Mid-infrared Semiconductor Optoelectronics [Paperback]

Optoelectronic devices operating in the mid-infrared wavelength range offer applications in a variety of areas from environmental gas monitoring around oil rigs to the detection of narcotics. They could also be used for free-space optical communications, thermal imaging applications and the development of homeland security measures.

Mid-infrared Semiconductor Optoelectronics is an overview of the current status and technological development in this rapidly emerging area; the basic physics, some of the problems facing the design engineer and a comparison of possible solutions are laid out; the different lasers used as sources for mid-infrared technology are considered; recent work in detectors is reviewed; the last part of the book is concerned with applications.

With a world-wide authorship of experts working in many mid-infrared-related fields this book will be an invaluable reference for researchers and graduate students drawn from physics, electronic and electrical engineering and materials science.

The mid-infrared (2-10?m) spectral region is of enormous scientific and technological interest because it contains the strongest fingerprint absorption bands of a number of pollutant and toxic gases which require monitoring in a variety of different situations (e.g., oil-rigs, coal mines, landfill sites and car exhausts) and in concentrations, ranging from parts per billion to almost 100%. Organic liquids, narcotics and many biological and bio-medical analytes also have fingerprint absorptions in this spectral range. In addition, the atmospheric transmission window between 3 ?m and 5 ?m enables free-space optical communications, thermal imaging and the development of infrared counter-measures for homeland security . However, many of these applications require technology based on un-cooled, efficient, inexpensive sources and detectors which are not yet available and so wide exploitatlc