and a large amount of holes in the valance band. If the population density is high, a condition of population
inversion is achieved. The electrons and holes recombine with each other and these recombinations produce
radiation in the form of light.
When the forward-biased voltage is increased, more and more light photons are emitted and the light
production instantly becomes stronger. These photons will trigger a chain of stimulated recombinations resulting in
the release of photons in phase. The photons moving at the plane of the junction travels back and forth by
reflection between two sides placed parallel and opposite to each other and grow in strength. After gaining
enough strength, it gives out the laser beam of wavelength 8400 Å.
Calculation of wavelength
Band gap of GaAs (Eg) =1.44 eV
hc
E g  h 

hc 6.625  10 34  3  10 8 o
  19
 8626  ( IR region )
Eg 1.44  1.6  10
Advantages
1. It is easy to manufacture the diode.
21
 2. The cost is low.
Disadvantages
1. It produces low power output.
2. The output wave is pulsed and will be continuous only for some time.
3. The bam has large divergence.
4. They have high threshold current density(400 A/mm2)).
Heterojunction Semiconductor laser (GaAlAs-Laser)
The pn junction made up of different semiconducting materials is known as heterojunction
semiconductor laser. Eg: GaAlAs and GaAs
Principle
When the pn junction diode is forward biased, electrons from n-region and holes from p-region
recombine with each other at the junction. During recombination process, light is released from certain
specified direct band gap semiconductors.
Construction
This laser consists of five layers as shown in fig. A layer of Ga-As p-type (3rd layer) acts as active
region. This layer is kept between two layers having wider band gap viz. GaAlAs-p-type (2nd layer) and
GaALAs n-type (4th layer). The electrical current is applied to the crystal through the electrodes fixed on
top and bottom layer. The end faces of the junctions of 3 and 4 layer are well polished and parallel to each
other. They act as an optical resonator.

Fig. Heterojunction Semiconductor laser Fig. Energy level diagram of Heterojunction semiconductor
laser
Working
When the pn junction is forward biased, the electrons and holes are injected into the junction region.
The region around the junction contains large amount of electrons in the conduction band and holes in the
valence band, (fig.) Thus the population inversion is achieved. At this stage, some of the injected charge
carriers recombines and produce radiation in the form of light. When the forward biased voltage is
increased, more and more light photons are emitted and the light intensity is more. These photons can trigger
a chain of stimulated recombinations resulting in the release of photons in phase. The photons moving at the

22
plane of the junction travels back and forth by reflection between two sides and grow in its strength. A
coherent beam of laser having wavelength nearly 8000 Å emerge out from the junction region.
Calculation of wavelength
Band gap of GaAlAs (Eg) =1.55 eV
hc
E g  h 

hc 6.625  10 34  3  10 8 o
  19
 8014  ( IR region )
Eg 1.55  1.6  10
Advantages
1. Power output is very high.
2. It produces continuous wave output.
3. It has high directionality and high coherence.
4. It has low threshold current density compared to homojunction laser (10 A/mm2).
5. These diodes are highly stable and has longer life time

Disadvantages
1. Cost is higher than homojunction laser.
2. It is difficult growing the different layers of p-n junction.
Applications
1. It is used as a source in fiber optic communication system.
2. It is used in optical data storage in CD/ DVD –ROM.
3. It is used in Laser printers.
4. It is used as a pain killer.
5. It is used to heal wounds by Infra Red radiation.
Difference between homojunction and heterojunction laser

S.No. Homojunction laser Heterojunction laser

1. The pn junction is made with a single The pn junction is made with different
crystalline material. crystalline material.
2. Power output is low(1mW). Power output is high(10 mW).
3. Pulsed output (sometimes continuous) Continuous output.
4. It has high threshold current density. It has low threshold current density.
5. Cost is less. Cost is more.
6. Life time is less Life time is more
7. Examples:GaAs, InP Examples GaAs / GaAlAs , Inp / InAlP

Quantum Laser

C.H. Henry realized that, just as there are discrete modes in which light travels within a waveguide, there
should be discrete electron wavefunction modes in the potential well, each having a unique energy level. His
23
estimate showed that if the active layer of the heterostructure is as thin as several tens of nanometers, the
electron energy levels would be split apart by tens of milli-electron volts. This amount of energy level
splitting is observable. The structure Henry analyzed is today called a "quantum well."

Henry proceeded to calculate how this "quantization" (i.e., the existence of discrete electron wavefunctions
and discrete electron energy levels) would alter the optical absorption properties (the absorption "edge") of
these semiconductors. He realized that, instead of the optical absorption increasing smoothly as it does in
ordinary semiconductors, the absorption of a thin heterostructure (when plotted versus photon energy) would
appear as a series of steps.

A quantum well laser is a laser diode in which the active region of the device is so narrow that quantum
confinement occurs. Laser diodes are formed in compound semiconductor materials that (quite unlike
silicon) are able to emit light efficiently. The wavelength of the light emitted by a quantum well laser is
determined by the width of the active region rather than just the bandgap of the material from which it is
constructed.[1] This means that much longer wavelengths can be obtained from quantum well lasers than
from conventional laser diodes using a particular semiconductor material. The efficiency of a quantum well
laser is also greater than a conventional laser diode due to the stepwise form of its density of states function.

Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs

Light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor diode that emits incoherent narrow-spectrum light when

electrically biased in the forward direction of the p-n junction

Laser Applications

24
Industrial Applications
In Communication Field
1. Laser beam is useful in underwater communication between submarines and warships.
2. They are useful in long haul and short haul communication network.
3. Lasers are used in microwave communication due to its narrow bandwidth.
4. It is used in Holography.
In Military field
1. High power directional laser beam can be used to annihilate objects like aero planes, missiles etc,
by pointing the laser beam on them and hence it is called death ray.
2. It is useful in producing laser guns. It can also serve as a war weapon.
3. The laser beam can be used to determine precisely the distance, velocity and direction as well as
the size and form of distant objects by means of the reflected signal. It is known as LIDAR (Light
Detection And Ranging).
Material Processing
Material processing involves cutting, welding, drilling and surface treatment. When the material is
exposed to laser light, then light energy is converted into heat energy. Due to heating effect, the material is
heated then melted and vaporized. In general, Ruby laser, Nd-YAG and CO2 are used for this purpose.
Lasers in Heat Treatment or Thermal effect
A process involving heating and cooling under the controlled conditions of a material to obtain
certain desirable properties is known as heat treatment.
In annealing, there is no heat affected zone and melting takes place over few picometer thickness.
In hardening process, there is a heat affected zone(HAZ)
in the form of hemispherical. In surface alloying
and surface cladding, there is a coating of alloying or cladding
materials on the substrate surface.

(i) Laser surface alloying

Laser alloying means that there is controlled melting of a work piece surface to a desired depth using
laser beam with simultaneous addition of powdered alloying elements in small time intervals (0.1 to
10 seconds). Fig. Laser Heat Treatment Processes
(ii) Laser cladding
In this process, a laser beam melts a very thin layer of work piece. This thin layer mixes with the
liquid cladding alloy and form metallurgical bonding between the cladding and subtracts by freeze.
Advantages
1. Heat treatment of metals making use of laser radiation is very fast.

25
 2. Compared to other ways of heating, laser are able to localize thermal treatment even to spot
inaccessible by other methods.
Laser Welding
Welding is joining of two or more metal pieces into a single unit.
If we consider welding of two metal plates, the metal plates are held
in contact at their edges and the laser beam is allowed to move along the line
of contact of the plates. The laser beam heats the edges of the two plates to
their melting points and causes them to fuse together where they are in
contact. Fig. Laser Welding
Advantages
1. It is a contact-less process and hence, there is no possibility of impurities into joint.
2. The work pieces do not get distorted.
3. The heat affected zone is relatively small because of rapid cooling.
4. The welding is done in very high rates.
5. Any dissimilar metal can be welded.
Laser cutting
The principle of laser cutting is the vaporization of the material at point of focus of the laser beam.
The required energy for cutting is supplied by exothermal reactions between metal and gas. The vaporized
material is removed with the help of a gas jet. The gas jet is also used to cool the adjacent edges of the cut
metal. Hence, the gas blow reduces laser power requirement, increases depth and speed of cutting and
produces high quality cut.
Fig. Laser cutting and drilling

Advantages
1. Laser cutting can be done at room temperature and pressure without pressure without preheating and
vacuum condition.
2. Higher cutting speed can be achieved.
3. No bead formation due to scattering of molten material.
4. Rapid heating and cooling strengthens the material at the region.
Medical Applications
Lasers are especially successful in the following areas of medical
treatment.

1. Ophthalmology : (i) Treatment of detached retina. (ii)

Coagulation in diabetic retinopathy.
2. Neurosurgery : Treatment of tissue in skull and spine.
3. Dermatology : Removal of skin imperfections by laser
irradiation.

26
 4. Gynecology : (i) Fertility microsurgery (ii) Fallopian tube reconstruction
5. ENT : Ear, nose and throat surgery.
6. Burn Therapy, Urology, Thoracic surgery and orthopedics
7. Laser treatment for coronary artery blockages: laser beam can be sent down readily through
optical fibers and fibers can be introduced into arteries using catheters, it becomes possible to treat
coronary artery blockages using lasers.
8. Laser in genetic engineering : The laser beam induces changes in cells, as opposed to
destroying them; as such this is applicable in genetic engineering.
9. Laser – Acupuncture : In laser acupuncture, silver and gold needles are replaced by fine,
micro manipulator-oriented laser beams.
10. Laser - Dental application : In root canal therapy, fiber is inserted into the root canals. The laser
passed through fiber removes the Infected tissue by vaporizing it and destroy totally and effectively
the bacteria causing infection.
11. It is used for the treatment of human and animal cancers and skin tumors.
12. It is used in performing micro and bloodless surgery.
Advantages of laser surgery: pain less and blood less surgery, No side effects, highly sterile,
localized and precise, prompt healing and short period of surgical time.
Disadvantage: It is highly expensive.

Photodetectors convert an incident radiation to an electrical signal such as a voltage or current. In many
photodetectors such as photoconductors and photodiodes this conversion is typically achieved by the
creation of free electron hole pairs (EHPs) by the absorption of photons, that is, the creation of electrons in
the conduction band (CB) and holes in the valence band (VB). pn junction–based photodiode-type devices
are small and have high speed and good sensitivity for use in various optoelectronics applications, the most
important of which is in optical communications.

Figure 3 shows the simplified structure of a typical pn junction photodiode that has a p+n type of junction,
that is, the acceptor concentration Na in the p-side is much greater than the donor concentration Nd in the n-
side. The illuminated side has a window, defined by an annular electrode, to allow photons to enter the
device. There is also an antireflection (AR) coating, typically Si3N4, to reduce light reflections. The p+-
side is generally very thin (less than a micron) and is usually formed by planar diffusion into an n-type
epitaxial layer.

27
Figure 5.1 (b) shows the net space charge distribution across the p+n junction. These charges are in the
depletion region, or in the space charge layer (SCL), and represent the exposed negatively charged
acceptors in the p+-side and exposed positively charged donors in the n-side. The depletion region extends
almost entirely into the lightly doped n-side and, at most, it is a few microns. The photodiode is normally
reverse biased. The applied reverse bias Vr drops across the highly resistive depletion layer width W and
makes the voltage across W equal to Vo + Vr where Vo is the built-in voltage. Normally Vr (e.g., 5–20 V) is
much larger than Vo (less than 1 V) and the voltage across the SCL is essentially Vr. The field E in the SCL
is found by the integration of the net space charge density rnet in Figure 5.1 (b) across W subject to a voltage
difference of Vo + Vr, i.e., Vr. The field only exists in the depletion region and is not uniform. It varies
across the depletion region as shown in Figure 5.1 (c), where it is maximum at the junction and penetrates
into the n-side. The regions outside the SCL are the neutral regions in which there are majority carriers.

When a photon with energy greater than the bandgap Eg is incident, it becomes absorbed to
photogenerate a free EHP, that is, an electron in the CB and a hole in the VB. Usually the energy of the
photon is such that photogeneration takes place in the depletion layer. The field E in the depletion layer then
separates the EHP and drifts them in opposite directions until they reach the neutral regions, as illustrated in
Figure 5.1 (a). Drifting carriers generate a current, called the photocurrent Iph, in the external circuit that
provides the electrical signal. The photocurrent lasts for the duration it takes for the electron and hole to
cross the SCL (width, W) and reach the neutral regions. As the electron drifts in the SCL toward the neutral
n-side, there is an electron that has come out from n-side and is flowing around the external circuit toward
the battery’s positive terminal. Similarly, as the hole drifts in the SCL toward the p-side, there is an electron
flowing in the external circuit from the battery’s negative terminal to the p-side. When the drifting hole
reaches the neutral p+-region, it recombines with an electron entering the p+-side from the external circuit.
Similarly, when the drifting electron in the SCL reaches the neutral n-side, it has replenished the electron

28
that had left the n-side for the battery. The photocurrent Iph depends on the number of EHPs photogenerated
and the drift velocities of the carriers while they are transiting the depletion layer. Since the field is not
uniform and the absorption of photons occurs over a distance that depends on the wavelength, the time
dependence of the photocurrent signal cannot be determined in a simple fashion.

5.6 Avalanche Photodiode

A. Principles and Device Structures
Avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are widely used in optical communications due to their high speed and
internal gain. They are also used in various applications where sensitivity is important. A simplified
schematic diagram of a Si reach-through APD is shown in Figure. The n+-side is thin and it is the side that
is illuminated through a window. There are three p-type layers of different doping levels next to the n+ -
layer to suitably modify the field distribution across the diode. The first is a thin p-type layer and the second
is a thick, lightly p-type doped (almost intrinsic) layer, called the p-layer, and the third is a heavily doped
p+-layer. The diode is reverse biased to increase the fields in the depletion regions.

The net space charge distribution across the diode due to exposed dopant ions is shown in Figure 5.13 (b).
Under zero bias, the depletion layer in the p-region (between n+p) does not normally extend across this
layer. But when a sufficient reverse bias is applied, the depletion region in the p-layer widens to reach
through to the p-layer (and hence the name reach-through). The field extends from the exposed positively
charged donors in the thin depletion layer in n+-side, all the way to the exposed negatively charged
acceptors in the thin depletion layer in p+-side.
The electric field is given by the integration of the net space charge density ρnet across the diode subject to
an applied voltage Vr across the device. The variation in the field across the diode is shown in Figure . The
field lines start at positive ions and end at negative ions which exist through the p-, p-, and p+-layers. This
means that E is maximum at the n+p junction, then decreases slowly through the p-layer. Through the p-
layer, it decreases only slightly as the net space charge density here is small. The field vanishes at the end of
the narrow depletion layer in the p+-side.
The absorption of photons, and hence photogeneration, takes place mainly in the long p-layer. The nearly
uniform field here separates the electron–hole pairs and drifts them at velocities near saturation toward the

29
n+- and p+-sides, respectively. When the drifting electrons reach the p-layer, they experience even greater
fields and therefore acquire sufficient kinetic energy (greater than Eg) to impact-ionize some of the Si
covalent bonds and release EHPs. We can visualize the impact ionization process as shown in Figure 5.14
(a),10 where an electron entering the avalanche region (width w) gains energy from the field as it “drifts” in
the opposite direction to the field, and its energy (which is kinetic energy) increases with respect to Ec.
Eventually, the energy gained from the field is sufficient to excite an electron across the bandgap Eg as
illustrated in Figure 3.4 (b). These impact-ionization-generated carriers are called secondary carriers. These
secondary EHPs themselves can also be accelerated by the high fields in this region to sufficiently large
kinetic energies to further cause impact ionization and release more EHPs, which leads to an avalanche of
impact ionization processes. Thus, from a single electron entering the p-layer one can generate a large
number of EHPs, all of which contribute to the observed photocurrent. The photodiode possesses an internal
gain mechanism in that single photon absorption leads to a large number of EHPs being generated. The
photocurrent in the APD in the presence of avalanche multiplication, therefore, corresponds to an effective
quantum efficiency in excess of unity. The reason for keeping the photogeneration within the p-region and
reasonably separate from the avalanche p-region in Figure 3.4 (a) is that avalanche multiplication is a
statistical process and hence leads to carrier generation fluctuations, which lead to excess noise in the
avalanche-multiplied photocurrent. This is minimized if impact ionization is restricted to the carrier with the
highest impact ionization efficiency, which in Si is the electron. Thus, the structure in Figure 3.4 (a) allows
the photogenerated electrons to drift and reach the avalanche region but not the photogenerated holes.

Figure (a) A schematic illustration of the structure of an avalanche photodiode (APD) biased for avalanche gain. (b) The net space
charge density across the photodiode. (c) The field across the diode and the identification of absorption and multiplication regions.

30
2 PIN

The PIN-diode is an alteration of the PN-junction for particular applications. The occurrence of an intrinsic
layer can significantly increase the breakdown voltage for the application of high-voltage. This intrinsic
layer also offers exciting properties when the device operates at high frequencies in the range of radio wave
and microwave.

A PIN diode is a one kind of diode with an undoped, wide intrinsic semiconductor region between a
P-type and N-type semiconductor region. These regions are normally heavily doped as they are used for
Ohmic contacts. The wider intrinsic region is indifference to an ordinary p–n diode. This region makes the
diode an inferior rectifier but it makes it appropriate for fast switches,attenuators, photo detectors and high
voltage power electronics applications.

What is a PIN Diode?

The PIN diode is a one type of photo detector, used to convert optical signal into an electrical signal. The
PIN diode comprises of three regions, namely P-region, I-region and N-region. Typically, both the P and N
regions are heavily doped due to they are utilized for Ohmic contacts.The intrinsic region in the diode is in
contrast to a PN junction diode. This region makes the PIN diode an lower rectifier, but it makes it
appropriate for fast switches, attenuators, photo detectors and applications of high voltage power electronics.

PIN Diode

31
Structure and Working of PIN Diode

The term PIN diode gets its name from the fact that includes three main layers. Rather than just having a P-
type and an N-type layer, it has three layers such as

 P-type layer
 Intrinsic layer
 N-type layer

The working principle of the PIN diode exactly same as a normal diode. The main difference is that the
depletion region, because that normally exists between both the P & N regions in a reverse biased or
unbiased diode is larger. In any PN junction diode, the P region contains holes as it has been doped to make
sure that it has a majority of holes. Likewise the N-region has been doped to hold excess electrons.

The layer between the P & N regions includes no charge carriers as any electrons or holes merge As the
depletion region of the diode has no charge carriers it works as an insulator. The depletion region exists
within a PIN diode, but if the PIN diode is forward biased, then the carriers come into the depletion
region and as the two carrier types get together, the flow of current will starts.

Applications of PIN Diodes

The applications of PIN mainly include the following areas

 The PIN diode is used as a high voltage rectifier. The intrinsic layer in the diode offers a partition
between the both the layers, permitting higher reverse voltages to be tolerated
 The PIN diode is used as an ideal radio frequency switch. The intrinsic layer among the P & N layers
increases the space between them. This also reduces the capacitance between both the regions, thus
raising the level of isolation when the PIN diode is reverse biased.
32
  The PIN diode is used as a photo detector to convert the light into the current which takes place in
the depletion layer of a photo diode, rising the depletion layer by inserting the intrinsic layer
progresses the performance by increasing the volume in where light change occurs.
 This diode is an ideal element to give electronics switching in applications of electronics. It is mainly
useful for RF design applications and also for providing the switching, or an attenuating element in
RF attenuators and RF switches. The PIN diode is capable to give much higher levels of consistency
than RF relays that are frequently the only other alternative.
 The main applications of the PIN diode are discussed in the above, although they can also be applied
in some other areas

PIN Diode Characteristics

The PIN diode characteristics include the following

This obeys the typical diode equation for small frequency signals. At higher frequencies, PIN diode appears
like an approximately perfect resistor. There is a set of stored charge in the intrinsic region. At small
frequencies, the charge can be detached and the diode switched OFF.

At higher frequencies, there is not sufficient time to eliminate the charge, so the PIN diode never switched
OFF. The diode has a reduced reverse recovery time. A PIN diode properly biased, therefore performs as a
variable resistor. This high-frequency resistance may differ over a broad range (from 0.1 Ω-10 kΩ in some
cases; the practical range is slighter, though).

The wider intrinsic area also means the PIN diode will have a low capacitance when reverse-biased. In this
diode, the depletion region exists completely in the intrinsic region. This depletion region is much better
than in a PN-diode, and nearly constant-size, independent of the reverse bias applied to the PN-diode.

This increases the amount where pairs of electron-hole can be produced by an occurrence photon. Some
photo detector devices like photo transistors and PIN photodiodes employ a PIN-junction in their
construction.

The design of the PIN-diode has some design tradeoffs. Rising the magnitudes of the intrinsic region permits
the diode to appear like a resistor at minor frequencies. It harmfully affects the time required to switch off
the diode & its shunt capacitance. Therefore, it is essential to choose a device with the most suitable
properties for a particular use

Brewster’s Angle and PolarizationI.

Brewster’s angle, or the polarizing angle, is defined as an angle at which an incident beam of unpolarized
light is reflected after complete polarization.
33
The incident light with an electric field parallel to the plane of incidence usually has a zero reflection
coefficient at a particular angle between 0 and 90°. As a result, the reflected light at the polarizing angle is
linearly polarized by having its electric field vectors parallel to the plane of reflecting surface and
perpendicular to the plane of incidence. The reflected light is partially polarized at other angles.

Brewster’s angle can be calculated using the following equation:

n = sin(qi)/sin(qr) = sin(qi)/sin(q90-i) = tan(qi)

where n is the refractive index of the medium of light reflection, qi is the angle of incidence, and qr is the
angle of refraction.

This equation is also useful when determining the refractive index of an unknown specimen, such as opaque
materials with high absorption coefficients for light transmission.

The critical Brewster’s angles for diamond, glass and water are 67.5°, 57° and 53°, respectively.

It has been observed that light reflected from the surface at the Brewster’s angle produces glare effects.
Brewster’s angle is an important concept applied in modern lasers for producing linearly polarized light by
reflections at the mirror surfaces of the laser cavity.

34
Electro optics

1. Introduction
Electro optics is a vast world. The interrelation between electric fields and optical phenomena
presents a large variety of facets and offers an immense diversity of applications. A general optoelectronic
system consists of three main functional stages as illustrated by the block diagram in Figure 1.1.
The first block involves the generation of the optical signal and may include a laser, a light-emitting
diode (LED), or a conventional light source. The second block stands for the control and manipulation of the
optical signal and includes such devices as switches, modulators, deflectors, multiplexers, frequency-
doublers, and so on. Finally, the third block refers to the detection and display of the signal. All the three
blocks rely heavily on a variety of electrooptic phenomena.

Diode lasers or LEDs convert an electrical signal into coherent or incoherent light emission, respectively.
The corresponding electrooptic mechanisms are then called active. Control and manipulation of light depend
on passive electrooptic phenomena, not implying light generation. They include local mechanisms as the
Pockels and Kerr effects as well as those involving charge-transport processes as electrocbromic and
photorefractive effects. Finally, light detection requires the conversion of an optical signal into an electrical
signal and involves mostly photoconductive, photoelectric or photovoltaic effects. They are, in a way, the
inverse of those operating in stage 1. The display of the transmitted information involves the conversion of
electrical into optical signals. Here, again, electrooptic phenomena are required, as in stage 1, to carry out
this task. In summary, electrooptics plays a key role in all stages of an optoelectronic system.
The treatment of all this variety of phenomena constitutes the objective of a vast science called
optoelectronics, optical electronics or photonics, although many authors use the name electrooptics,

35
 — Optoelectronics is the study and application of electronic devices that interact with light. It is the
study and application of electronic devices that source, detect and control light, usually considered a
sub-field of photonics.
—
— Optoelectronic devices are electrical-to-optical or optical-to-electrical transducers, or instruments that
use such devices in their operation. Electro-optics is often erroneously used as a synonym, but is in
fact a wider branch of physics that deals with all interactions between light and electric fields,
whether or not they form part of an electronic device.

Major Optoelectronics devices- Conversion between electron and Photon

 Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) (display, lighting,···)
 Laser diodes (LDs)
(data storage, telecommunication, ···)
 Photodiodes (PDs) (telecommunication, ··· )
 Solar Cells (energy conversion)

Photonics

Photonics is the science of the harnessing of light. Photonics encompasses the generation of light, the
detection of light, the management of light through guidance, manipulation, and amplification, and most
importantly, the utilization of light as a tool for the benefit of mankind

36
 What is Optoelectronics /Photonics Is there any Difference

Optoelectronics:
Any device that operates as an electrical-to-optical or optical-to-electrical transducer.
Photonics:
"Photonics" comes from "photon" which is the smallest unit of light just as an electron
is the smallest unit of electricity. "Photonics is the generation, process and manipulation of
photon to achieve a certain function

Why Do We Need Photonics instead of Electronics?

1) Uninhibited light travels thousands of times faster than electrons in computer chips. Optical
computers will compute thousand of times faster than any electronic computer can ever achieve due
to the physical limitation differences between light and electricity.
2) Can packed more wavelengths (that is information channels) into a optical fibre so that the
transmission bandwidth is increased than conventional copper wires.
3) Light encounters no electromagnetic interference than that of electron in copper wires.

Future markets and society for NEMS and MEMS.

37
UNIT IV- Nanophotonics

Nanocomposites: Nanocomposite Waveguides, Random Lasers, Nanocomposites for

optoelectronics-Basics of nano-photonics-Introduction to MEMS and NEMS-Working principles: as
micro sensors-biosensors, chemical sensors and optical sensors. MEMS/NEMS applications:
Applications in automotive industry-health care- aerospace-industrial product-consumer products.

1. NANO PHASE MATERIALS

Definition
Nanophase materials are materials with the grain size in the 1-100 nm range. Each grain contains
only about 900 atoms each. They exhibit greatly altered physical, chemical, and mechanical properties
compared to their normal, large grained counter parts with same chemical composition.

There are three types.

Namely,
1. One dimensional nanomaterials. Ex:- Graphene.
2. Two dimensional nanomaterials. Ex:- nanofibres, wires, CNT.
3. Three dimensional nanomaterials. Ex:- Fullernes, quantum dots, quantum drivers

Synthesis of nanomaterials
Nano phase materials can be synthesized by two ways;
i. Top down approach (in which bulk materials are breaking into nano sizes) and
ii. Bottom up approach (in which nano materials are made by building atom by atom).
.
Vapour deposition Method:-
In this method clusters of atoms are typically synthesized via vapour condensation which is
essentially, the evaporation of a solid metal followed by rapid condensation in order to form nano-particles.
There are two types of vapour deposition namely
i. Physical vapour deposition method
In physical vapour deposition method material is directly deposited on a
surface.
ii. Chemical vapour deposition method.
In chemical method, it involves a chemical reaction followed by the deposition.
In physical method, material kept in crucible is heated so that it gets evaporated. In CVD method
vapour condensed on substrate undergo chemical reaction to form a nano film.

38
Sol-gel Technique:

The technique involves the production of a colloidal suspension or solution. The solution is kept in
suitable temperature yelling agents are added under controlled viscosity and pH value.

Evaporation of liquid results in formation of gas of nano particles.

Ball Milling:

The method consists of placing graphite powder into a stain less steel container along with four
hardened steel balls. The container is plunged and argon is introduced. The milling is carried out at room
temperature for 150 hrs. Following milling, the powder is annealed under an inert gas flow at temperatures
of 1400C for six hours and gives nano particles.

Properties
i) Strength of nano phase materials is inversely proportional to the grain size.
ii) The melting point of nano phase material is reduced by reducing the grain size.
iii) Magnetic moment of nano phase material is increased by decreasing the material size.
iv) Optical density of such materials can be varied with the diameter.
v) Variation of physical properties with geometry:

Starting from the buck, the first effect of reducing particle size is to create more surface sites.

The in turn changes the surface pressure and results in a change in inter particle spacing. This effect
shown in Fig 5.1 for cun particles. And in Fig 5.2 for Aun particles.

It is important to note that the inter particle sparing decreases with size. This is due to competition
between long-range electronic forces and short range core-core repulsion. The melting point decreases with
size.

Fig Interatomic distance in Cun as a function of grain size

39
 Fig Melting point of small Aun particles

Applications
i) BaTiO3 multilayer capacitors are used to store electrical energy.
ii) ZnO theristers are used in current controlling devices.
iii) Magnetic device made of Cu-Fe alloy is used in RAM, READ/Write head sensors.
iv) These materials are used to make semiconductor laser.
v) Hydrogen based sensors made by nano phase materials are used in power generation.
vi) Carbon nano tubes are used for making highly efficient lead acid batteries.
vii) Carbon nano tubes are used for making photovoltaic cells.

Nanocomposites:

Definitions:
Nanocomposites are broad range of materials consisting of two or more components, with at least one
component having dimensions in the nm regime (i.e. between 1 and 100 nm. Nanocomposites consist of two
phases (i.e nanocrystalline phase + matrix phase)Phase may be inorganic-inorganic, inorganic-organic or
organic-organic.
Nanocomposite means nanosized particles (i.e metals,semiconductors, dielectric
materials, etc) embedded in different matrix materials (ceramics, glass, polymers, etc).Nanocomposites can
be formed by blending inorganic nanoclusters, fullerenes, clays, metals, oxides or semiconductors with
numerous organic polymers or organic and organometallic compounds, biological molecules, enzymes, and
sol-gel derived polymers

40
What is Nanophotonics?
This area of nanoscience, called nanophotonics, is defined as “the science and engineering of light
matter interactions that take place on wavelength and subwavelength scales where the physical, chemical or
structural nature of natural or artificial nanostructured matter controls the interactions”
Foundation of Nanophotonics
• Photon-Electron Interaction and Similarity

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have been studied for decades (1, 2), with interest increasing
recently because of growing commercial applications. Arrays of micromechanical mirrors for optical
crossbar switches, for example, recently caused a stir in the optical communications industry. Technologies
have been used in projection displays with an array of metal mirrors used to modulate light beams (2). Ink-
jet printers, using control of fluid jets, represent a major use of micromachined integrated electromechanical
systems (3). Accelerometers, used as sensors for deploying , automobile air bags, are also in wide use (4),
and a range of MEMS sensors and actuators are in various stages of development (5). Many of the devices in
practical use today are made with silicon-based fabrication technology, because of the well-developed
methods created for use by the microelectronics industry.
Typical dimensions of MEMS devices are in the several micrometers to hundreds of micrometers
range. The importance of MEMS technology is not so much the size, but rather the use of planar processing
technologies, related to those used in the fabrication of electronic integrated circuits, to simultaneously
“machine” large numbers of relatively simple mechanical devices in an integrated fashion.

MEMS:
41
Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) is the integration of mechanical elements, sensors, actuators,
and electronics on a common silicon substrate through microfabrication technology. MEMS is a technology
expected to keep improving and also increase the use of nanotechnology as well as nanotechnology will
increase the performance of MEMS

MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS)

Scale: from below 1µm to 1mm
Manufacture: Batch fabrication technique
Function: Micro-Mechanics, fluidics, optics

FABRICATION PROCESS

Deposition Pattering Etching

42
 Wet Dry
Physical chemical
Photolithography
Electron beam lithography
Ion beam lithography
Ion track technology
X-ray lithography

 Etching is the process of using strong acid to cut the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a
design in.
There are two classes of etching processes:
 Wet Etching
 Dry Etching.

43
  LIGA is a German acronym standing for lithography, galvanoformung (plating) and abformung
(molding).
 Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is applied as photoresist to the substrate by a glue-down process.

Applications
In medicine
• MEM is a device that can be implanted in the human body.
• MEMS Surgical tools provide the and accuracy to perform
• Bio-mems are used to refer to the science and technology of operating at the micro scale for
biological and biomedical applications.
ADVANTAGES
 Minimize energy and materials.
 Improved reproducibility.
 Improved accuracy and reliability.

44
  Increased selectivity and sensitivity.
DISADVANTAGES
 Farm establishment requires huge investments.
 Micro-components are costly compared to macro components.
 Design includes very much complex procedures

NEMS

• Nano-Electro-Mechanical system (NEMS) is the integration of mechanical elements, sensors,

actuators and electronics on a common silicon substrate.
• The Nano mechanical components are fabricated using compatible “micromachining” process.
• NEMS is the enabling technology allowing the development of smart products.
• Nano electro mechanical devices promise to revolutionize measurements of extremely small
displacement and extremely weak forces, particularly at the molecular level.
• NEMS devices can be so small that hundreds of them can be fit in the same space as one single micro
device that performs same function.

Nanoelectromechanical systems, or NEMS, are characterized by small dimensions, where the dimensions are
relevant for the function of the devices. Critical feature sizes may be from hundreds to a few nanometers.
New physical properties, resulting from the small dimensions, may dominate the operation of the devices,
and new fabrication approaches may be required to make them. Microelectronics fabrication technologies
are driving relentlessly to manufacture smaller transistors packed with increasing density on integrated
circuit chips. The economic driving forces for this miniaturization are strong and have driven transistor
minimum feature sizes down to the 100-nm regime. The miniaturization of commercial electronics has been
taking place with an allied physics-motivated study of electron transport and magnetic properties of
mesoscopic and nanoscale devices. The nanoscale studies often involve a wider range of materials and
higher spatial resolution fabrication processes than the silicon microelectronics processes. Similar advanced
fabrication processes can be exploited to further miniaturize electromechanical systems bring us into the
45
regime of NEMS. The new class of NEMS devices may provide a revolution in applications such as sensors,
medical diagnostics, displays, and data storage. NEMS devices will enable experiments on the structure and
function of individual bimolecules. The initial research in science and technology related to nanomechanical
systems is taking place now in a growing number of laboratories throughout the world.

Fabrication of nems device

• There are three Basic building blocks in NEMS technology.

 Deposition processes.
 Lithography.
 Etching processes

 Lithography :
 Lithography in the NEMS context is typically the transfer of a pattern to a photosensitive material by
selective exposure to a radiation source such as light.
 A photosensitive material is a material that experiences a change in its physical properties when
exposed to a radiation source.

Applications of MEMS and NEMS

MEMs and NEMs devices are everywhere.

 inkjet-printer cartridges
 accelerometers
 miniature robots
 microengines
 locks
 inertial sensors
 microtransmissions
 micromirrors
 micro actuators
 gyroscopes
 optical scanners
 fluid pumps
 transducers
 chemical sensors
 pressure sensors
 flow sensors
 disk drives
 servers
 components
 microphones

 APPLICATIONS OF NEMS
Accelerometer :
NEMS accelerometers are quickly replacing conventional accelerometers for crash air-bag deployment
systems in automobiles.

46
 NEMS in Wireless :
 A 3G “smart” phone will require the functionality of as many as five radios – for TDMA, CDMA,
3G, Bluetooth and GSM operation. A huge increase in component count is required to accomplish
this demand.

Thermal actuator :
 Thermal actuator is one of the most important NEMS devices, which is able to deliver a large force
with large displacement.

47
 Unit – V: Quantum Devices
Low-dimensional structures: Quantum wells, Quantum wires, and Quantum dots - Density
of states in low-dimensional structures - Resonant tunneling phenomena in diodes and
transistors - Applications of quantum devices: quantum well and quantum dot lasers, ultra-
fast switching devices, high density memories, dc and rf squids, multi-state logic circuits,
long wavelength detectors -Quantum Computing (Qualitative)

5.1 QUANTUM WELLS

Quantum wells are structures in which a thin layer of a smaller bandgap semiconductor is sandwiched
between two layers of a wider bandgap semiconductor. The heterojunction between the smaller and the
wider bandgap semiconductors form a potential well confining the electrons and the holes in the smaller
bandgap material region as in Fig.5.1. Thus, the motion of the electrons and holes are restricted in one
dimension (along the thickness direction).

Fig. 5.1 Schematic representation of a quantum well of AlGaAs/GaAs

In this case, the narrower bandgap semiconductor, GaAs is confined between two layers of the wider
bandgap ternary semiconductor Al,Ga1-xAs, in which the composition x can be varied to control the potential
barrier height. These III-V semiconductors are more popular quantum well systems because a large
difference in the bandgap yields a large confinement effect. Also, the two constituents are nearly lattice
matched over a wide range of x which minimizes lattice strain between the two layers.
As the right-hand side of Fig.5.1 shows, a finite potential barrier which modifies the behaviour of the energy
eigenvalues and the wavefunctions compared to that for an infinite potential barrier.
The following are special features of the quantum well :
For energies E<V, the energy levels of the electron are quantized for the direction z of the confinement,
hence they are given by the model of particle in a one-dimensional box. The electron energy is 'E' and 'V' is
the confining potential. The electronic energies in the other two dimensions (x and y) are not discrete.
Therefore, for E < V, the energy of an electron in the conduction band is given as

-----(5.1)
where n =1, 2, 3 are the quantum numbers. The second term on the right hand side represents the quantized
48
energy and the last term gives the kinetic energy of the electron in the x-y plane in which it is relatively free
to move. 𝑚𝑒∗ is the effective mass of electron and Ec is the energy corresponding to the bottom the
conduction band.

Eq.(5.1) shows that for each quantum number n, the values of wavevector components kx and ky form
a two-dimensional band structure. However, the wavevector kz along the confinement direction z takes
𝑛𝜋
on only discrete values, 𝑘𝑧 = 𝑙 . Each of the band, for a specific value of n is called a sub-band. Thus,
n becomes a sub-band index.

For E > V, the energy levels of the electron are not quantized even along the z direction. The
quantized levels exist as n = 1,2,3... beyond which the electronic energy level is a continuum. The total
number of discrete levels is determined by the width of the well and the barrier height V. Because of
the finite value of the potential barrier (𝑉 ≠ ∞), the wavefunction of the electrons does not go to zero
at the boundaries. They extend into the region of the wider bandgap semiconductor, decaying
exponentially into this region as shown in Fig. 1.3.

Fig.5.2 Shows the decay of the wavefunction of the electron into the region of
the wider bandgap semiconductor
Another major modification, introduced by quantum confinement, is the density of states.
The density of states g(E), defined by the number of energy states between energy E and E+dE, is
determined by the derivative dN(E)/dE.
1
For a bulk semiconductor, the density of states g(E) is given by 𝐸 ⁄2 and g(E) is zero at the bottom of
the conduction band and increases as the energy of the electron in the conduction band increases as
shown in Fig. 5.3. The density of states for electrons in a quantum well is a step function (Fig.5.3)
because of the discreteness of the energy levels along the z direction (confinement direction). Thus, the
density of states per unit volume for each sub-band, for example for an electron, is given as a rise in
steps of
𝑔(𝐸) = 𝑚𝑒∗ ⁄𝜋 2 for E > E1 ------------ (5.2)

The steps in g(E) occur at each allowed value of En given by Eq. (5.2), for kx and ky=0, then stay
constant for each sub-band characterized by a specific n (or kx).
For the first sub-band with En =El. g(E) is given by Eq.(5.2).

49
5.2 QUANTUM WIRES
Quantum wires represent two-dimensional confinement of electrons and holes. Such confinement
permits free-electron behaviour in only one direction, along the length of the wire. Quantum wires
can be cylindrical with a circular cross section, as well as rectangular or square in the lateral x-y
plane. A representative model system presented in Fig.1.4(c) as shown earlier consists of a
rectangular wire. The lowest sub-band then corresponds to n1= n2=1. The energy corresponding to
the bottom of each sub-band (ky=0) is given as

The two-dimensional confinement and thus a one-dimensional electron gas behavior produces a
major modification for the density of states that is different from that of a two-dimensional electron
gas (quantum well). The density of states, g(E), for a quantum wire can be shown to have an inverse
1 1
energy dependence 𝐸 − ⁄2 compared to the 𝐸 ⁄2 dependence for a three-dimensional electron gas
(bulk semiconductor).
The barrier height corresponding to 60% of the difference between the forbidden band of inner and
outer material of the wire.

5.3 QUANTUM DOTS

Quantum dots represent the case of three-dimensional confinement, hence the case of an electron
confined in a three-dimensional quantum box, typically of dimensions ranging from nanometer to tens
of nanometers. These dimensions are smaller than the de Broglie wavelength thermal electrons. A
100Å cube of GaAs would contain about 40,000 atoms. A quantum dot is often described as an
artificial atom because the electron is dimensionally confined just like in an atom (where an electron is
confined near the nucleus) and similarly has only discrete energy levels. The electrons in a quantum
dot represent a zero dimensional electron gas (ODEG). Quantum dots are produced in different
geometric shapes to control the shapes of the potential barrier
confining the electrons (and the holes). A simple case of a quantum dot is a box of
dimensions,𝑙𝑥 , 𝑙𝑦 , 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑙𝑧 . The energy levels for an electron in such a case have only discrete values

50
 given as.

--------------- (5.7)
where the quantum numbers, 𝑙𝑥 , 𝑙𝑦 , 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑙𝑧 each assuming the integral values 1,2,3 characterize
quantization along the x, y and z axes, respectively. Consequently, the density of states for a zero-
dimensional electron gas (for a quantum dot) is a series of 8 functions (sharp peaks) at each of the
allowed confinement energies.
𝑔(𝐸) = ∑𝑛 𝛿(𝐸 − 𝐸𝑛 ) --------------- (5.8)

In other words, g(E) has discrete (nonzero) values only at the discrete energies given by Eq.(5.8). This
behavior for g(E) is also shown in Fig. 5.4. The discrete values of g(E) produce sharp absorption and
emission spectra for quantum dots, even at room temperature.
Quantum dots are often described in terms of the degree of confinement. The strong confinement
regime is defined to represent the case when the size of the quantum dot (e.g. the radius R of a
spherical dot) is smaller than the exciton Bohr radius a8. Here, the energy separation between the sub-
bands (various quantized levels of electron and holes) is much larger than the exciton binding energy.
Hence, the electrons and holes are largely represented by the energy states of their respective sub-
bands. As the quantum dot size increases, the energy separation between the various sub-bands
becomes comparable to and eventually less than the exciton binding energy. The latter represents the
case of a weak confinement regime where the size of the quantum dot is much larger than the exciton
Bohr radius. The electron-hole binding energy in this case is nearly the same as in the bulk
semiconductor. As the dot radius decreases for a material, it shows a blue shift as shown in Fig.5.6.

Fig 5.6 Smaller the dot the spectrum is blue shifted

5.4 DENSITY OF STATES IN LOW-DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURES
The density of states in a semiconductor equals the density per unit volume and energy of the
number of solutions to Schrödinger's equation.
Let us assume that the semiconductor can be modeled as an infinite quantum well in which electrons
with effective mass, m*, are free to move. The energy in the well is set to zero. The semiconductor is
assumed a cube with side L. This assumption does not affect the result since the density of states per
unit volume should not depend on the actual size or shape of the semiconductor.
The solutions to the wave equation where V(x) = 0 are sine and cosine functions:
51
 (1)
Where A and B are to be determined. The wavefunction must be zero at the infinite barriers of the
well.
At x = 0 the wavefunction must be zero so that only sine functions can be valid solutions or B must
equal zero.
At x = L, the wavefunction must also be zero yielding the following possible values for the
wavenumber, kx.

(2)

This analysis can now be repeated in the y and z direction. Each possible solution then corresponds
to a cube in k-space with size n/L as indicated on Figure 5.7.

Figure 5.7 Calculation of the number of states with wavenumber less than k.
The total number of solutions with a different value for kx, ky and kz and with a magnitude of the
wavevector less than k is obtained by calculating the volume of one eighth of a sphere with

radius k and dividing it by the volume corresponding to a single solution, , yielding:

(3)

A factor of two is added to account for the two possible spins of each solution. The density per unit
energy is then obtained using the chain rule:

(4)

The kinetic energy E of a particle with mass m* is related to the wavenumber, k, by:

(5)

And the density of states per unit volume and per unit energy, g(E), becomes:

(6)

The density of states is zero at the bottom of the well and for negative energies.
The same analysis also applies to electrons in a semiconductor. The effective mass takes into
account the effect of the periodic potential on the electron. The minimum energy of the electron is
the energy at the bottom of the conduction band, Ec, so that the density of states for electrons in the
conduction band is given by:

52
 (7)

Example 2.3 Calculate the number of states per unit energy in a 100 by 100 by 10 nm piece of
silicon (m* = 1.08 m0) 100 meV above the conduction band edge. Write the result in
units of eV-1.
Solution The density of states equals:

So that the total number of states per unit energy equals:

CALCULATION OF THE DENSITY OF STATES IN 1, 2 AND 3

DIMENSIONS
We will here postulate that the density of electrons in k–space is constant and equals the physical
length of the sample divided by 2𝜋 and that for each dimension. The number of states
between k and k + dk in 3, 2 and 1 dimension then equals:

(8)

We now assume that the electrons in a semiconductor are close to a band minimum, Emin and can be
described as free particles with a constant effective mass, or:

(9)

Elimination of k using the E(k) relation above then yields the desired density of states functions,
namely:

(10)

for a three-dimensional semiconductor,

(11)

For a two-dimensional semiconductor such as a quantum well in which particles are confined to a
plane, and

(12)

For a one-dimensional semiconductor such as a quantum wire in which particles are confined along
a line.
An example of the density of states in 3, 2 and 1 dimension is shown in the figure below:

53
Figure 5.8 Density of states per unit volume and energy for a 3-D semiconductor (blue
curve), a 10 nm quantum well with infinite barriers (red curve) and a 10 nm by 10 nm
quantum wire with infinite barriers (green curve). m*/m0 = 0.8.
The above figure illustrates the added complexity of the quantum well and quantum wire:
Even though the density in two dimensions is constant, the density of states for a quantum
well is a step function with steps occurring at the energy of each quantized level. The case
for the quantum wire is further complicated by the degeneracy of the energy levels: for
instance a two-fold degeneracy increases the density of states associated with that energy
level by a factor of two. A list of the degeneracy (not including spin) for the 10 lowest
energies in a quantum well, a quantum wire and a quantum box, all with infinite barriers, is
provided in the table below:

Figure 5.9 Degeneracy (not including spin) of the lowest 10 energy levels in a quantum
well, a quantum wire with square cross-section and a quantum cube with infinite barriers.
The energy E0 equals the lowest energy in a quantum well, which has the same size
Next, we compare the actual density of states in three dimensions with equation. While
somewhat tedious, the exact number of states can be calculated as well as the maximum
energy. The number of states in an energy range of 20 E0 are plotted as a function of the
normalized energy E/E0. A dotted line is added to guide the eye. The solid line is calculated
using equation (10). A clear difference can be observed between the two, while they are
54
expected to merge for large values of E/E0.

Figure 5.10 Number of states within a range DE = 20 E0 as a function of the normalized

energy E/E0. (E0 is the lowest energy in a 1-dimensional quantum well).

5.11 Number of states with energy less than or equal to E as a function of E0 (E0 is the lowest energy
in an 1-dimensional quantum well). Actual number (solid line) is compared with the integral of
equation (10) (dotted line).

5.5 RESONANT TUNNELING PHENOMENA IN DIODES AND TRANSISTORS

 A resonant-tunneling diode (RTD) is a diode with a resonant-tunneling structure in which

electrons can tunnel through some resonant states at certain energy levels.
 The current–voltage characteristic often exhibits negative differential resistance regions.
 All types of tunneling diodes make use of quantum mechanical tunneling. Characteristic to the
current–voltage relationship of a tunneling diode is the presence of one or more negative
differential resistance regions, which enables many unique applications.
 Tunneling diodes can be very compact and are also capable of ultra-high-speed operation because
the quantum tunneling effect through the very thin layers is a very fast process.
 One area of active research is directed toward building oscillators and switching devices that can
operate at terahertz frequencies.

55
  An RTD can be fabricated using many different types of materials (such as III–V, type IV, II–VI
semiconductor) and different types of resonant tunneling structures, such as the heavily doped p–
n junction in Esaki diodes, double barrier, triple barrier, quantum well, or quantum wire.
 The structure and fabrication process of Si/SiGe resonant interband tunneling diodes are suitable
for integration with modern Si complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) and Si/SiGe
heterojunction bipolar technology.

5.6 APPLICATIONS OF QUANTUM DEVICES:

5.7 QUANTUM WELL LASERS

Quantum well laser is a laser diode in which the active region of the device is so narrow that quantum
confinement occurs. Laser diodes are formed in compound semiconductor materials that (quite unlike
silicon) are able to emit light efficiently. The wavelength of the light emitted by a quantum well laser is
determined by the width of the active region rather than just the bandgap of the material from which it is
constructed. This means that much longer wavelengths can be obtained from quantum well lasers than
from conventional laser diodes using a particular semiconductor material. The efficiency of a quantum
well laser is also greater than a conventional laser diode due to the stepwise form of its density of states
function.

56
57
5.8 QUANTUM DOT LASERS
 A quantum dot laser is a semiconductor laser that uses quantum dots as the active laser medium
in its light emitting region.
 Due to the tight confinement of charge carriers in quantum dots, they exhibit an electronic
structure similar to atoms.
 Lasers fabricated from such an active media exhibit device performance that is closer to gas
lasers, and avoid some of the negative aspects of device performance associated with traditional
semiconductor lasers based on bulk or quantum well active media.
 Improvements in modulation bandwidth, lasing threshold, relative intensity noise, linewidth
enhancement factor and temperature insensitivity have all been observed.
 The quantum dot active region may also be engineered to operate at different wavelengths by
varying dot size and composition. This allows quantum dot lasers to be fabricated to operate at
wavelengths previously not possible using semiconductor laser technology.
Recently, devices based on quantum dot active media are finding commercial application in medicine
(laser scalpel, optical coherence tomography), display technologies (projection, laser TV), spectroscopy and
telecommunications. A 10 Gbit/s quantum dot laser that is insensitive to temperature fluctuation for use in
optical data communications and optical networks has been developed using this technology. The laser is
capable of high-speed operation at 1.3 μm wavelengths, at temperatures from 20 °C to 70 °C. It works in

58
optical data transmission systems, optical LANs and metro-access systems. In comparison to the
performance of conventional strained quantum-well lasers of the past, the new quantum dot laser achieves
significantly higher stability of temperature.
5.9 ULTRA-FAST SWITCHING DEVICES
Ultrafast electronic switching device based on dual-graphene electron waveguides, in analogy to the
optical dual-channel waveguide device. The design utilizes the principle of coherent quantum mechanical
tunneling of Rabi oscillations between the two graphene electron waveguides. Based on a modified coupled
mode theory, we construct a theoretical model to analyse the device characteristics, and predict that the
swtiching speed is faster than 1 ps.
5.10 HIGH DENSITY MEMORIES,
5.11 DC AND RF SQUIDS,
A SQUID (for superconducting quantum interference device) is a very sensitive magnetometer used to
measure extremely subtle magnetic fields, based on superconducting loops containing Josephson junctions.
SQUIDs are sensitive enough to measure fields as low as 5 a T (5×10−18 T) with a few days of averaged
measurements. Their noise levels are as low as 3 fT·Hz−½. For comparison, a typical refrigerator magnet
produces 0.01 tesla (10−2 T), and some processes in animals produce very small magnetic fields between
10−9 T and 10−6 T. Recently invented SERF atomic magnetometers are potentially more sensitive and do not
require cryogenic refrigeration but are orders of magnitude larger in size (~1 cm3) and must be operated in a
near-zero magnetic field.

59
60
5.12 MULTI-STATE LOGIC CIRCUITS,
5.13 LONG WAVELENGTH DETECTORS
5.14 QUANTUM COMPUTING (QUALITATIVE)

Quantum computing is the use of quantum-mechanical phenomena such as superposition and

entanglement to perform computation. A quantum computer is used to perform such computation, which
can be implemented theoretically or physically.

61
The field of quantum computing is actually a sub-field of quantum information science, which includes
quantum cryptography and quantum communication. Quantum Computing was started in the early 1980s
when Richard Feynman and Yuri Manin expressed the idea that a quantum computer had the potential to
simulate things that a classical computer could not.In 1994, Peter Shor published an algorithm that is able
to efficiently solve some problems that are used in asymmetric cryptography that are considered hard for
classical computers.[4]

There are currently two main approaches to physically implementing a quantum computer: analog and
digital. Analog approaches are further divided into quantum simulation, quantum annealing, and adiabatic
quantum computation. Digital quantum computers use quantum logic gates to do computation. Both
approaches use quantum bits or qubits.

Qubits are fundamental to quantum computing and are somewhat analogous to bits in a classical computer.
Qubits can be in a 1 or 0 quantum state. But they can also be in a superposition of the 1 and 0 states.
However, when qubits are measured the result is always either a 0 or a 1; the probabilities of the two
outcomes depends on the quantum state they were in.

Challenges

Today's physical quantum computers are very noisy and quantum error correction is a burgeoning field of
research. Unfortunately existing hardware is so noisy that fault-tolerant quantum computing [is] still a
rather distant dream. As of April 2019, no large scalable quantum hardware has been demonstrated, nor
have commercially useful algorithms been published for today's small, noisy quantum computers. There is
an increasing amount of investment in quantum computing by governments, established companies, and
start-ups. Both applications of near-term intermediate-scale device and the demonstration of quantum
supremacy are actively pursued in academic and industrial research.

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