Motivation
It is one of the most important aspects of semiconductor physics that electrons interact with the elementary light particle, i.e. the photon. In general, the electron-photon interaction allows the detection and emission (and consequently the control) of photons using electrons. Since semiconductor nanodevices allow for a detailed control over electrons, they automatically offer control over the photons, too. The design, prediction and analyzation of semiconductor nanodevices that give electronic control over photons is the area of optoelectronics.
Major Projects in this area:
The optoelectronics work in our group basically falls into two parts: light detection and light emission. In both cases, however, we focus on specific problems of most recent research. Currently, these are quantum dot sensors and the generation of coherent THz radiation with quantum cascade lasers.