BaCaTeC-Summer School 2005
Technical Physics
University of Wuerzburg
Semiconductor nanophotonics – technologies, physics and applications
June 24 -30, 2005, University of Wuerzburg, Germany
Nanoscale technologies, physics and devices based on nanomaterials have become key research and development areas during the last decade. The present summer school will highlight the state of the art in nanometer processing, nanoscale physics and applications of nanopatterned devices in the nanophotonics field, opening new avenues for information processing. In nanophotonics either the active light emitting/detecting materials or/and the optical waveguides are patterned on the nanometer scale. This allows one to realize ultracompact devices or devices with new functionalities.
The summer school will provide an integrated view on new trends and developments in semiconductor quantum dot and quantum wire materials, size dependent electronic and photonic properties, devices and application concepts in key areas of information technology. The school will comprise lectures on semiconductor nanofabrication (strain induced self assembly, nanowire epitaxy, new heterostructure systems), nanoprocessing (technology for quantum wire lasers), nanoanalysis and nanoscale physics (single dot spectroscopy, light matter interaction), functional nanodevices (quantum dot lasers, optical amplifiers, quantum dot detectors, photonic crystal based devices) and future application areas (single photon sources, quantum cryptography, quantum information processing).
The international summer school is financially supported by the Bavarian Californian Technology Center (BaCaTeC). Eminent scientists from the US , Europe and Japan will cover key areas of nanophotonics with concise lectures. Extensive discussion sections between lecturers and students will be foreseen in the programme. In addition, a poster session is planned, in which mainly the students will be displaying research results.
tudents are invited to express their interest in the participation to one of the co-chairmen of the summer school. A limited number of partial travel grants will be made available by the organizers.
Final report
The second international BaCaTeC summer school which focused on “Semiconductor nanophotonics – Technology, Physics and Applications”, took place in Würzburg from June 26 to July 1, 2005 . 67 scientists from seven countries participated in the summer school, with a distribution as follows: California : 17, Würzburg: 22, other parts of Germany : 13, France : 1, Japan : 2, Canada : 7, Poland : 3, Russia : 1, USA (excluding California ): 1. Most of the participants were doctoral students, with research areas closely related to the subject of the summer school. However, fourteen doctorate holders, two of them from industry, were also present. A total of 11 grants for the subsidy room & board were allotted to the participants from California and Bavaria .
The scientific program of the summer school started on July 26 with two presentations concerning nanophotonic materials. While the first talk presented the effect of spatial localization on the physical properties of charge carriers and photons, the second talk addressed the process of growing nanowires as well as their optical and electronic properties. On the second day detailed surveys of the concepts, fabrication and properties of photonic crystals was given, including their various application possibilities. As the summer school progressed, the epitaxial growth of semiconductor materials with pre-determined characteristics was presented. An important focus of the summer school addressed the creation and physical properties of quantum dots as well as their application potential. In this area semiconductor lasers, which play an important role in modern telecommunication were discussed including ultra-fast as well as high power lasers. In the second half of the week, also novel ideas concerning quantum information processing were presented and thoroughly discussed. In this context, topics like single photon sources as well as slow light, an approach for a possible storage of light, were presented. In order to teach this complex content a total of sixteen internationally renowned scientists from five countries were invited to the meeting.
The scientific part of the summer school included a poster session, in which over 34 posters on current research projects of the student participants were shown. In conjunction with the poster session many participants took the opportunity to tour the Technical Physics department and the affiliated Microstructure Laboratory on the Wuerzburg campus.
Like in the previous year, industry was highly interested in this year's summer school. In additrion to the financial support of companies like OSRAM Opto Semiconductors and nanoplus, whose core activities deal with nanophotonics, the summer school was included two lectures by a German start-up working on quantum dot lasers, NL Nanosemiconductors.
Events outside of the lectures included an excursion to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, together with a subsequent dinner in Castell, two wine tasting sessions and a numer of joint dinners in Würzburg. In addition, there was the possibility of attending an evening Mozart concert in the gardens of the Residenz. These extra activities were enjoyed by all the guests, and above all permitted the international guests to experience aspects of the local culture. They also served as a place to exchange knowledge between the students and the speakers.