Physics and Applications of Optically Active Semiconductor Quantum Structures

The continuing miniaturization of semiconductor devices and the advances in very-high-density system integration require smaller and smaller structures. In this process, the characteristic dimensions have long crossed the border from the macroscopic world into the realm of microscopic quantum features.

To quantitatively design modern semiconductor structures, one therefore needs a systematic microscopic approach. In this talk, I will give a brief overview of the basic theory needed to
model and design modern semiconductor systems. I will show, how one combines a priori bandstructure calculations with many-body theory to predict the opto-electronic system properties and the performance of devices. As practical examples, I will discuss semiconductor lasers, including GaN based systems, as well as microcavity applications such as VECSELs for high power and/or ultrashort pulse applications

Stephan W. Koch has been a professor of Physics at Philipps-University Marburg (Germany), and an adjunct professor at the College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson/USA, since 1993. His fields of major current interests include condensed matter theory, light-matter interaction effects in atoms and condensed matter systems, optical and electronic properties of semiconductors, many-body interactions, coherent and ultrafast phenomena, and semiconductor laser theory.

He has received numerous awards, including the Max-Planck Research Prize, and the Leibniz Prize of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Stephan W. Koch is the author or co-author of 7 books, editor of 1 book, and author or co-author of more than 700 publications in refereed scientific journals with more than 19,000 citations leading to an h-index of 73.