Roger Reeves

Biography

Roger Reeves is a Professor of Physics and currently Head of Department at the University of Canterbury. In general terms, his research interests concern the optical properties of materials.  Investigations have covered solid state laser development, the nonlinear optical properties of photorefractive crystals and the spectroscopy of new semiconductors and fabricated nanostructures.  A distinctive characteristic of these studies has been the extensive use of student input in research projects that develop their education They have developed an extremely sensitive spectroscopic technique called Combined Excitation-Emission Spectroscopy (CEES) that has dramatically shortened the time needed to fully explore both the emission and laser-excitation spectra of atoms.  CEES of rare-earth ions have been used for the first time to probe the optical properties of superlattices of insulating materials.  The sensitivity of their technique has allowed atomic monolayer resolution to be realised in a spectroscopic experiment. They have made significant progress in the understanding of the optical properties of two very important semiconductors.  Their photoluminescence (PL) studies have been able to identify a low energy feature in Mg-doped InN that correlates to the onset of p-type conductivity.  This discovery will significantly contribute to the large indium-gallium-nitride optoelectronics industry.  At the other end of the spectrum their rigorous studies of ZnO have revealed subtle differences in the PL spectra from the two polar faces.

Research Interest

Physics & Astronomy