Prof. Zhang gave an invited talk on novel multijunction solar cells at the International Conference on Advanced Materials 2009 (ICAM 2009) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The conference has 1560 attendees from 60 countries.

Group member Hank Dettlaff has been awarded the 2009 Dean’s scholarship.

Our group would like to welcome two new Postdoctoral Research Associates Dr. Swee Hoe Lee from UCSD and Dr. Xiangfeng Lu from UBC and new student Hank Dettlaff from the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Lee will bring experience in plasmonics and novel solar cell concepts. Dr. Lu’s past work includes bismide MBE growth and bismide material characterization. Hank’s undergraduate research included processing and characterization of GaAs based lasers.

The MBE optoelectronics group has just taken delivery of a generous equipment donation from Newport Corporation. The equipment includes several high-performance solar simulators, a complete quantum efficiency measurement system and a calibrated reference solar cell. Added to equipment already in place, the group now has a comprehensive, advanced solar test facility. Many thanks to Newport

Our group would like to welcome two summer internship students, Jared Harvey and Herbert Bowler. Jared and Herbert are undergraduate students at ASU and will be working with us on several projects, including the design and construction of new characterization experiments and the upgrade and maintenance of our MBE system.

Group member Michael DiNezza has been awarded the 2009 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. This fellowship supports graduate students nation wide in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees. Over 8000 students per year competed nationally in the past several years. He is one of 950 applicants awarded in the first installment (a budget increase this year will lead to additional awards).

Seven group members volunteered their day to judge students' science projects from elementary, junior high, and high schools throughout Arizona at the Arizona Science Fair at the Phoenix Convention Center. After previewing the displays, they interviewed the students, and then worked with other judges in teams to score and rank the projects. >>Read more<<

TechConnect, an Arizona’s technology magazine, has published a feature article about Dr. Zhang in their latest issue.>>Read more<<

Ben Green has received the Wilhoit Scholar Award part of the ARCS Foundation for a 2nd year. He was also recently honored by the IEEE Phoenix Section with a Student Scholarship Award at the recent annual banquet.

Our group's research project was reported by Arizona Daily Star, titiled "'Death ray' breathes life into solar plans". >>Read more<<

Our group's research contract was reported by ASU Insight, titiled "Solar cell research earns $1.5 million contract". >>Read more<<

Ding Ding and Xiaobo Zhang presented two talks at the LEOS Annual Meeting and US Workshop on the Physics and Chemistry of II-VI Materials, respectively. They have reported our latest research results on the theory of multijunction solar cells and on the structural properties of monolithically integrated II/Vi materials on GaSb substrate.

Our group would like to welcome two new Postdoctoral Research Associate: Dr. Guanghong Wu from Changsha University of Science & Technology, China and Dr. Kevin O'Brien from University of Surrey, UK.

Our group would like to welcome two new students: Torrey Graf and Michael DiNezza. Torrey earned his Bachelor's degree here at ASU in Electrical Engineering and will be pursuing a Master's degree. His fabrication experience and work experience in photovoltaic power generation will be used to study unique consumer products using solar cells. Michael earned his Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering at SUNY Buffalo and will be pursuing a PhD degree. His research experience in optoelectronics and fabrication skills will be used to study green light emitting devices using a novel monolithically integrated material system.

Dr. Shui-Qing (Fisher) Yu has joined the University of Arkansas as an Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering. Fisher completed his PhD research in our group a few year ago and has contributed a great deal to ASU. We will miss him and wish him a great success with his new job.

The MBE group has been awarded a multimillion dollar program from AFRL to study the feasibility of using monolithically integrated II/VI and II/V materials on novel substrates for ultrahigh efficiency multijunction solar cells.

Two of our group members presented at the Materials (EMC) and Device (DRC) Conference held in UCSB this summer. Jingjing Li presented a study of CdSe/CdTe short-period superlattice structures grown on III-V substrates. Ben Green gave a talk on his study on a novel idea of SLED.

Group member Elizabeth Steenbergen has been awarded a Science, Mathematics And Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship, which has been established by the Department of Defense to support graduate students pursuing degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The program is very competitive and ASU received only one award in 2007.

Group member Ben Green has received the Wilhoit Scholar award as part the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation. The ARCS Foundation was established 49 years ago with the goal of investing in the future of America by providing scholarship support to academically talented students majoring in the fields of Natural Science, Medicine, and Engineering. The Phoenix Chapter of the ARCS Foundation has awarded over 600 scholarships since 1975 to outstanding graduate students at Arizona's three major universities.

Our group actively reaches out to local communities. Prof. Zhang gave a talk on solar energy to high school students at Cactus Shadows High School last Dec. and Elizabeth Steenbergen spoke with a group of seventh graders at Payne Junior High school in Queen Creek last January. In March, over the spring break, Elizabeth Steenbergen, Jingjing Li, and Robin Scott went to Cave Creek to judge science fair projects.

Prof. Zhang organizes a solar cell session for CLEO/PhAST conference to be held in San Jose this May. More details about that conference can be found with this link: http://www.phastconference.org/.

Our group has been actively pursuing the research on ultrahigh efficiency multijunction solar cells using lattice matched II/VI and III/V materials. Substantial progresses have been made in the past several months and total of four conference papers have been accepted by Space Power Workshop, IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, and European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference.

The work of Shuiqing (Fisher) Yu, an assistant professor of research in the Department of Electrical Engineering and member of the Center for Nanophotonics, was recognized Feb. 9 with an award from the Waves and Devices Chapter of the Phoenix Section of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Yu was honored for “Technical contributions to the fabrication and development of high-efficiency light-emitting diodes for optical refrigeration applications.” >>Read more<<

Our group has welcomed Dr. Stephen J. Sweeney, a visiting scholar from University of Surrey, UK. Stephen is a Associate Professor in University of Surrey and his group currently specialises in the physics of photonic materials and devices and currently consists of ten PhD students and post-doctoral research fellows. Stephen is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a Chartered Physicist. He has produced over 80 refereed papers, 2 invited book chapters and has made over 160 conference presentations including 12 invited talks within the past five years.

We are seeking outstanding domestic and international applicants for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program (http://www.sfaz.org/investments.html). This program is designed to challenge Arizona’s research-performing institution’s leadership to transform competent graduate programs into world-competitive programs. SFAz will award a scholarship of up to $50,000 for each student designated an SFAz Graduate Fellow. Up to 80 first-year science, math and engineering top graduate students nationally and internationally will be supported. The MBE group is currently the home of two winners, who received the award in 2007. Only PhD students qualify.

Some of our latest research on solar cells will be presented at the SPIE Photonics West 2008 and Laser Focus World has a short report on it. >>Read more<<

The current issue of Full Circle, a magazine published by our School biannually, has a feature article about Prof. Zhang. >>Read more<<

Arizona State University scientist Yong-Hang Zhang qualified for a one-year, $500,000 Science Foundation Arizona grant that seeks to anchor companies and scientists in Arizona by providing matching funds for promising research. >>Read more<<

Songnan Wu, a PhD student in our group, won the University Graduate Fellowship (UGF) award for summer research from Arizona State University for his theoretical and experimental studies on multi-junction solar cells.