Eli Yablonovitch facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Eli Yablonovitch
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Yablonovitch in 2024
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| Born | 15 December 1946 Puch bei Hallein, Austria
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| Fields | Physics, Electrical Engineering |
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| Doctoral advisor | Nicolaas Bloembergen |
Eli Yablonovitch (born 15 December 1946) is an American physicist and engineer. He is famous for helping to start the study of photonic crystals in 1987, along with Sajeev John. He and his team were the first to create a special 3D structure that could control light in a new way. This structure is called Yablonovite.
Besides his work on photonic crystals, Dr. Yablonovitch also discovered that a certain type of semiconductor laser (called a "strained quantum-well laser") uses much less power to start working. This discovery is now used in most of the semiconductor lasers made around the world. His important research paper about how light behaves in photonic crystals is one of the most referenced papers in physics and engineering.
Contents
Eli Yablonovitch's Education and Early Career
Eli Yablonovitch studied physics at McGill University, where he earned his first degree in 1967. He then went to Harvard University for more advanced studies. He received his master's degree in applied physics in 1969 and his Ph.D. (doctorate degree) in 1972. During his studies, he worked on how light interacts with materials, especially using carbon dioxide lasers.
After finishing his Ph.D., Dr. Yablonovitch worked at Bell Laboratories, a famous research company. In 1974, he became a professor of applied physics at Harvard.
Innovations in Solar Energy and Light Control
In 1979, Dr. Yablonovitch joined the Exxon research center. Here, he focused on photovoltaics, which is the technology that turns sunlight into electricity, like in solar cells. While at Exxon, he figured out a very important rule: the maximum amount of light a solar panel can capture is limited by a factor of 4 times the square of the material's refractive index. This rule is now used all over the world to design better solar panels.
In 1984, he moved to Bell Communications Research. By 1991, he became the director of solid-state physics research there. It was during this time that he did his groundbreaking work on photonic crystals. These are special materials designed to control the flow of light, similar to how semiconductors control electrons.
Continued Research and Teaching
Later, Dr. Yablonovitch became a professor of electrical engineering at UCLA. He continued to research and develop photonic crystals and related materials. In 2007, he joined the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences department at UC Berkeley.
His research at Berkeley includes many exciting areas:
- Silicon photonics: Using silicon to create devices that work with light, which can make computers faster.
- Telecommunications: Improving how we send information using light.
- Optical antennas: Designing tiny antennas that work with light waves.
- New uses for photovoltaics: Finding more ways to use solar energy.
- Low-voltage transistors: Trying to find new ways to make computer chips that use less power.
- Analog computing: Exploring new types of computers that can solve difficult problems, like the traveling salesman problem, in a different way.
Starting New Companies
Dr. Yablonovitch has also helped start several companies based on his research:
- Ethertronics Inc. (2000): This company makes antennas for cell phones. They have shipped over 1.7 billion antennas!
- Luxtera Inc. (2001): This company creates special electronic and optical systems using silicon. They were the first to make silicon photonics widely available.
- Luminescent Inc. (2002): This company developed advanced math tools to help make tiny patterns on computer chips. It was later bought by another company, Synopsys, in 2012.
- Alta Devices Inc. (2008): This company makes very thin and efficient solar cells using a material called gallium arsenide. Their solar cells hold world records for how much sunlight they can turn into electricity.
Awards and Honors
Eli Yablonovitch has received many important awards and honors for his scientific work. He is a Fellow of several major scientific groups, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Physical Society (APS).
He is also a member of:
- The National Academy of Sciences
- The National Academy of Engineering
- The National Academy of Inventors
- The American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- He is even a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London, which is a very high honor.
Some of his notable awards include:
- 1978 Adolph Lomb Medal
- 1996 R. W. Wood Prize
- 2010 Mountbatten Medal
- 2011 Clarivate Citation laureate in Physics (shared with Sajeev John)
- 2012 IEEE Photonics Award
- 2012 Harvey Prize
- 2014 Rank Prize for Optoelectronics
- 2015 Isaac Newton Medal
- 2016 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize
- 2017 IEEE William R. Cherry Award (the IEEE's top award for solar cells)
- 2018 IEEE Edison Medal
- 2019 Frederic Ives Medal / Jarus W. Quinn Prize (the Optical Society's highest award)
- 2019 Benjamin Franklin Medal
See also
- Alf Adams. He also came up with the idea of the Strained Laser around the same time as Yablonovitch.
