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TRANSISTOR LASER

Joan Francesc Gilabert Navarro


INTRODUCTION
The device which I am about to write is called the transistor laser and it basically consists in
the union of the electric capabilities of a transistor with the light emission provided by a lasing
device.
The history of this highly promising optoelectronic device begins in 2004 when the professors
of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Milton Cheng and Nick Holonyak Jr., along-
side with senior researcher Gabriel Walter fabricated for the rst time this kind of device in
a project funded by DARPA(Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). Both professors
have a wide recognition in the eld of semiconductor devices due to their previous works, pro-
fessor Nick Holonyak Jr. fabricated back in 1962 the rst visible-spectrum LED, and professor
Milton Cheng is responsible of the fabrication of several transistors that have been the worlds
fastest ones[1].
As any other optoelectronic device, the transistor laser is based in the combination of electron-
ics and optics, that is, there are uxes of both electrons and photons involved. In particular, the
transistor laser combines the well-known and widely used electrical possibilities of the transis-
tor and the stimulated emission characteristic of laser devices. In particular the transistor is a
device that has three or more connectors and three zones called emitter, base and collector,
and that is able to produce different outputs according to the current condition in the base. For
example, the two principal applications of a transistor are as an electric amplier or as a switch
in integrated circuits.[2]
On the other hand, a laser (which stands for light amplication by stimulated emission of radi-
ation) is a device that uses the idea of stimulated emission along with optical amplication to
emit coherent light. There is a wide variety of laser that can be organized for example by the
light emitted (infra-red, red, green,. . . ) or by the medium gain (responsible of the stimulated
emission). Some examples of lasers are the diode laser, CO
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lasers, NdYAG lasers, . . .
The transistor laser have the same structure that could have a regular transistor except for the
presence of a quantum well in the base of the transistor, which favours the recombination of
electrons and holes, thus emitting light like a LED would. Additionally, there is a mirror set that
provides optical resonance, creating laser-like light. The explained structure can be visualized
in the following image [3].
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Figura 1: Schematic structure of a transistor laser
APLICATION DETAILS
There are many hopes for the transistor laser, which is expected to revolutionize high-speed
communications in a near future. Probably the most obvious application of this device is to take
the place of transistors in computers. Since they have the same electrical properties but with an
additional emission of light, transistor lasers are expected to substantively increase the speed
of computers, since light travels much faster that electricity. Aside from the speed improvement,
the astonishingly fast switch rate of the device (700 GHz) can also provide faster signal pro-
cessing and larger communications capacity[4][3].
The improved PC communications is probably the most attractive application, but there are
more applications for the transistor laser, and I would like to highlight some suggested by the
own authors[5]
Signal Mixing and Frequency Multiplication
Optical and Electrical Linearity Enhancement
Optical Switch and Dependent Optical Source With Collector Current Feedback
RELATED APPLICATIONS AND STATE OF THE ART
The transistor laser functions like a typical transistor, but emits infra-red light through one of its
outputs rather than electricity. The transistor laser is a heterojunction bipolar transistor (using
different materials between the base and emitter regions) that employs a quantum well in its
base region that causes emissions of light. Usually all transistors emit some small amount of
light during operation, but the use of a quantum well increases the intensity of light, leading to
a useful light source.
The laser output of the device works when the quantum well in the base region captures elec-
trons that would normally be sent out through the electrical output. These electrons then under-
go a process of radiative recombination, during which electrons and positively charged holes
recombine in the base. Photons are then released through stimulated emission. Light bounces
back and forth between reective walls inside the emitter that acts as a resonant cavity.[6]
The device was initially constructed out of layers of indium gallium phosphide, gallium arsenide,
and indium gallium arsenide[7], which required to be cooled with liquid nitrogen. Current mate-
rials allow for operation at 25

C and CW operation at 3 GHz.


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REFERENCES
[1] M. Feng, N. Holonyak, G. Walter The Transistor Laser: A Natural for Optoelectronic Inte-
grated Circuits, Photonics Spectra 40, pp. 64-69,(2006)
[2] J. E. Kloeppel, New Light-Emitting Transistor Could Revolutionize Electronics Industry,
http://news.illinois.edu/news/04/0105LET.html, (2004)
[3] The Transistor Laser: A Radical, Revolutionary Device,
http://www.compoundsemiconductor.net/csc/features-details/19733050/The-transistor-
laser:-a-radical,-revolutionary-devic.html (2011)
[4] M. Yiu, Transistor laser could change communications, http://edn.com/design/test-and-
measurement/4388168/Transistor-laser-could-change-communications (2010)
[5] M. Feng, N. Holonyak, H. W. Then The Transistor Laser: Theory and Experi-
ment,Proceedings of the IEEE Vol. 101, No. 10, October (2013) Random House, N.Y.
[6] http://spectrum.ieee.org/images/feb06/images/tranf1.pdf
[7] M. Feng, N. Holonyak The Transistor Laser, http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/the-
transistor-laser/0 (2006):
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