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Optoelectronic Devices and Materials

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Abstract

Unlike the majority of electronic devices, which are silicon based, optoelectronic devices are predominantly made using III–V semiconductor compounds such as GaAs, InP, GaN, and GaSb, and their alloys due to their direct-band gap. Understanding the properties of these materials has been of vital importance in the development of optoelectronic devices. Since the first demonstration of a semiconductor laser in the early 1960s, optoelectronic devices have been produced in their millions, pervading our everyday lives in communications, computing, entertainment, lighting, and medicine. It is perhaps their use in optical-fiber communications that has had the greatest impact on humankind, enabling high-quality and inexpensive voice and data transmission across the globe. Optical communications spawned a number of developments in optoelectronics, leading to devices such as vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, semiconductor optical amplifiers, optical modulators, and avalanche photodiodes. In this chapter, we discuss the underlying theory of operation of some important optoelectronic devices. The influence of carrier–photon interactions is discussed in the context of producing efficient and high-performance emitters and detectors. Finally, we discuss how the semiconductor band structure can be manipulated to enhance device properties using quantum confinement and strain effects, and how the addition of dilute amounts of elements such as nitrogen and bismuth is having a profound effect on the next generation of optoelectronic devices.

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Acknowledgements

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the many people with whom the authors have worked with over the years. In particular, we would like to thank the staff and students, past and present, at the University of Surrey, and at our UK and international academic and commercial partners.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Physics and Advanced Technology Institute, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

    Stephen J. Sweeney

  2. Compound Photonics UK Ltd, Durham, UK

    Jayanta Mukherjee

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  1. Stephen J. Sweeney
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Correspondence to Stephen J. Sweeney .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada

    Safa Kasap

  2. Formerly with Leonardo MW Ltd, Southampton, UK

    Peter Capper

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Sweeney, S.J., Mukherjee, J. (2017). Optoelectronic Devices and Materials. In: Kasap, S., Capper, P. (eds) Springer Handbook of Electronic and Photonic Materials. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48933-9_35

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