People

Tien Khee Ng

Center Manager (Solid State Lighting TIC)

Introduction

Tien Khee is currently researching into molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown group-III nitride based quantum structures for light-emitting applications at KAUST. He has authored, co-authored and delivered more than 100 journal articles, invited talks, and conference articles receiving over 600 citations. He is one of the co-principal investigators for KACST Technology Innovation Center (TIC) for Solid State lighting at KAUST. He received his Ph.D. in electrical and electronics engineering from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, investigating on molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown small bandgap nitride semiconductor. His M.Eng. research at the same laboratory focused on electron cyclotron resonance plasma etching of As-based and P-based III-V semiconductor for eventual applications in heterojunction bipolar transistors. ​Serving the scientific community, he contributed as reviewers for various international journals, such as:
  • ​ACS Nano Letters
  • ACS Advanced Functional Materials
  • Scientific Reports
  • RSC Nanoscale
  • Applied Nanoscience
  • Journal of the Electrochemical Society
  • Journal of Crystal Growth
  • Nanotechonology
  • Photonics Technology Letters
  • Photonics Journal
  • Optics Letters
  • Superlattices and Microstructures

As a research scientist, he co-advises Ph.D. / Masters students working on MBE grown 2D quantum well and 3D nanowires emitters for broad gain, short reach communication NIR laser diodes, low polarization field nitride LEDs and laser diodes, laser-based smart solid state lighting, and emitters epitaxy transfer onto conductive and/or flexible substrates. The long term research goal targets the reliazation of narrow linewidth emitters, and wide-band nitride emitters spanning UV-blue-far red-NIR wavelengths. Depending on the quantum efficiency, the phosphide or arsenide braodband lasers will be integrated to realize this goal.

As the manager of the photonics laboratory, he involved in the early establishment of the laboratory, and currently overseeing new capability establishment, laboratory operational continuity, as well as internal and external research collaboration. He was also involved as a co-mentor for the Saudi-RSI Summer Internship Program (2011 and 2013) in KAUST upon which one of the high school intern received 3 S-RSI awards, published 1 IEEE HONET’2011 conference paper and co-authored a journal paper. 

Prior to this in 2007-2009, he embarked upon a research fellow position at NTU conducting research into MBE grown GaAs nanowires, quantum-dots structures and dilute-nitride-antimonide solar cells using SiGe- and Si-based heterogeneous substrates.

Previously in 2004-2006, he worked as an engineer for Tinggi Technologies, a start-up company in Singapore designing and fabricating high power GaN blue LEDs on highly conductive substrates. Tien Khee later served as member of technical staff and as thin film process manager in the same company.

Research Interests


  • Molecular beam epitaxy grown group-III nitride heterostructures for solid state lighting applications.
  • Quantum dash broad band emitters.
  • III-V-based quantum structures and silicon-based optical elements and for photonic integrated circuit applications

Selected Publications

  1. Chao Zhao#, Tien Khee Ng#, Nini Wei, Aditya Prabaswara, Mohd Sharizal Alias, Bilal Janjua, Chao Shen, and Boon S. Ooi, "Quantum-disks-in-Nanowires on Bulk-Metal Substrates for High-power Light-emitters", Nano Letters (Jan 2016). # Equal contribution authors.
      • ​The first dem​​onstration of facile formation of ultra-long-wavelength nanowires-LEDs on bulk metal that enhances light extraction, lowers resistance, and enhances light extraction in single MBE growth run. Provisional patent submitted.

  2. Chao Zhao, Tien Khee Ng, Aditya Prabaswara, Michele Conroy, Shafat Jahangir, Thomas Frost, John O'Connell, Justin D. Holmes, Peter J. Parbrook, Pallab Bhattacharya, and Boon S. Ooi", An enhanced surface passivation effect in InGaN/GaN disk-in-nanowire light emitting diodes for mitigating Shockley–Read–Hall recombination", Nanoscale, 7, 16658-16665 (2015).

  3. Ri​ya Bose, Jingya Sun, Jafar I. Khan, Basamat S. Shaheen, Aniruddha Adhikari, Tien Khee Ng, Victor M. Burlakov, Manas R. Parida, Davide Priante, Alain Goriely, Boon S. Ooi, Osman M. Bakr, and Omar F. Mohammed, "Spatial and Temporal Imaging of Energy Loss and Carrier Diffusion in InGaN Nanowires using Scanning Ultrafast Electron Microscopy", Advanced Materials, (2016).

  4. Ja​far I. Khan, Aniruddha Adhikari, Jingya Sun, Davide Priante, Riya Bose, Basamat S. Shaheen, Chao Zhao, Tien Khee Ng, Osman M. Bakr, Boon S. Ooi, Omar F. Mohammed, "Enhanced Optoelectronic Performance of a Passivated Nanowire-based Device: Key Information from Real-space Imaging using 4D Electron Microscopy", Small (2016).
      • Articles 2-4: These 3 articles showcase the first demonstration of nitride-nanowires optical device improvement by facile chemical-passivation of nanow​​ires, and confirmation of origin of device improvement (mitigated the effect of Shockley-Read-Hall non-radiative recombination) using advanced spectroscopy with femtosecond temporal resolution, and nanometer spatial resolution.

  5. Chao Shen, Tien K​​​hee Ng, John T. Leonard, Arash Pourhashemi, Hassan M. Oubei, Mohd S. Alias, Shuji Nakamura, Steven P. DenBaars, James S. Speck, Ahmed Y. Alyamani, Munir M. Eldesouki, and Boon S. Ooi, “High-modulation-efficiency, integrated waveguide modulator-laser diode at 448 nm”, ACS Photonics (2016).
      • The first low-​​power, gigahertz bandwidth waveguide-modulator seamlessly integrated on semipolar (20/2/1) laser diodes. Provisional patent submitted.

  6. Chao Shen, Tien Khee Ng, John T. Leonard, Arash Pourhashemi, Shuji Nakamure, Steven P. DenBaars, James S. Speck, Ahmed Y. Alyamani, Munir M. El-desouki, and Boon S. Ooi, "High-brightness semipolar (20/2/1) blue InGaN/GaN superluminescent diodes for droop-free solid-state lighting and visible-light communications" Optics Letters (2016).
      • The first demonstration of hi​​gh-power, > 700-MHz modulation-bandwidth superluminescent-laser. The laser lamp has efficiency-droop-free, and speckle-free characteristics, thus achieving the best of both LED and laser worlds with reasonable trade-off.

  7. Mohammed Zahed Mustafa Khan, Tien Khee Ng, and Boon S. Ooi, “Self-assembled InAs/InP quantum dots and quantum dashes: Material structures and devices”, Progress in Quantum Electronics, 38(6), 237-313 (2014).
      • Review pape​​r on physical insights, device characterization, and optical telecommunications applications of quantum dash based lasers and superluminescent devices.

  8. Hassan M. Oubei, Jose R. Duran, Bilal Janjua, Huai-Yung Wang, Cheng-Ting Tsai, Yu-Cheih Chi, Tien Khee Ng, Hao-Chung Kuo, Jr-Hau He, Mohamed-Slim Alouini, Gong-Ru Lin, and Boon S. Ooi, “4.8 Gbit/s 16-QAM-OFDM transmission based on compact 450-nm laser for underwater wireless optical communication”, Optics Express 23(18), 23302-23309 (2015); Nature Photonics 9, 707 (2015).

  9. Hassan Makine Oubei, Changping Li, Ki-Hong Park, Tien Khee Ng, Mohamed-Slim Alouini, and Boon S. Ooi, “2.3 Gbit/s underwater wireless optical communications using directly modulated 520 nm laser diode”, Optics Express 23(16), 20743-20748 (2015).
      • Article 8 was fea​​tured in Nature Photonics article "Optical communications: Underwater link”: record 4.8 Gbit/s transmission rate underwater optical communications (UWOC) for deep sea exploration and sensing, surpassing the existing sonar-based communication system. Article 9 provides an alternate straight forward On/Off keying scheme in providing high bit-rate transmission in coastal water using green (520-nm) laser.

  10. Bilal Janjua, Hassan M. Oubei, Jose R. Durán Retamal, Tien Khee Ng, Cheng-Ting Tsai, Huai-Yung Wang, Yu-Chieh Chi, Hao-Chung Kuo, Gong-Ru Lin, Jr-Hau He, and Boon S. Ooi, “Going beyond 4 Gbps data rate by employing RGB laser diodes for visible light communication”, Optics Express, 23(14), 18746-18753 (2015).
      • Mercury-free re​​d-green-blue lasers for simultaneous implementation of solid-state lighting and >4 Gbit/s visible light communications.

  11. D. Priante, I. Dursun, M. S. Alias, D. Shi, V. A. Melnikov, T. K. Ng, O. F. Mohammed, O. M. Bakr, and B. S. Ooi, “The recombination mechanisms leading to amplified spontaneous emission at the true-green wavelength in CH3NH3PbBr3 perovskites”, Applied Physics Letters, 106, 081902 (2015).
      • Applied Physics Letters is a journal in the Nature Index list. The article provides the physical explanations of the amplified spontaneous emission mechani​​sms in optically pumped MAPbBr3 perovskite device emitting at the true-green, eye-sensitive wavelength of 555 nm.

Education

  • 2005 -PhD Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore
  • 2001 -M.Eng Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore

Professional Profile

  • Jun 2016 – present     : Senior Research Scientist, Photonics Laboratory, KAUST, KSA
  • Aug 2012 – Jun 2016     : Research Scientist, Photonics Laboratory, KAUST, KSA
  • Oct 2009 – Jul 2012     : Assistant Research Scientist, Photonics Laboratory, KAUST, KSA
  • Jan 2007 – Aug 2009   : Research Fellow, Cleanroom & Characterization Laboratory, NTU, Singapore
  • Aug 2004 – Nov 2006  : Member of Technical Staff & Process Manager, Tinggi Technologies, Singapore
  • July 2002 – July 2004   : Singapore-MIT Research Associate, Cleanroom & Characterization Lab., NTU, Singapore
  • Jun 97 – Nov 98            : Test Engineer, Hewlett-Packard, Singapore​

Scientific and Professional Memberships

  • Member of IEEE (Photonics Society, and Electron Devices Society)

KAUST Affiliations

Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering | Electrical Engineering