Nick Holonyak
Nick Holonyak Jr. ( born November 3, 1928, in Zeigler, Illinois) is an American who is considered the inventor of the visible LED.
His parents were Ukrainian immigrants and his father worked in a coal mine. After Nick had worked for the Illinois Central Railroad, he preferred to go back to school. He earned his Ph.D. in 1954 at the University of Illinois at Urbana -Champaign with John Bardeen. 1954 to 1955 he worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories, then did his military service and was from 1957 to 1963, scientists at General Electric ( GE).
At Bell Laboratories, he was one of the pioneers in silicon semiconductor technology for transistors and thyristors (SCR ), and in continued from 1957 at GE. He invented the shorted emitter in thyristors and triacs. From his time in the military in Japan, he also knew the work of Leo Esaki tunnel diode and to put them first in silicon ago.
At GE, he developed to February 1962, the red LED. In 1962, he led one of the teams, the ( first was Robert N. Hall of the Schenectady laboratory of GE) almost simultaneously the first laser diode ( semiconductor laser ) for walking brought (his was the first in the visible wavelength range ). In 2004 he developed with Milton Feng and other transistor laser.
In 1963 he went as professor back to the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. There he developed with his students in 1977, the first quantum well lasers.
He holds about 30 more patents and has received many awards.