Eli Yablonovitch

Eli Yablonovitch
Yablonovitch in 2024
Born (1946-12-15) 15 December 1946 (age 77)
Alma mater
Known for
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics, Electrical Engineering
Institutions
Doctoral advisorNicolaas Bloembergen

Eli Yablonovitch (born 15 December 1946) is an American physicist and engineer who, along with Sajeev John, founded the field of photonic crystals in 1987.[1] He and his team were the first to create a 3-dimensional structure that exhibited a full photonic bandgap, which has been named Yablonovite. In addition to pioneering photonic crystals, he was the first to recognize that a strained quantum-well laser has a significantly reduced threshold current compared to its unstrained counterpart. This is now employed in the majority of semiconductor lasers fabricated throughout the world. His seminal paper[2] reporting inhibited spontaneous emission in photonic crystals is among the most highly cited papers in physics and engineering.

  1. ^ M.Kapoor (2013) Electromagnetic Band Gap Structures, page 58
  2. ^ Yablonovitch, Eli (1987-05-18). "Inhibited Spontaneous Emission in Solid-State Physics and Electronics". Physical Review Letters. 58 (20): 2059–2062. Bibcode:1987PhRvL..58.2059Y. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.58.2059. PMID 10034639.