Sylwester Andrzej Porowski (born April 7, 1938 in
Bierzyn, Lower Silesian Voivodeship), is a Polish
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
specializing in
solid-state and
high pressure physics. He is the Co-Director and Board Member of The Institute of High Pressure Physics,
Polish Academy of Sciences
The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...
in Warsaw.
In 2001 Professor Porowski's team built the
blue semiconductor laser, a pioneering feat in the study of
optoelectronics
Optoelectronics (or optronics) is the study and application of electronic devices and systems that find, detect and control light, usually considered a sub-field of photonics. In this context, ''light'' often includes invisible forms of radi ...
.
Porowski was awarded Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science in 2013 for developing a high-pressure method for producing
gallium nitride
Gallium nitride () is a binary III/ V direct bandgap semiconductor commonly used in blue light-emitting diodes since the 1990s. The compound is a very hard material that has a Wurtzite crystal structure. Its wide band gap of 3.4 eV af ...
monocrystals.
References
External links
Unipress Website
1938 births
Living people
People from Strzelin
20th-century Polish physicists
University of Warsaw alumni
Polish inventors
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