Download Canada Research Chair in Hybrid Optoelectronic Materials

Canada Research Chair in
Hybrid Optoelectronic Materials and Devices
ABOUT THE CHAIR
The Canada Research Chair in Hybrid Optoelectronic
Materials and Devices was launched in October 2012 in
an effort to create a new research thrust at École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) combining nanotechnologies,
electronic materials, and energy. The Chair was created
following Sylvain G. Cloutier’s arrival at ÉTS; at the time,
the researcher had already acquired 10 years of intensive
research experience in this emerging field.
In the past 15 years, nanotechnologies have revolutionized the way we think about materials by providing us
with a direct way of engineering their most fundamental
properties by controlling their structure at the nanoscale.
As the greatest technological leaps have almost always
been due to fundamental breakthroughs in material
properties, the prospect of gaining a better understanding
of, and greater control over, these properties gives rise to
great expectations.
In accordance with this new paradigm, nanotechnologies
have already transformed our lives by providing new
generations of nano-engineered materials with astonishing mechanical properties. Now, the scientific community is demonstrating that the same revolution will occur
with optoelectronic materials. We do not fully realize the
importance of these materials in today’s world. Modern
communications, computers, batteries, solar cells, and
biomedical sensors are all limited by the cost and the
fundamental properties of the optoelectronic materials at
their core.
The Chair’s primary objective is to develop an entirely
new class of low-cost hybrid nano-engineered optoelectronic materials and integrate them within relatively
simple device architectures. We are focusing mainly on
light sources and solar cells. In the quest for sustainability, we need to find inexpensive and more efficient
lighting sources since lighting consumes over 20% of
energy output worldwide. Meanwhile, more effective and
inexpensive means of harvesting solar energy may provide a sustainable alternative for powering remote areas
or simply reduce our dependence on environmentally
unfriendly energy sources.
Sylvain G. Cloutier and his collaborators have already
made significant progress in the development of lowercost and better optoelectronic materials through nanoscale engineering. They have also shown that these
materials can be used in real-life applications to achieve
better performance-to-cost ratios. Along the way, they
have also developed new fabrication and characterization
tools to study optoelectronic materials. They are planning
to pursue these efforts and use this Chair to position the
ÉTS as a leader in this rapidly emerging field.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Controlled nano-fabrication
• Better controlled synthetic routes
• Large scale top-down and
bottom-up fabrication at low cost
Characterization of structural and
optoelectronic properties
• Development of more precise tools
• Contact-free 3D micro-spectroscopy
techniques
• In operando analysis
Device integration
• Light-emitting diodes (LEDs)
• Photovoltaic devices / solar cells
• Sensors
FUTURE BENEFITS
Research conducted by the Chair will result in:
•A
new class of better and lower-cost optoelectronic materials
•L
ow cost LEDs, sensors, and solar cells for a
wide range of applications
This research has the potential of transforming the
way we think about electronic materials and how
we use them by providing us with a better understanding of, and control over, their properties
through nanoscale engineering.
CHAIRHOLDER
Sylvain G. Cloutier has been a
professor at École
de technologie
supérieure since
2011. He specializes in nanotechnologies and
optoelectronic
materials and
devices. After earning his Ph. D.
at Brown University in 2006, he
became a professor of Electrical and
Computer Engineering at the University of Delaware before joining
ÉTS. He has authored or co-authored over 70 published articles in
international journals and presented
findings at numerous conferences.
PARTNERS
In 2006, Sylvain G. Cloutier won
the Outstanding Thesis Award
from the Division of Engineering
at Brown University. In 2009, he
garnered the prestigious Young
Faculty Award from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency. He is an adjunct faculty
member at the University of Delaware and editorial board member
for Semiconductor Science &
Technology.
1 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of
Canada (NSERC)
1 Le Centre d’optique, photonique et laser (COPL)
1 Le Centre québécois sur
les matériaux fonctionnels
(CQMF)
1 NanoQAM (UQAM)
1 Consortium for Research
and Innovation in Aerospace in Québec (CRIAQ)
1 L’Institut national de recherche scientifique – Énergie
Matériaux Télécommunications (INRS-EMT)
Professor Cloutier has led over 14
major research projects in the U.S.
and Canada. He also regularly acts
as an examiner for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research
Council of Canada (NSERC) and
Fonds de recherche du Québec –
­Nature et technologies (FRQNT) as
well as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of
Energy (DOE) in the United States.
CONTACT
Professor Sylvain G. Cloutier, Ph. D.
Phone: 514 396-8897
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: crc-nomads.etsmtl.ca
Department of Electrical Engineering
École de technologie supérieure
1100 Notre-Dame Street West
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3C 1K3
ÉTS is a member of the
Université du Québec network