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Eric Larkins

Head of the Photonic and Radio Frequency Engineering Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering

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Biography

Professor Eric Larkins is the Head of the Photonic and Radio Frequency Engineering Laboratory in the Optics and Photonics Group. His teaching focusses on photonics, semiconductor devices and emerging technologies. His research focusses on semiconductor devices operating at high electrical and optical power densities, where he studies complex interactions between carriers, light (photons) and heat (phonons) and how to control them. These interactions lead to nonequilibrium phenomena and nonlinear electrical and optical behaviour not included in low-power, quasi-equilibrium models. These interactions are important because they can either enhance the device performance with new functionality or degrade its performance with increased noise and reduced efficiency. The research activities of the Photonic and Radio Frequency Engineering Laboratory include collaborations with the School of Physics and Astronomy and the Nottingham Nanoscale and Microscale Research Center on both non-equilibrium phonon processes and nanophotonic device fabrication.

Eric Larkins received the BS degree in electrical engineering with distinction from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA in 1980. He received the MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering with a physics minor from Stanford University, Stanford, California in 1985 and 1991 respectively. He pursued his doctoral research on light-emitting heterostructure thyristor switches and molecular beam epitaxy, receiving full support from 1984-5 as a Solid State Affiliates Fellow and from 1985 as a Kodak Fellow. Eric's achievements at Stanford included the molecular beam epitaxial (MBE) growth of record-setting high-purity GaAs, a book chapter on impurity incorporation in MBE-grown GaAs and two U.S. patents.

Eric Larkins joined the Explorative Technology Group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics in Freiburg, Germany in 1991, where he worked on high-speed semiconductor lasers, InGaAs/GaAs MSM photodetectors, intersubband photodetectors, and optical modulators. At the Fraunhofer Institute, he developed MBE growth processes for highly-strained pseudomorphic InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells for lasers and HEMTs. He contributed to the development of high-speed lasers with record-setting direct modulation bandwidths (>40GHz) and grew the Fraunhofer-IAF's first high-power laser diodes. Eric also contributed to the development of long-wavelength infrared (8-12 um) quantum well intersubband photodetectors (QWIP) and the invention of a new tunnelling, quantum-well intersubband photodetector to extend the operation to mid-infrared (MIR) wavelengths (3-5 um). This new MIR photodetector resulted in a German patent.

Professor Larkins joined the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Nottingham as a Lecturer in October 1994 and was appointed Reader in 1998 and Professor of Optoelectronics in 2002. He currently serves as Head of the Photonic and Radio Frequency Engineering Group/Laboratory (2001-present). He established the Marconi Centre for Photonic Communications at the University of Nottingham in 2001 and was its Director until the restructuring of Marconi in 2003. Since 2014, he is the University representative to the Photonics21 European Technology Platform. He also served on the University Core Strategy Group on Europe (2002-07) and the Engineering Faculty Foresight Group (1998-2000). He has examined PhD candidates and been reviewer for academic posts in the UK, China, Switzerland, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Germany. Professor Larkins is a member of the Institute of Physics (IOP), Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and co-founded the University of Nottingham IEEE Student Branch in 2001.

Professor Larkins is the author of more than 270 papers, including seven book chapters, two US patents and co-author of a German patent.

Professor Larkins is a member of the Optics and Photonics research group.

Expertise Summary

Photonics and optoelectronics; nonequilibrium carrier and phonon effects in devices; physics of semiconductor materials and devices; modelling and simulation of semiconductor devices; high-power and high-speed semiconductor lasers; molecular beam epitaxy.

Teaching Summary

Professor Larkins is highly committed to teaching and professional development. He has served as Departmental Staff Development Officer (2014-18), Leader of the Electronics Teaching Strand (2013-16),… read more

Research Summary

Professor Larkins' research focusses on the experimental investigation and numerical simulation of nonlinear electronic, optical and thermal interactions in semiconductor devices operating at very… read more

Recent Publications

Faculty of Engineering

The University of Nottingham
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Nottingham, NG7 2RD



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