Nick Holonyak, Jr.
Nick Holonyak,
Jr. was born Nov 3, 1928 in Zeigler, IL and received B.S. (1950), M.S.
(1951), and Ph.D. (1954) degrees in EE at the University of Illinois.
He was John
Bardeen’s first student and held a TI fellowship. He worked at Bell
Telephone Laboratories (1954-55) and, after military service, at GE
(Syracuse, 1957-63) before returning in 1963 to the University of
Illinois as a professor.
He is John
Bardeen Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and
Physics, and ECE Professor in the Center of Advanced Study.
He is an
early contributor (1954-60) to diffused-impurity oxide-masked silicon
device technology (transistors, p-n-p-n switches, and thyristors). He
is the inventor (1958) of the shorted emitter used in thyristors and
symmetrical switches (TRIACs), including the basic element in the wall
light dimmer.
He is the
first to make silicon tunnel diodes and observe phonon-assisted
tunneling (1959), the first observation of inelastic tunneling and the
beginning of tunneling spectroscopy. He invented (1960) closed-tube
vapor phase epitaxy of III-V semiconductors, the forerunner of all
present-day III-V VPE crystal growth. Besides early work (1960-62) on
III-V heterojunctions, he was the first (1960) to grow GaAs1-xPx (an
alloy) and to construct visible-spectrum lasers and light emitting
diodes (1962), thus proving that III-V alloys are “smooth" and viable,
in general, for use in optoelectronic devices. He is the inventor of
the first practical LED, the red GaAs1-xPx LED, which also marks the
beginning in the use of III-V alloys in semiconductor devices,
including in heterojunctions and quantum well heterostructures (QWHs).
Besides
demonstrating the visible-spectrum laser operation of the alloys GaAsP
(1962), InGaP (1970), AlGaAsP (1970), and InGaPAs (1972), he and his
student Rezek made (via LPE, 1977) the first quantum well (QW) laser
diodes. Later, with Dupuis (and MOCVD AlGaAs-GaAs), he demonstrated
(1978) the initial continuous 300 K operation of a QW laser, and
introduced the name “quantum well laser.” He and his students
introduced (1980) impurityinduced intermixing
(~ 600°C) of QW heterostructure (QWH) and superlattice layers, and with
it the selective shift from QW lower gap to bulk-crystal higher gap
(used to define waveguide and laser geometries).
In 1990
he and his students introduced the Al-based III-V native oxide into
optoelectronics, including its use as a buried oxide aperture to define
the current and cavity in lasers (now used in VCSELs). He is currently
concerned with coupled quantum-dot/quantum well-lasers. His work has
led to 500+ papers and 31 patents.
Holonyak is a
member of NAE (1973), NAS (1984), American Academy of Arts and Sciences
(Fellow, 1984), Russian Academy of Sciences (Foreign Member, 1999),
American Physical Society (Fellow), Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (Life Fellow), Optical Society of America
(Fellow), Am. Assoc. Adv. Science (Fellow), Electrochemical Society,
and Mathematical Association of America. He has received a number of
awards, including: Cordiner Award (1962, GE); Morris N. Liebmann Award
(1973, IEEE); John Scott Medal (1975, City of Philadelphia); Gallium
Arsenide Symposium Award with Welker Medal (1976); Jack A. Morton Award
(1981, IEEE); Solid State Science and Technology Award (1983,
Electrochemical Society); Monie A. Ferst Award (1988, Sigma Xi); Edison
Medal (1989, IEEE);
National Medal of Science (1990, U.S.); Charles H. Townes Award (1992,
OSA); Honorary Member of the Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute (1992,
St. Petersburg); Honorary Doctor of Science (1992, Northwestern
University); NAS Award for the Industrial Application of Science
(1993); ASEE Centennial Medal (1993); American Electronics Association
50th Anniversary Award (1993); Vladimir Karapetoff Eminent Members’
Award of Eta Kappa Nu (1994); Honorary Doctor of Engineering (1994,
Notre Dame); TMS John Bardeen Award (1995, The Minerals, Metals, and
Materials Society); Japan Prize (1995); Eminent Member of Eta Kappa Nu
(1998); Distinguished Alumnus of Tau Beta Pi (1999); IEEE Third
Millennium Award (2000); Frederic Ives Medal of the Optical Society of
America (2001); Global Energy International Prize (Russia, 2003); and
IEEE Medal of Honor (2003).
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