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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/S028625/1
Title: Hybrid microcavity light emitting devices by additive manufacturing
Principal Investigator: Smith, Dr RM
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Organisation: University of Sheffield
Scheme: New Investigator Award
Starts: 01 January 2020 Ends: 31 October 2022 Value (£): 259,000
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Manufacturing Machine & Plant Optoelect. Devices & Circuits
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Manufacturing Electronics
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Panel DatePanel NameOutcome
06 Feb 2019 Engineering Prioritisation Panel Meeting 6 and 7 February 2019 Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
This project seeks to develop new and more efficient light emitting optoelectronic devices such as LEDs, with emission wavelengths tuneable over the visible spectrum including the current gaps in green and yellow. In order to achieve this, optical microcavity devices will be fabricated with semiconductor materials suspended between mirrors to make use of so called 'strong coupling' effects, bringing two different classes of semiconductor materials together in precisely controlled micro-structures the same size as the wavelength of light. Work will focus on combining gallium nitride based semiconductor materials and other families of semiconductor materials such as colloidal quantum dots and light emitting polymers in optical micro-cavity structures leading to potentially higher efficiency LEDs and lasers in the future.

While the study of these coupling effects has previously required specialist and one-off fabrication approaches in laboratory conditions, this project aims to develop and employ manufacturing capable large scale processes to create these hybrid microcavity LEDs. New techniques will be developed to remove III-nitride LEDs from their growth wafers before employing the additive manufacturing process of transfer printing. This will be used to build hybrid material microcavities by stacking optimized complimentary materials together in a precisely controlled manner. Bringing these different materials together by additive manufacturing allows optimized, high efficiency components to be combined without compromises normally required due to the different processing temperatures and environments for different materials systems.

Key Findings
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Organisation Website: http://www.shef.ac.uk