Best Student Award for Applied Physics

The 14th International Conference on Nitride Semiconductors (ICNS-14) brought together 1,200 researchers from 32 countries in the Japanese city of Fukuoka to discuss the latest advances in Group III nitride semiconductors. PhD student Rodrigo de Vasconcellos Lourenço from the Institute of Applied Physics won a Best Student Award at the conference. The physicist presented his work on the physical understanding of the light emission of quantum films, such as those used in today’s unthinkable white LED light sources.

PhD student Rodrigo de Vasconcellos Lourenco with a Best Student Award from the ICNS. Picture credits: Vasconcellos/TU Braunschweig

One challenge with quantum films are point defects such as nitrogen vacancies, which can massively impair the efficiency of light emission. Vasconcellos showed how these point defects can be minimised by specifically controlled temperatures during the growth of the structures and that this can be explained by a diffusion process. In the medium and long term, the work will contribute to an even better understanding of the efficiency of the light emission of such quantum structures. In the longer term, further improved light emitters for other spectral ranges are conceivable. This includes, for example, the work on structured illumination at the nanoscale in the QuantumFrontiers Cluster of Excellence or the development of integrated laser sources in Quantum Valley Lower Saxony (QVLS).

For his necessary high-precision measurements, the LENA research centre provided Vasconcellos with first-class large-scale equipment such as the X-ray diffractometer, the FIB/SEM system, the transmission electron microscope and the time-resolved spectroscopy in the OZOS laboratory.

The Best Student Award is given to young scientists who demonstrate outstanding achievements in their work, including abstract and presentation, and who are expected to make significant contributions to the field of nitride semiconductors.