Timothy D. Sands (left),director of Purdue's Birck Nanotechnology Center in Discovery Park, and a graduate student operate a "reactor" in work, which deposits gallium nitride on silicon at temperatures of about 1,000 degrees Celsius.

Timothy D. Sands (left),director of Purdue's Birck Nanotechnology Center in Discovery Park, and a graduate student operate a "reactor" in work, which deposits gallium nitride on silicon at temperatures of about 1,000 degrees Celsius.