Grainger VIP Impact Report

GRAINGER PROFESSORSHIP IN ENGINEERING FUND #2

LUKE MAWST Grainger STAR Professor in Engineering Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering My research group works broadly in the area of semiconductor materials and devices. U.S.-sponsored research on semiconductors is rapidly expanding because of the U.S. Chips Act and related funding initiatives that promote semiconductor research and workforce development in the United States. The Grainger professorship provided flexible funding that assisted on several important fronts, helping to position UW–Madison for participating in U.S. Chips Act–related opportunities. One of my research projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) ended. It involved the development of semiconductor lasers that exhibit light emission at very long wavelengths (in the mid infrared spectrum), so-called quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). Such devices are expected to be transformative for emerging applications, such as remote sensing, communication links through the atmosphere (that is, not over optical fiber), and defensive systems against heat seeking missiles that can threaten aircraft or ships. During my NSF project, we made key developments at UW– Madison that greatly expanded the capabilities for QCLs in real-world applications, such as the first demonstration of QCLs on silicon using a process called metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, which is the primary process used by industry for manufacturing optoelectronic devices. With the help of the Grainger funds, I was able to leverage these important accomplishments to forge an international collaborative effort at a conference I attended at the American Conference on Crystal Growth and Epitaxy and the Workshop on Organometallic Vapor Phase Epitaxy in Tucson, which resulted in an NSF-DFG proposal submission for the advanced manufacturing of QCLs. This project is expected to greatly expand our efforts at the UW around QCL research and will allow student/postdoc visitor exchange with our German collaborators.

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