Abstract:
Terahertz quantum cascade lasers (QCL) are semiconductor laser devices that operate in the far infrared range (in the
frequency range from about 100GHz to 10THz). Information regarding the QCL properties is quite crucial in understanding the
various laser designs and their implication on the laser performance. The QCL properties can be categorized as follows: design
of the laser (Heterostructure properties capturing the various materials used in the laser structure and the various laser design
types) and the laser Optoelectronic properties (the laser performance behaviour as a result of injection of current into the laser
device). Maintaining ontologies with this information is therefore useful in supporting data mining activities that seek to retrieve
useful information on the various quantum cascade laser designs and their respective performance together with provenance
information to track the sources of this information. This provides a platform to share and interact with QCL data by both
machines and humans in a FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) manner. The ontologies can also be used
to generate Knowledge Graphs (KGs) that can support queries on QCL designs and performance. This information is vital in
understanding the relationship between the various QCL laser properties and can be used for instance, in designing new QCL
designs with target/desired properties such as the working temperature. Most of the existing ontologies in the material design
domain do not capture this crucial information. This is due to lack of formal definitions for the QCL property concepts. Some of
the concepts in the general use ontologies are too broad to capture the QCL property concepts well. In this paper, we address the
issue of formal representation of the specified QCL properties and the relationships among them and other laser characteristics
such as the working mode. We propose a semantically enriched ontological model of properties in the quantum cascade laser
domain.We evaluate the ability of ontological representation to model the quantum cascade laser properties using an inheritance
richness metric based evaluation and the ontology validation technique. Experimental evaluation indicates the consistency of the
ontology, its ability to answer 100% of the competency questions by QCL domain experts and an inheritance richness metric of
0.133 indicating a detailed level of the ontology in capturing the domain requirements.
