On July 6th, Prof. Richard Hogg from University of Sheffield, UK visited Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech & Nano-bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SINANO). He was invited by Prof. Ziyang Zhang of the Division of Nano-devices and Materials at SINANO. Prof. Richard Hogg presented a lecture entitled ““Coherent 2D Arrays of Photonic Crystal Surface Emitting Lasers” during his visit in SINANO.

Photonic crystal surface emitting lasers (PCSELs) offer the ultimate in control in semiconductor lasers. The photonic crystal causes light waves propagating in various 2D directions to be coupled with one another and a 2D standing wave (cavity mode) is constructed over a broad area. PCSELs have been shown to have high power scaling with area, high single-mode powers, large scale coherent emission, control of the beam shape and polarization with design of the photonic crystal geometry, as well as beam steering. In Prof. Richard Hogg's speech, he has discussed his recent progress in realising coherent 2D arrays of PCSELs which offer new routes to high brightness semiconductor sources and all electronic beam steering.

Brief introduction of Prof. Richard Hogg: He obtained his PhD in Physics department in 1995 from the University of Sheffield and then spent several years at NTT Basic Research Laboratory, the University of Tokyo, Toshiba Research Europe’s Cambridge Laboratory, and Agilent Technologies. In 2003 he joined the Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Sheffield, where he is currently Professor of Semiconductor Devices, and the head of The Semiconductor Materials and Devices Group. He was one of the directors of the EPSRC national centre for III-V Technology in the UK. His research group is active in developing the understanding of device physics, engineering, fabrication technologies, and applications of various semiconductor laser, amplifier, and super-luminescent diode devices. This includes quantum dot amplifiers and super-luminescent diodes for application in skin tissue imaging (optical coherence tomography), quantum cascade lasers for gas sensing, quantum cascade amplifiers for swept lasers, resonant tunneling diode THz emitters, and photonic crystal surface emitting lasers.