Nick Holonyak

Nick Holonyak
Nick Holonyak
	Holonyak in 2002
Born	November 3, 1928; Zeigler, Illinois, U.S.
Died	September 18, 2022 (aged 93); Urbana, Illinois, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; BS 1950, MS 1951, PhD 1954
Known for	Invention of the GaAs0.60P0.40 visible light diode laser and LED
Awards	National Academy of Engineering (1973); National Academy of Sciences (1984),; IEEE Edison Medal (1989); National Medal of Science (1990); National Medal of Technology (2002); IEEE Medal of Honor (2003); Global Energy Prize (2003); Lemelson-MIT Prize (2004); National Inventors Hall of Fame (2008); Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (2021);
	Scientific career
Fields	Electrical engineering
Thesis	Effect of Surface Conditions on Characteristics of Rectifier Junctions (1954)
Doctoral advisor	John Bardeen

Nick Holonyak Jr. (/hʌlɒnjæk/ huh-LON-yak; November 3, 1928 – September 18, 2022) was an American engineer and educator. He is noted particularly for his 1962 invention and first demonstration of a semiconductor laser diode that emitted visible light. This device was the forerunner of the first generation of commercial light-emitting diodes (LEDs). He was then working at a General Electric research laboratory near Syracuse, New York. He left General Electric in 1963 and returned to his alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he later became John Bardeen Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics.^[1]^[2]

^ Schubert, E. Fred (2018). Light-Emitting Diodes (3 ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 2–6. ISBN 9780986382666. Another important step in the development of GaAs_yP_1–y (or simply GaAsP) LEDs occurred in 1962 when Holonyak and Bevacqua (1962) reported on the emission of coherent visible light from GaAsP p-n junctions at low temperatures (77 K) under pulsed current injection. The emission of coherent light was limited to low temperatures. At room temperature, the devices worked as LEDs and emitted incoherent visible red light. The 1962 publication is considered a milestone in the development of pn-junction LEDs made from III–V semiconductors emitting in the visible wavelength range (Holonyak, 1987).
^ "Nick Holonyak". www.aip.org. February 19, 2015. Archived from the original on September 12, 2018. Retrieved April 6, 2019.

[Schubert-1] Schubert, E. Fred (2018). Light-Emitting Diodes (3 ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 2–6. ISBN 9780986382666. Another important step in the development of GaAs_yP_1–y (or simply GaAsP) LEDs occurred in 1962 when Holonyak and Bevacqua (1962) reported on the emission of coherent visible light from GaAsP p-n junctions at low temperatures (77 K) under pulsed current injection. The emission of coherent light was limited to low temperatures. At room temperature, the devices worked as LEDs and emitted incoherent visible red light. The 1962 publication is considered a milestone in the development of pn-junction LEDs made from III–V semiconductors emitting in the visible wavelength range (Holonyak, 1987).

[aip.org-2] "Nick Holonyak". www.aip.org. February 19, 2015. Archived from the original on September 12, 2018. Retrieved April 6, 2019.

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[2]

Nick Holonyak
Holonyak in 2002
Born	(1928-11-03)November 3, 1928 Zeigler, Illinois, U.S.
Died	September 18, 2022(2022-09-18) (aged 93) Urbana, Illinois, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; BS 1950, MS 1951, PhD 1954
Known for	Invention of the GaAs_0.60P_0.40 visible light diode laser and LED
Awards	National Academy of Engineering (1973) National Academy of Sciences (1984), IEEE Edison Medal (1989) National Medal of Science (1990) National Medal of Technology (2002) IEEE Medal of Honor (2003) Global Energy Prize (2003) Lemelson-MIT Prize (2004) National Inventors Hall of Fame (2008) Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (2021)
Scientific career
Fields	Electrical engineering
Thesis	Effect of Surface Conditions on Characteristics of Rectifier Junctions (1954)
Doctoral advisor	John Bardeen