Professor Leigh Canham

Professor Leigh Canham

School of Physics and Astronomy
Chair of Nanomaterials for Biomedicine & Photonics

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 5322
Email
l.t.canham@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
School of Physics and Astronomy
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Leigh Canham is Professor of Nanomaterials for Biomedicine & Photonics and has over 30 years experience conducting R&D on widely different aspects of silicon technology.

He specialises in nanostructuring the semiconductor to tune its properties for potential uses that range from optoelectronics to medicine to consumer care products.

He enjoys multidisciplinary research and spent over 15 years in industry after co-founding a medical device company before taking a position in the Nanoscale Physics Group in February 2017.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Solid State Physics 1983
  • BSc Physics 1979

Biography

Leigh Canham was trained as a solid state physicist at University College London (BSc 1979) and Kings College London (PhD 1983). His entire R&D career in academia, government labs and industry has been focussed on the semiconductor silicon. Two key personal discoveries- that nanoscale silicon can emit light efficiently (1990) and be medically biodegradable (1995) have had significant academic and commercial impact.

Since 1999 he has held an Honorary Professorship at the University of Birmingham for his work on luminescent silicon. In 2011 Leigh was a shortlisted finalist for the European Inventor of the Year award from the European Patent Office for his work on biodegradable silicon. Two recent awards are that of Thomson Reuter Citation Laureate (2012) and the Materials Innovation Medial of the Federation of European materials Societies (2015).

Leigh regularly gives lectures internationally on nanoscience and technology, entrepreneurship and nanoscale silicon R&D.

Research

Biomedical  and optoelectronic properties of nanoporous silicon and their applications.

Other activities

  • Editor-in-Chief of open access journal “Mesoporous Biomaterials”
  • Industrial consultancy on nanosilicon technologies
  • International academic lecturing on scientific entrepreneurship.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Guo, X, Wang, S, Wang, S, Wang, J, Jiang, F, Liu, Y, Storey, CJ, Theis, W, Lu, Z, Li, K, Canham, LT & Xu, Z 2023, 'Green synthesis of mesoporous and biodegradable iron silicide nanoparticles for photothermal cancer therapy', Journal of Materials Chemistry B. https://doi.org/10.1039/d2tb02399g

Wu, R, Nekovic, E, Collins, J, Storey, C, Canham, L, Navarro-Cia, M & Kaplan, A 2022, 'Taming non-radiative recombination in Si nanocrystals interlinked in a porous network', Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, vol. 24, no. 22, pp. 13519–13526. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2CP00325B

Wu, R, Jin, Q, Storey, C, Collins, J, Gomard, G, Lemmer, U, Canham, L, Kling, R & Kaplan, A 2021, 'Gold nanoplasmonic particles in tunable porous silicon 3D scaffolds for ultra-low concentration detection by SERS', Nanoscale horizons, vol. 6, no. 10, pp. 781-790. https://doi.org/10.1039/d1nh00228g

Wu, R, Mathieu, T, Storey, CJ, Jin, Q, Collins, J, Canham, LT & Kaplan, A 2021, 'Localized Plasmon Field Effect of Gold Clusters Embedded in Nanoporous Silicon', Advanced Optical Materials, vol. 9, no. 9, 2002119, pp. 2002119. https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.202002119

Nekovic, E, Storey, CJ, Kaplan, A, Theis, W & Canham, LT 2020, 'A Gentle Sedimentation Process for Size-Selecting Porous Silicon Microparticles to Be Used for Drug Delivery Via Fine Gauge Needle Administration', Silicon. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-020-00895-3

Nekovic, E, Storey, CJ, Kaplan, A, Theis, W & Canham, LT 2020, 'Communication—supercritically-dried membranes and powders of >90% porosity silicon with pore volumes exceeding 4 cm3g-1', ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology, vol. 9, no. 2, 024016, pp. 024016. https://doi.org/10.1149/2162-8777/ab69b1

Canham, L 2020, 'Introductory lecture: origins and applications of efficient visible photoluminescence from silicon-based nanostructures', Faraday Discussions, vol. 222, no. 0, pp. 10-81. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0fd00018c

Storey, CJ, Nekovic, E, Kaplan, A, Theis, W & Canham, LT 2020, 'Preserving surface area and porosity during fabrication of silicon aerocrystal particles from anodized wafers', Journal of Porous Materials. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10934-020-00996-9

Mäkilä, E, Anton Willmore, A, Yu, H, Irri, M, Aindow, M, Teesalu, T, Canham, LT, Kolasinski, KW & Salonen, J 2019, 'Hierarchical nanostructuring of porous silicon with electrochemical and regenerative electroless etching', ACS Nano, vol. 13, no. 11, pp. 13056-13064. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.9b05740

Sola-Rabada, A, Sahare, P, Hickman, GJ, Vasquez, M, Canham, LT, Perry, CC & Agarwal, V 2018, 'Biogenic porous silica and silicon sourced from Mexican Giant Horsetail (Equisetum myriochaetum) and their application as supports for enzyme immobilization', Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, vol. 166, pp. 195-202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfb.2018.02.047

Zakar, A, Wu, R, Chekulaev, D, Zerova, V, He, W, Canham, L & Kaplan, A 2018, 'Carrier dynamics and surface vibration-assisted Auger recombination in porous silicon', Physical Review B, vol. 97, 155203. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.155203

Tian, Y, Flewitt, AJ, Canham, LT & Coffer, JL 2018, 'In vitro dissolution behviour of hydrogenaed amorphous silicon hin film transistors', npj Materials Degradation, vol. 2, no. 1, 41. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41529-018-0063-0

Kaplan, A, Canham, L, Wu, R & Yurkevich, I 2018, 'Reconstructing charge-carrier dynamics in porous silicon membranes from time-resolved interferometric measurements', Scientific Reports, vol. 8, 17172. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-35210-z

Wu, R, Collins, J, Canham, L & Kaplan, A 2018, 'The influence of quantum confinement on third-order nonlinearities in porous silicon thin films', Applied Sciences (Switzerland), vol. 8, no. 10, 1810, pp. 1810. https://doi.org/10.3390/app8101810

Park, SJ, Zakar, A, Zerova, VL, Chekulaev, D, Canham, LT & Kaplan, A 2016, 'All-optical modulation in Mid-Wavelength Infrared using porous Si membranes', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, 30211. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep30211

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