Sylwester Andrzej Porowski (born April 7, 1938 in
Bierzyn, Lower Silesian Voivodeship
Bierzyn is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Strzelin, within Strzelin County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Prior to 1945 it was in Germany.
It lies approximately north-west of Strzelin, and south of the ...
), 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 caus ...
specializing in
solid-state
Solid state, or solid matter, is one of the four fundamental states of matter.
Solid state may also refer to:
Electronics
* Solid-state electronics, circuits built of solid materials
* Solid state ionics, study of ionic conductors and their use ...
and
high pressure physics
In science and engineering the study of high pressure examines its effects on materials and the design and construction of devices, such as a diamond anvil cell, which can create high pressure. By ''high pressure'' is usually meant pressures of th ...
. He is the Co-Director and Board Member of The Institute of High Pressure Physics,
Polish Academy of Sciences
The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, 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 ...
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 radiatio ...
.
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 affords it ...
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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