PhD position: light-matter interaction in semiconductor nanowires

Elektrische Feldstärke in einem optisch gepumpten Halbleiterlaser-Nanodraht; berechnet mittels gekoppelter FDTD und Halbleiter-Bloch-Gleichungen.

Image: Ulf Peschel

PhD position: light-matter interaction in semiconductor nanowires

The growing demand for high-speed information and communication technologies and the inherent limitations of electronic integrated circuits has stimulated research on nano-photonic components. Semiconductor nanowires in particular are attracting widespread interest due to their ease of fabrication, high crystal quality, and remarkable photonic properties that enable them to serve as efficient waveguides and resonators for either photonic and plasmonic lasers or to exploit polaritonic effects.

Semiconductor nanowires are complex photonic structures that support a wide variety of longitudinal and sometimes transverse modes coupled by the nonlinear response of the material, which in turn is governed by many-body effects of the excited charge carriers [2]. In ongoing research, we are developing a toolbox for simulating light-matter interaction in semiconductors under different excitation conditions [3] and at different levels of simplification.

A PhD position in this area of research is offered within the DFG research group 1616 of the optics group at the Institute of Solid State Theory and Optics headed by Prof. Ulf Peschel. Research topics include numerical simulations as well as theoretical analysis. The work will be carried out in close collaboration with both experimental and other theory groups.

Possible topics include:

  • Semiclassical incorporation of phonon coupling into existing material models
  • Investigation of exciton-polariton coupling in nanowires and nanostructures
  • Investigation of electrically driven nanowire lasers
  • Simulation of nanowires in curved, folded or coupled geometries
  • Investigation of nanowire arrays and photonic-crystal structures
  • Quantum optics in nanowires

References

  • [1] R. Roeder, M. Wille, S. Geburt, J. Rensberg, M. Zhang, J. G. Lu, F. Capasso, R. Buschlinger, U. Peschel, and C. Ronning, Nano Lett. 13, 3602(2013).
  • [2] C. P. Dietrich, R. Johne, T. Michalsky, C. Sturm, P. Eastham, H. Franke, M. Lange, M. Grundmann, and R. Schmidt-Grund, Phys. Rev. B 91, 041202.
  • [3] W.W. Chow and S.W. Koch. Semiconductor-laser fundamentals: physics of the gain materials. Springer, 1999.
  • [4] R. Buschlinger, M. Lorke, and U. Peschel, Phys. Rev. B, 91:045203, 2015.