International Research Project TeraMIR
Terahertz and Mid-Infrared Collective Phenomena in Semiconductor Nanostructures (TeraMIR)
The International Research Project (IRP) TeraMIR, which brings together French, Russian, and Polish research centers and is coordinated by Frédéric Teppe of the Laboratoire Charles Coulomb (CNRS&UM), was launched on January 1, 2019, for a four-year period (2019–2023).
The IRP TeraMIR builds on previous collaboration between French, Russian, and Polish laboratories: international research networks (GDR, GDRI, LIA) focused on “Semiconductor sources and detectors of THz frequencies” were supported in France by the CNRS from 2005 to 2018, evolving from GDR to LIA. The network helped identify and establish numerous strong bilateral collaborations. These collaborations form the basis of the current IRP.
Frederic TEPPE, Carlo SIRTORI, and Marek POTEMSKI, France
; Grzegorz CYWINSKI, Poland
; Sergey MOROZOV and Sergey DVORETSKY, Russian Federation
– Charles Coulomb Laboratory (L2C), UMR5221 CNRS-UM, Montpellier, directed by Prof. Pierre LEVEBVRE,
– Laboratory of Materials and Quantum Phenomena (MPQ), UMR7162, CNRS-UPD, Paris, directed by Prof. Carlo SIRTORI,
– National Laboratory for Strong Magnetic Fields (LNCMI), UPR3228 CNRS, Grenoble, directed by Dr. Cristiano CIUTI,
– Institute of High Pressure Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland, directed by Professor Sylwester POROWSKI,
– Laboratory of Physics of Semiconductor Heterostructures and Superlattices, Institute for Physics of Microstructures, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod, directed by Dr. Sergey MOROZOV,
– Laboratory of Epitaxial Technology Using Molecular Beams of A2B6 Compounds, Rzhanov Institute of Semiconductor Physics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, directed by Dr. Sergey Dvoretsky
– Group of Spin Phenomena, Laboratory of Cryogenic and Spintronics, Institute of Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, directed by Prof. DIETL,
– Group of Carbon Nanoelectronics at the Radiophysics Laboratory, Moscow Pedagogical University, led by Prof. GOLTSMAN and Prof. FEDOROV
– Group on Terahertz Phenomena Theory and Applications at the Laboratory on Theory of Optical and Electrical Phenomena in Semiconductors, A.F. Ioffe Physical–Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, directed by Prof. Kachorovskii
– Laboratory for Semiconductor Materials Science, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, directed by Prof. Khokhlov
The IRP–TERAMIR Research Program consists of two main parts:
1. “Terahertz Excitations in New Topological and Dirac Matter Based on Semiconductor Heterostructures”
A topological insulator (TI) is a recently discovered new quantum state of matter that occurs in systems with strong spin-orbit coupling. In a TI, the band energy spectrum of the interior of the system exhibits a gap, similar to that of a conventional insulator, while at the edges there are conductive boundary states with a linear energy-momentum dispersion law—a characteristic of Dirac fermions. There are other 2D and 3D systems, such as graphene or Cd₃As₂, with dispersion relations represented by Dirac cones. These systems are often referred to as Dirac matter. Despite the considerable time that has elapsed since the discovery of TIs, many important problems remain unsolved, such as: i) the observed quantization is much less precise than that of the quantum Hall effect, or ii) the topological protection of the edge channels unexpectedly persists even under high magnetic fields. The general scientific objective of this project is to answer these fundamental physics questions through research on novel 2D structures that can be tuned between different topological phases. These novel TIs may be obtained either by growing III-V or II-VI semiconductor quantum wells with different geometries, or by tuning the band energy structure through changes in temperature or hydrostatic pressure.
2. “MIR and THz laser sources based on HgTe/CdHgTe quantum wells”
The development of compact solid-state sources of far-infrared (IR) radiation is one of the most important tasks in modern semiconductor physics. Many applications, such as gas and solid-state spectroscopy or environmental monitoring, require such radiation sources. In most of the mid-IR region, the devices of choice are unipolar quantum cascade lasers (QCLs), which can operate in continuous-wave mode at 300 K up to a wavelength of about 15 microns, providing output power of several watts. However, at longer wavelengths (λ > 15 microns), their performance metrics drop dramatically due to the two-phonon absorption bands of A3B5 semiconductors in this spectral range. In this spectral range, interband HgCdTe lasers can compete with existing lasers, since the optical phonon frequencies in A2B6 semiconductors are significantly lower than those of the aforementioned A3B5 semiconductors, corresponding to the spectral range of 60–110 microns. This project proposes the use of HgTe/CdHgTe-based QW structures for the generation and detection of mid-infrared and terahertz radiation. The ultimate goal of this part of the project is to determine whether MIR emission in the range forbidden to III-V compounds and a THz laser with emission below the optical phonon, at only a few meV (5–10 meV), are possible.
– Steering Committee of the International Research Project TeraMIR, December 2, 2020, online.
– 2020 Joint Annual Meeting of the International Research Projects “2DM” and “TeraMIR,” CNRS, November 30–December 1, 2020, online.
– Steering Committee of the International Research Project TeraMIR, October 16, 2019, Warsaw.
– 2019 Annual Workshop of the International Research Project TeraMIR, October 17–19, and French-Polish Science & Technology Meeting, October 15–16, 2019, Warsaw.