Abstract
Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) have long been predicted as low-cost enabling laser sources for many applications including optical communications, sensing and imaging. The VCSELs comprise a quantum well active region sandwiched between two highly reflective mirrors, all epitaxially grown on a gallium arsenide (GaAs) or indium phosphide (InP) substrate. With the laser emitting in the surface normal direction, VCSELs enjoy the advantages offered by light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in wafer scale processing and is easy in packaging. In contrast to LEDs, VCSEL emits well collimated light with a narrow divergence and a narrow spectrum, which make them ideal for optical imaging and sensing. In this talk, the speaker will discuss inventions and advances in VCSELs that have led to recent global deployment of commercial applications including 3D sensing, light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and optical coherent tomography applications. The speaker will also discuss future prospects for advanced applications.
About the speaker
Prof. Constance CHANG-HASNAIN received her MS and PhD degrees from University of California, Berkeley. She started her career as a member of the technical staff at Bellcore. From 1992 to 1996, she became the Assistant and Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. She is currently Associate Dean for Strategic Alliances of College of Engineering and the John R. Whinnery Distinguished Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.
Prof. Chang-Hasnain’s research interests range from semiconductor optoelectronic devices to materials and physics, particularly focusing on nano-photonic materials and devices for chip-scale integrated optics. She pioneered the first planar VCSEL structure using proton implantation for array fabrication with Gbps modulation, the first 940-nm wavelength, 1000-element VCSEL arrays for 3D sensing in 1998.
Prof. Chang-Hasnain received numerous awards for her research contributions, including Okawa Prize (2018), UNESCO Medal 'For the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies' (2015), Quantum Devices Award (2014), IEEE David Sarnoff Award (2011), the Microoptics Award from Japan Society of Applied Physics (2009), the OSA Nick Holonyak Jr. Award (2007), and the IEEE/LEOS William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award (2003). Besides, she was the recipient of the US National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship by the US Department of Defense (2008), the Humboldt Research Award (2009), and the Guggenheim Fellowship (2009).
Prof. Chang-Hasnain is an elected member of US National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of IEEE, OSA and IEE, an honorary member of A.F. Ioffe Institute, Chang Jiang Scholar Endowed Chair at Tsinghua University, Visiting Professor of Peking University and National Chiao Tung University. She is also the Founding Co-Director of Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI) and the Chief Academic Officer of Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS) since 2015. She was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Lightwave Technology in 2007. Prof. Chang-Hasnain will serve as OSA’s Vice President in 2019.
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