Focus on advanced semiconductor heterostructures for optoelectronics

Journal article, 2009

Semiconductor heterostructures are the basic materials underlying optoelectronic devices, particularly lasers and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Made from various III-V-, II-VI-, SiGe- and other compound semiconductors, modern semiconductor devices are available for the generation, detection and modulation of light covering the entire ultra-violet to far-infrared spectral region. Recent approaches that introduced multilayer heterostructures tailored on the lower nanometre scale made possible artificial semiconductors with new properties, such as extended wavelength coverage, that enabled new applications. Together with ongoing progress on wide-gap semiconductors, the optical wavelengths accessible by semiconductor devices are steadily expanding towards the short-wavelength ultra-violet regime, as well as further into the far-infrared and terahertz spectral regions. It is the aim of this focus issue to present cutting-edge research topics on the most recent optoelectronic material and device developments in this field using advanced semiconductor heterostructures.