Physics professor recognized

Staff report

ALLIANCE

Brandon Mitchell, assistant professor of physics at the University of Mount Union, along with his colleagues, have received national recognition for their research on the critical role that oxygen plays in the efficiency of light-emitting diodes.

In today’s technologically advanced society, the promotion of energy-efficient light sources is essential for realizing environmental sustainability. Solid-state lighting, which uses semiconductor-based LEDs, plays a key role in this.

White LED light can be created by combining red, blue and green light. Blue and green LEDs are made of the same material, while red LEDs are made with a different one. The research of Mitchell and his colleagues aims to change that.

Mitchell, who was the lead author of the paper, and his colleagues have performed the first comprehensive evaluation of the critical role that oxygen has on europium ions doped into gallium nitride. This work resulted in an overall increase in the output of their red LEDs, and made the red LEDs more compatible with commercially available LED devices.

However, the group’s research is not finished, as their best LED still is only 15 percent as bright as it needs to be in order to be commercially competitive. However, significant strides have been made toward accomplishing this goal.

The research for the paper was conducted internationally in Japan and Portugal, as well as at Mount Union, where Mitchell hopes to include students in his research as it progresses further in the coming years.

The team’s findings were published in Nature Scientific Reports and have been featured in national media outlets such as Science Daily and Compound SemiConductor Magazine.