PhotoHeatEffect · Heat Transport and its Effects on the Performance of Nanostructured, Photonic Materials
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-10-01 → 2019-09-30
- EU contribution
- €175,420
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Heat Transport and its Effects on the Performance of Nanostructured, Photonic Materials
During the last decades tremendous research efforts aimed to understand the photonic properties of semiconductor nanostructures for first real-world applications. However, the high level of sophistication for such optical analyses is often contradicted by limited knowledge about the interconnected thermal phenomena. Commonly, either the photonic or thermal properties are studied, whereas their interrelation remains obscured, preventing any mutual optimizations - a key objective of the PhotoHeatEffect project. Evidently, such optimizations exhibit a far-reaching societal impact, which is in-line with the climate protection aims of the European Union regarding the energy efficiency, longevity, and sustainability of future devices. Generally, as soon as photonic or electrical devices are operated close to their utmost limits (high currents, light output, repetition rates, etc.) excessive heat is generated - a very common observation. Exactly this heat generation limits the achievable device performance and lowers the overall device efficiency. Generally, one always strives to achieve maximum performance [e.g., for lasers build into car headlights, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for illumination and display technology, etc.] to ensure cost efficiency but also sustainability. Clearly, an optimization of, e.g., photonic and thermal material properties - or even just a well-balanced trade-off - can yield more energy efficient devices (less heat generation yields a lower power consumption) but can also contribute to the longevity of devices (heating of structures generates structural defects that ultimately limit the device lifetime). Both key points - energy efficiency and longevity - are directly connected to the CO2 footprint of all photonic and electrical devices based on semiconductor nanostructures. For such structures any reduction in energy consumption and CO2 footprint will always be of high importance to realize the global aim of a CO2 neutral society that manages to stop climate change - a promising and socially most relevant aspect that motivated the PhotoHeatEffect project and all subsequent research.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The PhotoHeatEffect project aims to create a breakthrough in our understanding and ability to control heat transport and exciton-phonon coupling in nanophotonic structures. Both phenomena generate detrimental effects like local heating and charge carrier escape in current generations of light emitters. Bridging phononics and photonics will reveal the physics behind such device limitations, hence allowing to develop countermeasures leading to better phononic and photonic designs. Tailoring the heat flow and the coupling between the phonon bath and excitons in nanophotonic structures has strong potential for numerous applications with a wide scope comprising life sciences, optogenetics, electronics, and data transmission. The project will not only boost the European competitiveness in the fields of thermal transport and phononics, both still dominated by US scientists, but even strives to pioneer a unique linkage to photonics. By employing nitride materials - a key research asset in the EU and at the host institute - it will be possible to encompass a wide range of emitters that already affect our everyday life (Nobel Prize in Physics 2014). Such polar nitrides are an ideal choice as they are relevant for classical (light-emitting diodes) and non-classical light sources (few-photon emitters, nano-, and polariton-lasers), which are both suffering from the phononic properties dictated by the material system. The project will resolve this relation by manipulating the phononic dispersion relation and the excitonic dipole moment independently by a phononic crystal comprising by design tunable electric fields. An analysis of these manipulations will be achieved by combining two-laser Raman thermometry and µ-photoluminescence spectroscopy. While the latter technique and an analysis of the exciton-phonon coupling match the expertise at hand, the progression towards thermometry and phononics will boost the applicant’s track record supported by a unique network of partners.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE · LausanneCoordinatorSwitzerland
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union