중국 사람의 성공사례를 하나 들자면... > 타분야진출

본문 바로가기

중국 사람의 성공사례를 하나 들자면...

페이지 정보

김덕양 작성일2002-04-17 02:39

본문

중국에서 일하다가 유럽으로 건너갔다가 최근 벨렙으로 오게 된 사람의 이야기입니다. 세계에서 인정받을 만한 능력만 있다면야 어디든 가겠지요. 다만 그렇게 학생을 키울수 있도록 뒷받침해줄만한 시스템을 우리가 갖추는 게 더 시급한 일이라고 하겠습니다.

 A "Growing" Reputation

Al Cho, former vice president of Semiconductor Research and a scientist of world renown, left a remarkable legacy at Bell Labs when he retired this past fall.

It includes 73 patents, most notably his 1979 invention of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), the revolutionary technique for atomic-level, layer-by-layer fabrication or "growth" of special crystals that are the foundation for much of today's high-performance microwave electronics, the lasers in our CD players and the detectors in fiber-optic networks.

But Cho's legacy at Bell Labs also includes people — the outstanding researchers he has brought into the company over the years, including, among many others, T.C. Lee, Jim Baillargeon and Hock Ng.

Cho's latest recruit is Jianxin (pronounced Ji'an-chin) Chen, an MBE "crystal grower" who is now a post-doc in the Semiconductor Physics Research Department in Murray Hill, headed by Eric Isaacs.

"I think Jianxin could do some truly great things here," says Cho.

In 1998, while working at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai — from which he has a Ph.D. in semiconductor and device physics — Chen became the first scientist outside the United States to grow a quantum-cascade (QC) laser crystal.

Invented at Bell Labs in 1994 by Cho, Federico Capasso, Debbie Sivco and Jerome Faist, QC lasers are much more powerful than conventional infrared lasers, and the wavelength of the light they emit can be precisely controlled. Today, they are used primarily to detect and identify gases and pollutants, but new crystal structures could lead to a wide-array of applications in telecommunications, industrial-process control, automobiles and medical diagnostics.

"Not only did Jianxin grow the quantum-cascade laser crystal, which requires enormous understanding and control of the behavior of individual atoms," says Isaacs, "but he did it on his first attempt. That's really quite extraordinary, perhaps unique."

Chen, who grew up in a rural farming village in China, is characteristically humble when talking about this accomplishment. "I felt I was quite lucky. There are many variables and sensitivities in MBE, but I was able to make calculated guesses based on my knowledge of the materials and my limited MBE experience."

Chen's skill attracted attention as far away as Europe. He was invited to Berlin twice as a visiting MBE researcher at an independent institute and spent six months working on semiconductor lasers at Ericsson in Sweden. He further honed his MBE skills and knowledge of semiconductor optics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, where he worked for 18 months, before learning of an opening at Bell Labs.

"I was honored to be offered a position by Dr. Cho," says Chen. "It was a dream for me to come to Bell Labs and collaborate on new possibilities and projects with the world's leaders in this field."

Chen shares a lab in Murray Hill with one of those leaders, Sivco, an MTS crystal grower in Semiconductor Physics Research who assisted Cho for 21 years on the development of MBE.

"Each MBE system is unique," says Chen, "and Debbie has helped me understand the special characteristics of the machine I'm working with. I'm also benefiting from her experience using x-rays to evaluate the crystals I grow and from her experiments with the use of phosphorus in crystals."

Crystals with layers of compounds that contain phosphorus are very appealing to researchers because they have some special properties, including improved heat dissipation, which could lead to faster, more reliable transistors and detectors and improved lasers. Phosphorus, however, is extremely unstable and extraordinarily difficult to control in the atomic dimensions required.

"Challenges like this make the work enjoyable," says Chen. "I am improving my understanding and knowledge every day, hoping that someday I may be able to offer something useful to the world, as Dr. Cho and so many others here have."

— David Fine

댓글 0

등록된 댓글이 없습니다.

SLIDE UP

모바일에서는 읽기만 가능합니다.
PC 버전 보기
© 2002 - 2015 scieng.net