U.S.-Saudi Arabia Workshop on Photonics Technology for Advanced Energy Conservation, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, November 2010

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

DenBaars This project supports a "US-Saudi Arabia workshop on Photonics Technology for Advanced Energy Conservation" to be held at King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia in November 2010. The US organizer is Dr. Steven P. DenBaars, University of California-Santa Barbara. The Saudi organizer is Dr. Iman Rogan, Professor of Material Science and Engineering at KAUST. The objective of the workshop is to identify areas for collaboration that will lead to joint US-Saudi proposals. The workshop will provide a forum for interaction between US scientists who are at the leading edge of lighting for energy conservation, and the faculty at KAUST and other universities in Saudi Arabia. KAUST has established a "Solar and Alternative Energy Science and Engineering Research Center" with a significant mission to support collaboration with researches abroad. It also plans to establish a "Center for Advanced Photonics Technology", with a similar mission for collaboration with researchers abroad. The workshop will also help direct the research activities for that Center for Advanced Photonics Technology at KAUST. The three day workshop will address the basic materials science and engineering issues required to achieve an all semiconductor-based white-light source with an output greater than 300 lumens/watt, corresponding to greater than 85% wall-plug efficiency. The last half day of the workshop, participants will be asked to proposed directions for the Center for Advanced Photonics Technology at KAUST and propose a working relation with faculty within the KSA leading to proposed research projects. All lighting consumes over 20% of all electricity produced which corresponds to over 25 Quads of primary fuel (with an associated 410 million tons of carbon emissions), at an annual cost approaching $300 billion. Conventional lighting sources include incandescent lamps and fluorescent lamps, which are inefficient at converting electricity to light, i.e., 2-4% (7-15 lumens/watt (lm/W)) for incandescent, and 15-20% (50-80 lm/W) for fluorescent. The workshop topics seek to ameliorate this inefficiency by focusing research efforts in key areas of materials for solid-state lighting. It is expected that the solid state lighting approach will achieve 85% energy efficiency, with a corresponding luminous efficacy of over 300 lumens/watt, and be able to run entirely off sustainable energy sources such as solar or wind. Solid state lighting sources, in addition, offer nearly an infinite field lifetime (e.g., 25-50 years). The outcome of this workshop and the proposed research will be directed towards the science of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) based on GaN, the ultimate lighting source that will eventually replace existing lighting technologies. Intellectual Merits: The workshop will discuss areas of: Non-polar and semi-polar LED devices; light devices; defect free bulk GaN crystals, phosphors for solid-state white lighting and energy efficient photonic devices and systems. These are among the cutting edge topics in developing energy efficient lighting systems and devices. The work carried out in the US is among the most advanced in the world, but can benefit from interactions and collaborations with new and upcoming institutes with material and human resources that can expand the work in this important area, which has world-wide benefit. Broader Impacts: The results of the workshop may lead to collaboration between several US institutions with leading Saudi and other Middle East universities in an area that can have a very significant impact on how lighting is provided, and the energy consumption for that lighting. The work can have significant environmental impact by curbing energy consumption. It is planned that 10 senior and 6 junior US scientists, as well as four US post-docs, will participate. Ten participants from within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and in the Mid-East have also been invited.