Publications

The Blue LED Nobel Prize: Historical context, current scientific understanding, human benefit

Tsao, Jeffrey Y.; Han, Jung; Haitz, Roland H.; Pattison, P.M.

The authors, Jeffrey Y. Tsao, Jung Han, Roland H. Haitz, and P. Morgan Pattison, on behalf of a large and growing community of scientists and technologists working in III-N semiconductor materials, physics and devices, and of users of the applications they enable congratulate Professors Akasaki, Amano and Nakamura (AAN). The path that connects scientific understanding with tools and technologies is rarely linear. Prevailing scientific understanding often enables and unleashes new tools and technologies. But prevailing scientific understanding is imperfect, and technology researchers must often step, as did AAN, outside its confines for their breakthroughs. the importance of technology breakthroughs is particularly evident in semiconductors: in recent decades, more and more Physics Nobel Prizes have been awarded for technology breakthroughs, and of these by far the most have been for semiconductors.