Contents
Abstract
Kurzfassung
Acknowledgment
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter 1 List of Abbreviations
Chapter 2 Introduction
2.1 Graphene-Based Structures
2.1.1 Electronic Properties
2.1.2 Optical Properties
2.2 Quantum Cascade Structures
2.2.1 Three-Well Vertical Design
2.2.2 Superlattice Design
2.2.3 Diagonal Transition Design
2.2.4 Short Pulse Generation
2.3 Outline of This Work
Chapter 3 Optical Properties of Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons
3.1 Models
3.1.1 First Principle Calculations
3.1.2 Tight-Binding Model
3.1.3 Non-Equilibrium Green’s Function
3.2 Optical Matrix Elements
3.3 Dielectric Response
3.4 Conclusions
Chapter 4 Optical Properties of Zigzag Graphene Nanoribbons
4.1 Electronic Band Structure
4.2 Wave Functions
4.3 Optical Matrix Elements
4.4 Results and Discussion
4.5 Conclusions
Chapter 5 Graphene Superlattice-Based Photodetectors
5.1 Graphene Superlattice Properties
5.2 Line-edge Roughness Effects
5.3 Conclusions
Chapter 6 Quantum Cascade Lasers
6.1 Models
6.1.1 Pauli-Master Equation
6.1.2 Particle Swarm Optimization
6.2 Performance Optimization
6.2.1 Optimization of a Three-Well Vertical Design
6.2.2 Optimization of a Superlattice Design
6.2.3 Optimization of a THz Design
6.3 Dynamics of QCLs
6.4 Quantum Cascade Detectors
Chapter 7 Summary and Conclusions
Appendix A AGNR Optical Matrix Elements
Appendix B ZGNR Optical Matrix Elements
B.1 Bloch Wave Functions Prefactors
B.2 Transverse Wave Functions Amplitude
B.3 Optical Matrix Elements
Appendix C QCL Linear Stability Analysis
Bibliography
List of Publications
Curriculum Vitae