Quantum Devices Award attributed to Nicolas Grandjean
© Paul-Drude-Institut Berlin 2017
Nicolas Grandjean received the Quantum Devices Award for “fundamental contributions to the physics and technology of III-nitride quantum structures” during the Compound Semiconductor Week 2017 organized in Berlin.
The Award, attributed every year, honors pioneering contributions to the field of compound semiconductor devices and quantum nanostructure devices including physics and epitaxial growth. This prize was initiated by Fujitsu Quantum Devices Ltd. in 2000 and is now sponsored by the Japanese section of the International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors steering committee.
Nicolas Grandjean markedly contributed to the understanding of the physics of GaN nanostructures, which are at the heart of blue LEDs. He is also acknowledged for the first demonstration of a polariton laser operating at room-temperature. Such a GaN-based device should require ten times less energy to operate than a conventional solid-state laser. This breakthrough could enable very low power lasers for use in optical data-storage systems.