Optoelectronic devices operating in the mid-infrared wavelength range offer applications in a variety of areas from environmental gas monitoring around oil rigs to the detection of narcotics. They could also be used for free-space optical communications, thermal imaging applications and the development of "homeland security" measures. Mid-infrared Semiconductor Optoelectronics is an overview of the current status and technological development in this rapidly emerging area; the basic physics, some of the problems facing the design engineer and a comparison of possible solutions are laid out; the different lasers used as sources for mid-infrared technology are considered; recent work in detectors is reviewed; the last part of the book is concerned with applications. With a world-wide authorship of experts working in many mid-infrared-related fields this book will be an invaluable reference for researchers and graduate students drawn from physics, electronic and electrical engineering and materials science.

The MRS Symposium Proceeding series is an internationally recognised reference suitable for researchers and practitioners.

Long-wavelength Infrared Semiconductor Lasers provides a comprehensive review of the current status of semiconductor coherent sources emitting in the mid-to far-infrared spectrum and their applications. It includes three topics not covered in any previous book: far-infrared emission from photo-mixers as well as from hot-hole lasers, and InP-based lasers emitting beyond two micrometers. Semiconductor lasers emitting at more than two micrometers have many applications such as in trace gas analysis, environmental monitoring, and industrial process control. Because of very rapid progress in recent years, until this book no comprehensive information beyond scattered journal articles is available at present.

This book is unique in that it combines for the first time the infrared detectors and infrared lasers and emitters in one volume. It is merely a step, however, in a very fast-changing field, toward achieving an understanding of novel structures that can be used for high-performance infrared detectors, imaging arrays, infrared lasers and sources. Internationally-known experts discuss recent advances in materials structures, processing and device performances, with presentations crossing materials and discipline boundaries. Recent investigations based on III-V, II-VI and IV bulk semiconductors, quantum wells, and superlattices for long-wavelength infrared detectors, emitters, sources and materials are featured. Topics include: antimonide-related materials and devices; quantum wells and devices; quantum infrared detectors; HgCdTe - materials, devices and processing; nonlinear and parametric oscillator material; interdiffusion in heterostructures and related topics.