The optoelectronic technology of gallium nitride: the 2002 Benjamin Franklin medal in engineering presented to Shuji Nakamura

Professor Nakamura has fabricated the worldʹs first, violet/blue laser diodes and worldʹs brightest blue and green light emitting diodes. His remarkable contributions encompassed materials growth, characterization, and device development and processing. His gallium-nitride-based violet lasers improve by a factor of about three the packing density/resolution of optoelectronic storage media such as video or data storage and of printers or VCRs. His gallium nitride bright, green and blue, light emitting diodes, 10–100 times more efficient than their predecessors, enable color displays and lighting applications and are potential seeds of a new lighting industry. Professor Nakamura has opened the door to a gallium-nitride-based semiconductor industry.