Avouris received his B.Sc. degree at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and his Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry at Michigan State University in 1974. He did postdoctoral work at UCLA, and was a Research Fellow at AT&T Bell Laboratories before joining the staff of IBM’s Research Division at the Watson Research Center in 1978. In 1984, he became manager of Chemical Physics, and in 2004, he was elected an IBM Fellow. He is currently Manager of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. He has also been an adjunct professor at Columbia University and the University of Illinois. Over the years, his research has involved such areas as laser spectroscopy, surface physics and chemistry, scanning tunneling microscopy, atom manipulation, and nanoelectronics. His current research is focused on experimental and theoretical studies of the electrical, optical, and optoelectronic properties of carbon nanotubes and graphene. The work includes the design, fabrication, and study of nanoelectronic and optoelectronic devices and circuits. He has published over 360 scientific papers on these subjects.
Research activities
Avouris has been a trailblazer in the nanoscience and nanotechnology field. He pioneered the use of scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy to study surface chemistry on the atomic scale, and establish the relation between chemical reactivity and local electronic structure. He demonstrated device-like behavior on the atomic scale, observed electron confinement and interference effects at surfaces. He also manipulated covalently bonded atoms with atomic precision. More recently, Avouris has made critical discoveries, both experimental and theoretical, on the electronics and photonics of carbon nanotubes and graphene, and has laid the foundations of future carbon-based nanotechnology. In 1998 Avouris’ team at IBM independently demonstrated the very first molecular transistor based on a single CNT. Subsequently, he optimized the design and performance of the CNT field-effect transistors, enabling them to outperform silicon devices. Avouris and co-workers then produced the first CNT logic-gates and integrated circuits based on CNTs. They showed that transport in CNTs is controlled by Schottky barriers, found ways to dope CNTs, and analyzed the role of inelastic phonon scattering. Avouris and his group demonstrated, for the first time, electrically generated light emission and photoconductivity from CNTs, and analyzed theoretically the properties of CNT excitons. He studied in detail the mechanisms of photo- and current-induced excitation of these one-dimensional systems and opened up the possibility of a unified electronic and optoelectronic technology based on the same carbon materials.
Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics of the Editors of Applied Physics A, Applied Physics B.
The David Turnbull Lectureship Award for his development of nanoscience and nanotechnology through research, publications, lecturing and mentoring: in particular, for his work on carbon nanotubes, graphene and semiconductor surfaces, imaging and measuring their electronic structure and properties; modifying them chemically and physically using scanning probe techniques; and incorporating them into advanced electronic and photonic devices".
