Christopher Summers, Ph.D.
B.Sc. Physics, Reading University, U.K.
Ph.D. Physics, Reading University, U.K.
Professor Christopher Summers has a broad range of interests in optical materials and their growth processes and in the development of unique material structures for enhancing device performance, these interests range from the development of new photonic crystal structures to phosphor materials and luminescent nano-materials.
Dr. Summers is the Director of the Phosphor Technology Center of Excellence, a Fellow of the Georgia Tech Research Institute, and an Adjunct Professor in the Schools of Physics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. As Director of the Phosphor Consortium, he has coordinated phosphor-related research and development activities across nine universities over the last decade. He has been responsible for developing strong interactions with industry and was recently named by Industry Week as one of the "50 Research and Development Stars in the United States." In 1995, he also initiated the annual conference on the Science and Technology of Display Materials and Lighting Phosphors.
Dr. Summers received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics, from Reading University in the UK. He has received numerous awards and honors, holds six patents, and has over 300 publications.
Research Interests:
Photonic and Electronic Materials
Dr. Summers' current interests in photonic crystals are in beam probation through 2D photonic crystals, such as self-collimation and negative index focusing phenomena and superprism effects, as well as the development of novel 3D photonic crystal architectures using atomic layer deposition for luminescence modification.
He also has research interests in the development of high-brightness, high efficiency low-voltage phosphors for flat panel electro-luminescent and field emission displays. Dr. Summers is active in the growth of phosphor materials and group II-VI and III-V semiconductor compounds by chemical and molecular beam epitaxy and atomic layer epitaxy, the optical and electrical characterization of these materials, and the modeling of new quantum and superlattice device concepts.
Prior to working at Georgia Tech, Dr. Summers was at McDonnell Douglas Research Laboratories, where he was responsible for coordinating and conducting research on HgCdTe alloys for use as infrared detector materials. This included measurement of material properties and optimization of device fabrication processes for photovoltaic detectors. Also, he was involved in investigations of the phase diagram: crystal growth, optical, electrical and photoconductive properties of HgCdSe alloys and studied the performance characteristics of far-infrared Si bolometer detectors. At GTE Laboratories, he investigated the effect of crystal growth and material processing on the luminescent efficiency of GaAs and AlGaAs light emitting and laser diodes and the growth of these materials by transient-mode liquid phase epitaxy. In his postdoctoral positions at Bell Labs and Reading University, he studied various optical and infrared properties of semiconductors to identify impurities and to determine energy band parameters and electron-phonon coupling constants.