Mid-Infrared Semiconductor Optoelectronic Devices and Their Applications: Present and Future Prospects

Mid-infrared (IR) semiconductor optoelectronic devices such as lasers and photodetectors are required for many applications such as chemical sensing, greenhouse gases/pollution and pipeline monitoring, homeland security, industrial process control, medical diagnostics. In the past, many practical applications were primarily limited by the lack of efficient mid-IR semiconductor lasers operating at room temperature. Since the emergence of intersubband quantum cascade (QC) and interband cascade (IC) lasers in 1994, mid-IR semiconductor lasers have been developed with remarkable progress and successes in many applications. For example, an IC laser (ICL) has been operated over 6 years in Curiosity Rover (好奇号火星探测车) and successfully detected CH4 on Mars. In this talk, I will review the current status of mid-IR semiconductor lasers and other relevant optoelectronic devices, and discuss examples of their applications, as well as their future prospects.