Infrared light emitters based on interband tunneling in unipolar doped n-type tunneling structures

1. A unipolar-doped light emitting diode or laser diode, comprising:

a bottom region having an n-type layer, a top region having an n-type layer, and a middle region between the top and bottom regions having at least one material different from the top or bottom region forming two or more heterojunctions; wherein the top or bottom regions create light emission by interband tunneling-induced photon emission; and wherein the interband tunneling creates a hole on the same side of the heterojunction as electrons are accumulated generating optical emission.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the interband tunneling and the optical emission are coupled through a second-order quantum mechanical process.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the middle layer forms at least two intraband electron tunnel barriers, wherein the at least two intraband tunnel barriers form a quantum well between them, wherein the at least two intraband tunnel barriers and the quantum well are configured to act as a resonant tunneling diode.

4. The device of claim 3 , wherein the device is configured to operate at room-temperature.

5. The device of claim 3 , wherein the top, middle and bottom layers are comprised of In X Ga 1-X As and In Y Al 1-Y As, or combinations thereof, and wherein the In X Ga 1-X As layers conduct free electrons and holes, and the In Y Al 1-Y As layers act as barriers to electrons and holes.

6. The device of claim 3 , wherein the device emits short-wavelength infrared light having a wavelength between 1.0 and 2.5 microns.

7. The device of claim 5 , wherein X=0.53 and Y=0.0, creating an In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As/AlAs heterostructure with pseudomorphically strained tunnel barriers.

8. A unipolar-doped light emitting diode or laser diode, comprising:

a bottom region having an n-type layer, a top region having an n-type layer, and a middle region between the top and bottom regions having at least one material different from the top or bottom region forming two or more heterojunctions; and where the top or bottom regions create light emission by interband tunneling-induced photon emission, wherein the interband tunneling creates a hole on the opposed side of the heterojunction as electrons are accumulated, and wherein the holes tunnel through at least one heterojunction and at least one hole recombines with at least one election generating optical emission.

9. The device of claim 8 , wherein the top, middle and bottom layers are comprised of In X Ga 1-X Sb and In Y Al 1-Y Sb, or combinations thereof, and wherein the In X Ga 1-X Sb layers conduct free electrons and holes, and the In Y Al 1-Y Sb layers act as barriers to electrons and holes.

10. The device of claim 8 , wherein the top, middle and bottom layers are comprised of In X Ga 1-X As and In Y Al 1-Y As, or combinations thereof, and wherein the In X Ga 1-X As layers conduct free electrons and holes, and the In Y Al 1-Y As layers act as barriers to electrons and holes.

11. The device of claim 8 , wherein the device emits short-wavelength infrared light having a wavelength between 3.0 and 5.0 microns.

12. The device of claim 8 , wherein the top, middle and bottom layers comprise Hg X Cd 1-X Te and Hg Y Cd 1-Y Te, or combinations thereof, with X>>Y and wherein the Hg X Cd 1-X Te layers conduct free electrons and holes, and the Hg Y Cd 1-Y Te layers act as barriers to electrons and holes.

13. An optical clock exhibiting a jitter of less than about 100 femtoseconds comprising, the device of claim 3 and a radio-frequency transmission-line relaxation oscillator driven by the device of claim 3 .

14. The device of claim 13 , wherein the device is configured as a mode-locked laser using the device of claim 3 embedded in an optical cavity, whereby the RTD relaxation oscillator serves to synchronize an optical gain of the device with respect to the longitudinal modes of an optical cavity.

15. An infrared imaging system comprising the device of claim 8 .

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein system includes a plurality of the devices of claim 8 .

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the plurality of devices are monolithically integrated.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein at least one of the plurality of devices exhibits an internal quantum efficiency of at least 0.5.

19. The system of claim 15 , wherein the system is configured for infrared light detection and ranging.