Shuji Nakamura Wins Nobel Prize in Physics

Monday, October 6, 2014

The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Shuji Nakamura, professor of materials and of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and two others.

The prize is for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources, and is shared with Isamu Akasaki of Meijo University and Nagoya University, Japan; and Hiroshi Amano of Nagoya University.

According to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, when Nakamura, Akasaki and Amano “produced bright blue light beams from their semiconductors in the early 1990s, they triggered a fundamental transformation of lighting technology. Red and green diodes had been around for a long time, but without blue light, white lamps could not be created. Despite considerable efforts, both in the scientific community and in industry, the blue LED had remained a challenge for three decades.”

The LED lamp “holds great promise for increasing the quality of life for over 1.5 billion people around the world who lack access to electricity grids,” the academy continued.

Nakamura, who is also co-director of the campus’s Solid State Lighting & Energy Electronics Center, is the sixth faculty member at UCSB to have won a Nobel Prize since 1998. UCSB alumna Carol Greider received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

“I am very honored to receive the Nobel Prize from The Royal Swedish Academy of Science for my invention of the blue LED,” said Nakamura. Speaking to a room full of reporters and students who had gathered in the campus’s Engineering Sciences Building for a press conference on Oct. 7, Nakamura said it makes him happy to see his dream of LED lighting become a reality. “Nowadays we can buy energy-efficient LED light bulbs at the supermarket and help reduce energy use. I hope this helps global warming, too.”

Nakamura credited his scientific success to those who have supported him over the course of his career. “I got my first break from Nobu Ogawa, chairman of Nichia, who supported my gamble to make a blue LED,” Nakamura recalled. “Also my young colleagues at Nichia helped a lot. I am also grateful for the support of UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang, and the Solid State Lighting and Energy Electronics Center, which has continued to support my research on LEDs and lasers, and my dream of LED lighting.”

Currently in Hawaii in his capacity as the chair of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) International Observatory, Yang was unable to participate in the press conference. However, he made his thoughts and well wishes known by way of a special statement read by Executive Vice Chancellor David Marshall.

“What a thrill it was to receive the early-morning phone call about Professor Shuji Nakamura,” he said. “Ever since Shuji’s invention of the blue light-emitting diode and energy-efficient white LED, he and our colleagues have been pioneers not only of a new field of research, but of a scientific revolution. Truly we have just begun explore the full potential of solid-state lighting and energy technologies.”

The applications and impact of Nakamura’s inventions are far-reaching: from information and communication to energy and the environment, to health care and life sciences. “By making it possible to bring affordable, energy-efficient LED lighting to developing countries, Professor Nakamura has also made a tremendous humanitarian contribution to our world.”

The development of nitride-based semiconductors by Nakamura represents one of the most important achievements in the materials science of semiconductors in the last 30 years. Specifically, the discovery of p-type doping in Gallium Nitride (GaN) and the development of blue, green, and white LEDs and blue LDs have enabled energy efficient lighting and displays. Nakamura discovered that p-type GaN films could be obtained by doping GaN with Mg, with successive post-thermal annealing in nitrogen ambient. At UCSB, Nakamura continues to develop GaN thin-film technology.

In 2007, a team of UCSB researchers led by Nakamura reported a major breakthrough in laser diode development. The researchers from the Solid State Lighting and Energy Center achieved lasing operation in nonpolar GaN semiconductors, and demonstrated the world’s first nonpolar blue-violet laser diodes.

Nakamura earned his undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degrees at Japan’s University of Tokushima. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the Millennium Technology Prize (2006), the Nishina Memorial Award (1996), the Materials Research Society Medal (1997), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Jack A. Morton Award, the British Rank Prize (1998), the Benjamin Franklin Medal (2002), the Millennium Technology Prize (2006), the Czochralski Award (2007), the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical Scientific Research (2008), The Harvey Award (2009), the Technology and the Engineering Emmy Award (2011) and the LED Pioneer Award (2012). He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2003.

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