Performance metrics of every class of semiconductor amplifier or laser system depend critically on semiconductor QW optical properties such as photoluminescence (PL), gain and recombination losses (radiative and nonradiative). Current practice in amplifier or laser design assumes phenomenological parameterized models for these critical optical properties and has to rely on experimental measurement to extract model fit parameters. In this tutorial, I will present an overview of a powerful and sophisticated first-principles quantum design approach that allows one to extract these critical optical properties without relying on prior experimental measurement. It will be shown that an end device L-I characteristic can be predicted with the only input being intrinsic background losses, extracted from cut-back experiments. We will show that textbook and literature models of semiconductor amplifiers and lasers are seriously flawed.

Infrared detector development and characterization at NASA Langley Research Center will be reviewed. These detectors were intended for ground, airborne, and space borne remote sensing applications. Discussion will be focused on recently developed single-element infrared detector and future development of near-infrared focal plane arrays (FPA). The FPA will be applied to next generation space-based instruments. These activities are based on phototransistor and avalanche photodiode technologies, which offer high internal gain and relatively low noise-equivalent-power. These novel devices will improve the sensitivity of active remote sensing instruments while eliminating the need for a high power laser transmitter.