John Muth

Biography

John F. Muth is the Progress Energy Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University where he has served on the faculty since 1998. He received a BS in Applied Engineering Physics from Cornell University in 1988. Upon graduating he served as a submarine officer on fast attack nuclear submarines from 1988 to 1993. He received a PhD in condensed matter physics at North Carolina State University in 1998. His thesis specialized in wide bandgap semiconductors and photonic devices. He specializes in the optoelectronic properties and materials and the fabrication of novel devices, making contributions to the advancement of wide bandgap and ultra-wide bandgap materials used in LEDs, Lasers, RF and power electronics, including the development of transparent thin film transistors used in cell phone displays. He has made contributions to sensors, wearable electronics, and underwater optical communications. In addition to submarine service, in 2008-2009 he was called back to active duty to serve in Iraq where he led a team embedded in embedded in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, working with the senior Iraqi leadership on issues related to security and the rule of law.

• Co-Founded the NSF Engineering Research Center ASSIST on low power wearable electronics.


• Led the Start-up of and Principal Investigator for PowerAmerica, a National Manufacturing Institute focused on the development of Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Power Electronics


• Directed the NCSU Nanofabrication Facility


• Served as Jefferson Science Fellow (sponsored by the NAE) with USAID advising on technical issues with USAID and the State Department.


• Been actively involved with the Research Triangle Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, helping small companies get off the ground via the SBIR, STTR programs as well as cooperative research agreements. As a professor, he has helped several sets of student spin out small companies.

Education

• Ph.D. 1998
  Solid State Physics
  North Carolina State University, Raleigh
• Bachelor's 1988
  Applied Engineering Physics
  Cornell University, Ithaca

Recent Publications

• Optical and structural characteristics of AlInN/GaN superlattices with varying AlInN fractions (2025)
• GaN-based tunnel junction with negative differential resistance by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (2024)
• Growth and characterization of AlInN/GaN superlattices (2024)
• A Modular Endoscopic Tool and Laser Ablation Test-Bed for Studying Biological Tissue Ablation Control Strategies (2023)
• Designing and Testing a Closed-Loop Magnetically Actuated Laser Scanning System for Tissue Ablation (2021)
• Erratum: "Phonon-boundary scattering and thermal transport in AlxGa1-xN: Effect of layer thickness" [Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 252102 (2020)] (2021)
• Dielectric and conducting properties of unintentionally and Sn-doped beta-Ga2O3 studied by terahertz spectroscopy (2020)
• Phonon-boundary scattering and thermal transport in AlxGa1-xN: Effect of layer thickness (2020)
• Self-Heating Characterization of $\beta$ -Ga2O3 Thin-Channel MOSFETs by Pulsed ${I}$ - ${V}$ and Raman Nanothermography (2019)
• Thermal conductivity of ultra-wide bandgap thin layers - High Al-content AlGaN and beta-Ga2O3 (2019)

Awards & Honors