Aaron Hawkins | |
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Born | Rehoboth, New Mexico | February 26, 1970
Nationality | American |
Alma mater |
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Scientific career | |
Institutions | Brigham Young University |
Thesis | Silicon-Indium-Gallium-Arsenide Avalanche Photodetectors (1998) |
Doctoral advisor | John E. Bowers |
Website | https://hawkins.byu.edu |
Aaron Roe Hawkins (born February 26, 1970) is an American engineer known for his work in optofluidics. He is a professor and chair in the department of electrical and computer engineering at Brigham Young University.
Hawkins was born in Rehoboth, New Mexico. [1] [2] He received his B.S. degree from the California Institute of Technology in applied physics in 1994, and went on to the University of California, Santa Barbara for his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering, which he completed in 1998. [3] [4] His dissertation, Silicon-Indium-Gallium-Arsenide Avalanche Photodetectors, was supervised by John E. Bowers. [1] He held several jobs in industry before moving to Brigham Young in 2002. [3] [4]
He is a past Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics. [5] [6]
One of the research projects led by Hawkins developed optofluidic single-chip devices for rapid diagnosis of antibiotic resistance in bacterial infections. These devices operate on a sample of the bacteria causing the infection by attaching fluorescent markers to the genes for antibiotic resistance in DNA from the sample, using a laser to illuminate the marked samples, and scanning the resulting fluorescence to detect whether the genes are present. [7] In their work on this project, Hawkins's team discovered that a layer of matte black nail polish with openings in specified locations could be used to make an effective light guide. [7]
As well as his work on optofluidics, Hawkins has contributed his expertise to the Biological Oxidant and Life Detection proposed Mars landing mission, working on a mass spectrometry device to measure the size and electrostatic properties of Martian dust. [8]
With Stephen Schultz, Hawkins is the author of the textbook Practically Magic: A Guide to Electrical and Computer Engineering (Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2013). [6] [9] Hawkins coedited the Handbook of Optofluidics (CRC Press, 2017) with Holger Schmidt. [10]
Hawkins is also the author of a children's book, The Year Money Grew On Trees. The book, based on Hawkins' childhood in New Mexico, follows a thirteen-year-old who agrees to work the apple orchard of his neighbor. [11] [12]
Aaron Hawkin's current project is a series of short stories called 500 Ironic Stories. They are available to be read for free or listened to on many podcast platforms.
Hawkins was elected a Fellow of the Optical Society in 2015 for "developments in optical communications photodiodes and receivers, specifically wafer-fused photodiodes, and for contributions in the field of optofluidics, especially hollow-core waveguide-based analysis platforms." [13] He was named as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2016 "for contributions to optofluidics." [14] [15]
In 2019 he received the IEEE Photonics Society Engineering Achievement Award, jointly with his collaborator, Holger Schmidt of UC Santa Cruz, "for the invention and development of optofluidic waveguides and their applications, in particular commercialization for biomedical diagnostics." [5]
Photonics is a branch of optics that involves the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light in form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. Photonics is closely related to quantum electronics, where quantum electronics deals with the theoretical part of it while photonics deal with its engineering applications. Though covering all light's technical applications over the whole spectrum, most photonic applications are in the range of visible and near-infrared light. The term photonics developed as an outgrowth of the first practical semiconductor light emitters invented in the early 1960s and optical fibers developed in the 1970s.
Eli Yablonovitch is an American physicist and engineer who, along with Sajeev John, founded the field of photonic crystals in 1987. He and his team were the first to create a 3-dimensional structure that exhibited a full photonic bandgap, which has been named Yablonovite. In addition to pioneering photonic crystals, he was the first to recognize that a strained quantum-well laser has a significantly reduced threshold current compared to its unstrained counterpart. This is now employed in the majority of semiconductor lasers fabricated throughout the world. His seminal paper reporting inhibited spontaneous emission in photonic crystals is among the most highly cited papers in physics and engineering.
Indium phosphide (InP) is a binary semiconductor composed of indium and phosphorus. It has a face-centered cubic ("zincblende") crystal structure, identical to that of GaAs and most of the III-V semiconductors.
Photodetectors, also called photosensors, are sensors of light or other electromagnetic radiation. There are a wide variety of photodetectors which may be classified by mechanism of detection, such as photoelectric or photochemical effects, or by various performance metrics, such as spectral response. Semiconductor-based photodetectors typically use a p–n junction that converts photons into charge. The absorbed photons make electron–hole pairs in the depletion region. Photodiodes and photo transistors are a few examples of photo detectors. Solar cells convert some of the light energy absorbed into electrical energy.
Indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) is a ternary alloy of indium arsenide (InAs) and gallium arsenide (GaAs). Indium and gallium are group III elements of the periodic table while arsenic is a group V element. Alloys made of these chemical groups are referred to as "III-V" compounds. InGaAs has properties intermediate between those of GaAs and InAs. InGaAs is a room-temperature semiconductor with applications in electronics and photonics.
A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) or integrated optical circuit is a microchip containing two or more photonic components that form a functioning circuit. This technology detects, generates, transports, and processes light. Photonic integrated circuits utilize photons as opposed to electrons that are utilized by electronic integrated circuits. The major difference between the two is that a photonic integrated circuit provides functions for information signals imposed on optical wavelengths typically in the visible spectrum or near infrared (850–1650 nm).
A hybrid silicon laser is a semiconductor laser fabricated from both silicon and group III-V semiconductor materials. The hybrid silicon laser was developed to address the lack of a silicon laser to enable fabrication of low-cost, mass-producible silicon optical devices. The hybrid approach takes advantage of the light-emitting properties of III-V semiconductor materials combined with the process maturity of silicon to fabricate electrically driven lasers on a silicon wafer that can be integrated with other silicon photonic devices.
Silicon photonics is the study and application of photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium. The silicon is usually patterned with sub-micrometre precision, into microphotonic components. These operate in the infrared, most commonly at the 1.55 micrometre wavelength used by most fiber optic telecommunication systems. The silicon typically lies on top of a layer of silica in what is known as silicon on insulator (SOI).
Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of infrared or visible light through an optical fiber. The light is a form of carrier wave that is modulated to carry information. Fiber is preferred over electrical cabling when high bandwidth, long distance, or immunity to electromagnetic interference is required. This type of communication can transmit voice, video, and telemetry through local area networks or across long distances.
Milton Feng co-created the first transistor laser, working with Nick Holonyak in 2004. The paper discussing their work was voted in 2006 as one of the five most important papers published by the American Institute of Physics since its founding 75 years ago. In addition to the invention of transistor laser, he is also well known for inventions of other "major breakthrough" devices, including the world's fastest transistor and light-emitting transistor (LET). As of May, 2009 he is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and holds the Nick Holonyak Jr. Endowed Chair Professorship.
Ilesanmi Adesida is a Nigerian American physicist of Yoruba descent. He has been the provost at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan, from September 2016.
Demetri Psaltis is a Greek-American electrical engineer who was the Dean of the School of Engineering at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne from 2007 to 2017. Since 2024 he is a professor emeritus at EPFL. He is one of the founders of the term and the field of optofluidics. He is also well known for his past work in holography, especially with regards to optical computing, holographic data storage, and neural networks. He is an author of over 1100 publications, contributed more than 20 book chapters, invented more than 50 patents, and currently has a h-index of 104.
Transistor laser is a semiconductor device that functions as a transistor with an electrical output and an optical output, as opposed to the typical two electrical outputs. This optical output separates it from typical transistors and, because optical signals travel faster than electrical signals, has the potential to speed up computing immensely. Researchers who discovered the transistor laser developed a new model of Kirchhoff's current law to better model the behavior of simultaneous optical and electrical output.
Indium gallium arsenide phosphide is a quaternary compound semiconductor material, an alloy of gallium arsenide, gallium phosphide, indium arsenide, or indium phosphide. This compound has applications in photonic devices, due to the ability to tailor its band gap via changes in the alloy mole ratios, x and y.
James Robert Biard was an American electrical engineer and inventor who held 73 U.S. patents. Some of his more significant patents include the first infrared light-emitting diode (LED), the optical isolator, Schottky clamped logic circuits, silicon Metal Oxide Semiconductor Read Only Memory, a low bulk leakage current avalanche photodetector, and fiber-optic data links. In 1980, Biard became a member of the staff of Texas A&M University as an Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering. In 1991, he was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to semiconductor light-emitting diodes and lasers, Schotky-clamped logic, and read-only memories.
Manijeh Razeghi is an Iranian-American scientist in the fields of semiconductors and optoelectronic devices. She is a pioneer in modern epitaxial techniques for semiconductors such as low pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), vapor phase epitaxy (VPE), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), GasMBE, and MOMBE. These techniques have enabled the development of semiconductor devices and quantum structures with higher composition consistency and reliability, leading to major advancement in InP and GaAs based quantum photonics and electronic devices, which were at the core of the late 20th century optical fiber telecommunications and early information technology.
James J. Coleman is an electrical engineer who worked at Bell Labs, Rockwell International, and the University of Illinois, Urbana. He is best known for his work on semiconductor lasers, materials and devices including strained-layer indium gallium arsenide lasers and selective area epitaxy. Coleman is a Fellow of the IEEE and a member of the US National Academy of Engineering.
Alexandra Boltasseva is Ron And Dotty Garvin Tonjes Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University, and editor-in-chief for The Optical Society's Optical Materials Express journal. Her research focuses on plasmonic metamaterials, manmade composites of metals that use surface plasmons to achieve optical properties not seen in nature.
John E. Bowers is an American physicist, engineer, researcher and educator. He holds the Fred Kavli Chair in Nanotechnology, the director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency and a distinguished professor in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Materials at University of California, Santa Barbara. He was the deputy director of American Institute of Manufacturing of Integrated Photonics from 2015 to 2022.
M. Saif Islam is a Bangladeshi-American engineering professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Davis.