All are welcome. Refreshments will be served.

This lecture has been certified to provide 1 LEU credit to individuals working towards NCQLP LC certification. If any participants require a certificate please contact smcauley [at] optics.utoronto.ca.

Abstract:
Lighting technologies based on semiconductor light-emitting diodes (LEDs) offer unprecedented promises that include three major benefits: (i) Gigantic energy savings enabled by efficient conversion of electrical energy to optical energy; (ii) Substantial positive contributions to sustainability through reduced emissions of global-warming gases, acid-rain gases, and toxic substances such as mercury; and (iii) The creation of new paradigms in lighting driven by the unique controllability of solid-state lighting sources. Due to the powerful nature of these benefits, the transition from conventional lighting sources to solid-state lighting is virtually assured. This presentation will illustrate the new world of lighting including the pervasive changes to be expected in lighting, displays, communications, and biotechnology. The presentation will also address the formidable challenges that must be addressed to further advance solid-state lighting technology. These challenges offer opportunities for research and innovation. Specific challenges include light management and carrier transport. We will discuss the hotly debated efficiency droop, that is, the decreasing efficiency of GaInN LEDs at high injection currents. Furthermore, we will discuss new optical thin-film materials with a tunable refractive index.

Biography:
E. Fred Schubert received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Stuttgart (Germany) in 1986. From 1981 to 1985 he worked on compound semiconductor crystal growth at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, as a Member of Scientific Staff. During 1985 to 1995, he was a Post-doctoral Fellow, Member of Technical Staff, Principal Investigator, and Member of Management at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Holmdel and Murray Hill, New Jersey. In 1995, he entered academia, Boston University as a Professor of Electrical Engineering. In 2002, he joined Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as a distinguished Professor, the Wellfleet Senior Constellation Professor, with appointments in the Electrical Engineering Department and Physics Department. From 2008–2009, he served as the Director of the Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center of the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Schubert has made pioneering contributions to the field of compound semiconductor materials and devices in particular to the fields of alloy broadening, delta-doping, resonant-cavity light-emitting diodes, enhanced spontaneous emission in Er-doped Si/SiO2 microcavities, elimination of unipolar heterojunction band discontinuities, p-type superlattice doping in AlGaN, photonic-crystal light-emitting diodes, crystallographic etching of GaN, polarization-enhanced ohmic contacts, omni-directional reflectors, low-refractive index materials, anti-reflection coatings, light-emitting diodes with remote phosphors, the efficiency droop in GaInN LEDs, and solid-state lighting.

He is co-inventor of more than 30 US patents and has co-authored more than 275 publications. He authored the books Doping in III–V Semiconductors (1993), Delta Doping in Semiconductors (1996), and the first and second edition of Light-Emitting Diodes (2003 and 2006); the latter book was translated into Russian, Japanese, and Korean. Awards include Senior Member IEEE (1993); Literature Prize of Verein Deutscher Elektrotechniker for book “Doping in III–V semiconductors” (1994); Fellow SPIE (1999); Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research Award (1999); Fellow IEEE (1999); Fellow OSA (2000); Boston University Provost Innovation Award (2000); Discover Magazine Award for Technological Innovation (2000); R&D 100 Award for RCLED (2001); Fellow APS (2001); RPI Trustees Award for Faculty Achievement (2002 and 2008); Honorary membership in Eta Kappa Nu (2004); 25 Most Innovative Micro- and Nano-Products of the Year Award of R&D Magazine (2007); and the Scientific American 50 Award (2007).