Lehigh University Lehigh University   NSF, DARPA see the light
on Lehigh’s wide bandgap semiconductor research  Volkmar Dierolf
Faculty members in Lehigh’s Center for Optical Technologies
(COT) have won significant funding recently for wide bandgap
semiconductor research that could lead to high-quality, energy-
efficient lighting systems for consumers as well as lightweight
bioterrorism-prevention devices for the military.  The group of
physicists, electrical engineers and materials scientists has
received three grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF)
and one from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense.  The group’s goal is
to reduce the number of defects which occur during the
fabrication of compound semiconductors and which cause the loss
of energy and light. Its members are conducting nanoscale
experiments into the surfaces, or substrates, on which are
“grown” the crystalline thin films that actually produce the
light. They are also developing new