Inventor of Blue Diode Laser Leaves Nichia

Citing a personal desire to pursue his research in an academic environment, Shuji Nakamura has left Nichia Corp. (formerly Nichia Chemical Industries Ltd.) of Anan, Japan. While he expressed gratitude for the opportunities at Nichia, he accepted a faculty position in the College of Engineering at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

The head of the research and development department at Nichia since 1993, Nakamura is the inventor of the blue, green and white light-emitting diodes and the blue diode laser, and he developed the two-flow method of metallorganic chemical vapor deposition. His GaN-based semiconductor devices promise to revolutionize lighting and display technologies, laser printing, telecommunications and high-density data storage.