Energy Frontier Research Center

Abstract: Solid-state lighting is on the verge of replacing every lamp on earth, from the smallest signal lamp to the largest stadium-scale flood lamp. But many challenges remain, if solid-state lighting is to fulfill its ultimate promise. In this talk, I will give an overview of Sandia’s Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) for Solid-State Lighting Science, one of 46 EFRCs supported by DOE’s Office of Science to “establish the scientific foundation for a fundamentally new U.S. energy economy.” Our EFRC aims to deepen the foundational science of energy conversion and manipulation in tailored photonic structures, while informing, and being informed by, solid-state lighting technology. Its overarching scientific thrusts are: (1) Competing Radiative and Non-radiative Processes (aimed at developing a microscopic understanding of the competition between radiative and non-radiative e-h recombination); (2) Beyond Free-Space Spontaneous Emission (aimed at exploring energy conversion routes that short-circuit conventional free-space spontaneous emission but end in free-space photons); and (3) Beyond-2D (aimed at exploring the use of non-planar nanoscale structures to modify energy conversion routes).