Research Projects

This project aims to design, grow and fabricate III-Nitride laser diode tuned for application of optical atomic clock and quantum technology. InAlGaN lasers with tuneable emission ranging from UV to visible wavelength has been a great enabler of new generation precision sensors, optical atomic clocks and secure communication systems [S. P. Najda, et al." Proc. SPIE 11914, SPIE Future Sensing Technologies 2021, 1191407] for many applications such as next generation navigation, gravity mapping and timing. Laser-cooling of ions and atoms has played unprecedented role to the development of quantum technologies. Ions/cold atoms are potential candidates for a wide range of applications; optical clocks for precise timing measurements, atomic interferometers for gravitational measurements, and qubits in ion-trap quantum computing [Chen, W., Lu, Y., Zhang, S. et al. Nature. Phys. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-01952-5]. Typically, these technologies employ multiple lasers, operating at well-defined wavelengths, and with narrow linewidths. For popular atom/ion species, specific examples include those emitting at 422 nm, for the [5s2S1/2-5p2P1/2] cooling transition in strontium+ (Sr+) ions, at 461nm, for the [5s2 1S0-5p1P1] cooling transition in neutral Sr atoms, at 420 nm, for the [5s2 s1/2 – 6p2P3/2] transition in rubidium atoms, and at 369 nm/399 nm, for transitions of ytterbium ions/atoms [S. P. Najda, at al." Proc. SPIE 10104, Gallium Nitride Materials and Devices XII, 101041L]. Direct-generation external cavity diode lasers (ECDL), based on GaN, and associated III-Nitrides (AlN, InN and their alloys), are better-suited than traditional frequency-doubled alternatives, for the development of compact, narrow-linewidth, high-power precision emission sources, required to excite transitions for a diverse set of atomic/ionic species. However, only a handful of manufacturers can provide these laser diodes, none of them being within the country. This project, to the best of our knowledge, is the first of its kind, aiming to develop III-Nitride-based laser-diodes, emitting at (two) specific wavelengths, critical for Sr atoms and Sr+ ions. While this project aims to develop LDs for these two specific wavelengths, the capabilities available with us, and to be developed over the duration of this project, should enable targeting a broader range of wavelengths, for which III-Nitride-based LDs can be fabricated indigenously, and used for realizing different quantum technologies.