Minjoo Larry Lee
A pioneer in the field of photovoltaic cell research, MINJOO LARRY LEE has worked on improving the efficiency and fabrication processes of solar cells for nearly 10 years— most recently as a faculty member at Yale University. There, he helped pioneer a dislocation engineering technique called metamorphic epitaxy, which is used to create some of the highest efficiency solar cells today. At Illinois, Lee is tackling the solar energy storage problem by designing a new class of solar cells that can withstand temperatures of up to 400 ° C. His approach aims to enable solar-thermal hybrid systems with efficiency exceeding 40 %. His group is also collaborating with University of Texas researchers on creating InAs quantum-well lasers that emit light at mid-infrared wavelengths and are grown on an InP substrate. In fact, Lee and his colleagues recently achieved room temperature operation of such a laser. These novel lasers are well suited for molecular gas sensing applications.
Yurii Vlasov
A Founder Professor of Engineering, YURII VLASOV is establishing two experimental labs on campus— one focused on integrated photonics for biomedical applications and the other dedicated to experimental systems neuroscience. Both labs reflect his current interest in applying engineering solutions to the life sciences. He holds faculty appointments in Electrical & Computer Engineering, Bioengineering, and Materials Science & Engineering, in addition to his affiliation with MNTL and the Beckman Institute. Before coming to Illinois, Vlasov had a distinguished career at IBM, where he conducted groundbreaking research and led the company’ s integrated silicon nanophotonics efforts from its early fundamental research stage up to commercial manufacturing of optical transceivers for large-scale datacenters and supercomputers.
micro + nanotechnology lab | 11 | 2016 highlights report