Annual Report 2007 - The Australian Nanotechnology Network

Dr H C Liu
H. C. Liu was born in the city of Taiyuan in China. He received his BSc in physics from
Lanzhou University (China) in 1982, and PhD in applied physics from the University of
Pittsburgh (USA) in 1987 as an Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellow. Dr. Liu’s major research
interest is semiconductor nanoscience and quantum devices. Dr. Liu joined the Institute for
Microstructural Sciences of the National Research Council of Canada in 1987. He is currently
the Terahertz & Imaging Devices Group Leader in the Institute. Dr. Liu has authored or coauthored
more than 300 refereed journal articles (with about 90 as first or sole author), and given
more than 108 presentations (67 invited) at international conferences. He was elected Fellow of
the American Physical Society (APS) and Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE), has been granted over a dozen patents, and has been awarded the Herzberg
Medal from the Canadian Association of Physicists in 2000, the Bessel Prize from the Alexander
von Humboldt Foundation in 2001, and the Chinese Overseas Distinguished Young Scientist
Award (NSFC-B) in 2005. He holds chair/adjunct/guest/honorary professorships in 11
institutions in Canada, China, and the USA.
During his tour, he presented his talk on Terahertz Nano-Optoelectronics and gave a seminar in
the following cities:
University of Adelaide – Adelaide
Australian National University – Canberra
University of New South Wales – Sydney
Abstract
Terahertz (THz) technology is generally regarded as one of the most promising candidates to
bring about totally new and revolutionary applications. The aim of my research is twofold: (1)
good science in nanostructures and (2) creation of sensing technologies based on THz nanooptoelectronics.
Here, the nanostructures are semiconductor quantum dots (QD) and quantum
wells (QW) as well as their combinations. With QDs and QWs, atomic-like quantum processes
between confined levels within the conduction band (intersublevel and intersubband transition)
are studied, THz nanodevices such as emitters and detectors are investigated. Examples to be
discussed are intersublevel transition in QDs and possible implementation of THz lasers based
on this process, THz quantum well photodetectors, THz quantum cascade lasers, quantum optic
processes, and potentially unique applications in the THz spectrum.
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