Solar, infrared and LED experts discuss advances in photonic materials and devices

BOLINGBROOK, USA: On July 12-13, 2010, experts from across the solar photovoltaics, infrared (IR) photovoltaics and light emitting diode (LED) disciplines met to review and discuss recent progress and future trends in the rapidly advancing fields of photonic materials and devices at the 2010 International Symposium on Optoelectronic Materials and Devices.

The symposium was jointly organized by the Quantum-functional Semiconductor Research Center of Dongguk University, the Microphysics Laboratory of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Sivananthan Laboratories Inc. It was held and successfully concluded at the Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile Hotel in Chicago.

Leading scientists from various government agencies, universities and industry presented recent advances on solar cells, IR devices and LEDs including but not limited to thin film solar cells, very high efficiency tandem solar cells, heteroepitaxial growth, antimonide- and HgCdTe-based infrared sensors and ZnO nanorods. The symposium featured two plenary speakers, Dr. Martha Symko Davies of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Mr. Minh Le of the Solar Energy Technologies Program at the U.S. Department of Energy.

“The year’s symposium was 7th in the series and the second consecutive symposium held in Chicago,” said Yesim Anter, Project Coordinator of the Microphysics Laboratory. Ms. Anter added “The goal of this symposium was to bring together a small group of distinguished members of the optoelectronic materials society to interact with each other and listen to the exciting developments in their respective fields first hand. Furthermore, the symposium provided a great opportunity for many students and faculty to do networking with these renowned speakers.”

Dr. Chris Grein, Professor of Physics and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that “The fields of solar and infrared photovoltaics and light emitting diodes have many common technical elements yet few conferences bring together experts from all three. One of the goals of the symposium was to facilitate the cross-pollination of many ideas that will benefit these technologies.”

Dr. Timothy Coutts, Advisor and Senior Scientist at EPIR Technologies Inc, NREL Fellow Emeritus and founder of the Device Development Group at NREL, stated: “This year’s International Symposium on Optoelectronic Materials and Devices brought together a wonderful group of researchers from the solar, IR, and LED industries. The symposium attendants exchanged ideas that will potentially result in creative new approaches for advancing the state of these technologies.”

Dr. Tae Won Kang, director of Quantum-functional Semiconductor Research Center at Dongguk University in Seoul, S. Korea, stated that he is “pleased to see the continued collaboration between the two research centers, the Quantum-functional Semiconductor Research Center (QSRC) at Dongguk University and the Microphysics Laboratory (MPL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, which helped organize the symposium series for more than 8 years.” Dr. Kang added that he plans to organize the symposium next year in Seoul, S. Korea.