About
Gazi University Photonics Research Center was established in 2011 within the scope of the “Photonics Research Center” project led by Prof. Suleyman OZCELIK and supported by the Ministry of Development. The foundation of the center's infrastructure started with the "Semiconductor Technologies Advanced Research Laboratory, STARLAB", which was established in 2001 within the scope of the "Advanced Research and Education Programs" project supported by the DPT. The Research Center has improved its infrastructure with the projects carried out since 2001 and has become a center of excellence in the field of semiconductor technologies. Researchers from our university, other universities and sectors provide/receive support to center.
In our research center, scientists from various universities can conduct their research and graduate students find support for their thesis studies. Many research and development studies are carried out in cooperation with national and international research institutions and projects. R&D and production of semiconductor materials are performed in our research center where the first MBE (Molecular Beam Epitaxy) system of our country was established.
By our researchers, nanostructured III-V group semiconductors such as superior quality binary (GaAs, InAs, InP, GaP, etc.), ternary (InGaAs etc.) and some quaternary alloys (InGaAlAs etc.), superlattices, quantum well and quantum dot structures can be growth in a 1000 class clean room with the MBE system. Device development and production activities such as infrared photodetector and laser diode are carried out from produced AlGaAs/GaAs, InGaAs/GaAs, InGaAs/InP and similar nanostructured, layered, multi-quantum well structures.
Wide band gap semiconductor (ZnO, AlO, TiO2, TiNO, etc.) thin films are deposited by the Sputtering System with various source materials in our center, and UV detectors, gas sensors, functional surfaces, optical filters and dielectric mirrors can be developed based on these thin films. Contributions are made to the development of renewable energy sources through research carried out in the field of solar cells. Also, solar cell fabrication can be performed on GaAs-based structures grown with MBE in our center. Recently, quantum well, double and triple junction cells have been developed. These cells can reach high efficiencies by concentrating sunlight and thus low cost photovoltaic cells can be developed. Studies are carried out to develop multi-junction III-V group InGaP/GaAs/Ge solar cells with high efficiency and use them in space applications.
Significant success has been achieved in the studies on Si-crystalline solar cells and prototype panels have been produced and presented to industrialists in order to start module production in our country with domestic facilities. R&D studies are carried out within the scope of the development of CIGS and CZTS solar cells.
In our center, R&D studies are carried out for bulk crystal production. The growth of Germanium single crystals was aimed and thus Czochralski system was added to the infrastructure of center. Ge single crystals grown with this system are used by the defense industry as optical windows in IR systems. In addition, slices that can be used as substrate can be produced from Ge single crystals. Moreover, within the scope of bulk crystal growth studies, Sapphire crystals, which are important optical elements in defense industry and civil applications, are grown successfully.
Photonics Research Center shares its opportunities with researchers working in universities and other research institutions in our country. Researchers can perform short and long-term research at the center, especially young researchers can carry out their master's and doctoral thesis studies at our center.
