SGS project
„Buried periodic Arrays of NANOchannels for single-frequency nitride lasers”

Programme Description

Small Grant Scheme (SGS) program is implemented under the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 by the National Center for Research and Development as the Operator of the "Applied Research" Program. The competition is directed to female scientists working in technical fields of science. More infrormation about the competition can be found here.

Project amount: 902 752,50 PLN
Project duration: 01.08.2021 - 31.07.2023

Project Goal

The project addresses the unsolved question about production technology of single-frequency lasers emitting in visible range 380-530 nm, in particular distributed feedback laser diodes (DFB LDs) based on GaN. One stable wavelength operation with high side mode suppression ratio is required for such applications as: high-speed, last-mile communication based on plastic optical fibers, precise time measurements by atomic clocks or advanced sensors based on interferometry. The nitride DFB LDs are not yet available on the market because of severe limitations related to inherent material properties of (In,Al,Ga)N alloys, namely: low refractive index contrast and high lattice mismatch. A few concepts to address these issue have been reported, utilizing a photonic grating on top of LD structure. Project PI, Marta Sawicka, based on her earlier work on electrochemical etching of GaN:Si, proposes a novel approach, namely introduction of periodic arrays of nanometer size air-channels to GaN in order to locally obtain a much lower refractive index and form a photonic grating. A goal of the project is to develop a combination of advanced processing technologies in order to fabricate buried photonic structure (air-GaN grating) that could be located below the active region of the device. Such grating will be integrated in a blue LD structure grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy for light coupling and dedicated wavelength selection in order to demonstrate novel design nitride DFB LD. Performance of such development will be investigated theoretically and characterized experimentally in order to verify the applicability of the proposed invention.

Distinction of Rzeczpospolita Cyfrowa

for Dr. Marta Sawicka "For a special contribution to the development of Polish digital transformation in 2021 for research on lasers"

Patent Application

Patent application No. P.439368 of 30-10-2022 at the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland for the invention A method of producing regions of regularly varying refractive index in a selected layer of a semiconductor structure

Research team:

dr inż. Marta
Sawicka
mgr inż. Natalia
Fiuczek
mgr Anna
Feduniewicz-Żmuda
dr inż. Grzegorz
Muzioł
dr hab. Henryk
Turski
mgr inż. Oliwia
Bilska

Publications

The project is realized from 2021 to 2023

  1. Electrochemical etching of p-type GaN using a tunnel junction for efficient hole injection By: N. Fiuczeka, M. Sawicka,A. Feduniewicz-Żmuda, M. Siekacz, M. Żak, K. Nowakowski-Szkudlarek, G. Muzioł, P. Wolny, J.J. Kelly, C. Skierbiszewskia, Acta Materialia 234(15):118018, Published May 2022 DOI.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2022.118018

  2. Electrically pumped blue laser diodes with nanoporous bottom cladding By: M. Sawicka, G. Muziol, N. Fiuczek, M. Hajdel, M. Siekacz, A. Feduniewicz-Żmuda, K. Nowakowski-Szkudlarek, P. Wolny, M. Żak, H. Turski, C. Skierbiszewski, Optics Express Vol. 30, Issue 7, pp. 10709-10722 (2022), Published February 2022 DOI.org/10.1364/OE.454359

  3. Fabrication of GaN-air channels for embedded photonic structures M. Sawicka, O. Gołyga, N. Fiuczek, G. Muzioł, A. Feduniewicz-Żmuda, M. Siekacz, H. Turski, R. Czernecki, E. Grzanka, I. Prozheev, F. Tuomisto, and C. Skierbiszewski, Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing 155, 107234 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mssp.2022.107234