Bilkent Researchers' Work Highlighted in Nature Photonics
The research group led by Asst. Prof. Ali Kemal Okyay of the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering has been collaborating with researchers at UNAM on realizing ultralow-cost optoelectronic devices using nanoparticles. Together, they demonstrated a photodetector based on silicon nanocrystals synthesized using a laser ablation technique. This innovative approach can produce 20-150 nm-sized silicon nanocrystals using laser ablation, which is potentially a low-cost and high-throughput method (S. Alkis, F. B. Oruç, B. Ortaç, A. C. Koşger and A. K. Okyay: "Plasmonic Enhanced Photodetector Based on Silicon Nanocrystals Obtained Through Laser Ablation," J. Optics 14, 125001 [2012]). This work is being featured as a "Research Highlight" in the February issue of the journal Nature Photonics (Nature Photonics 7, 2 2013; doi:10.1038/nphoton.2012.348). It is believed that silicon nanocrystals made in this manner could be useful for creating a variety of other optoelectronic devices, such as flexible and disposable sensors or cost-effective solar cells.