Taha Ayari won the Young Scientist Award at the 2018 European Materials Research Society Meeting, held June 18-22 in Strasbourg, France. Based at Georgia Tech-Lorraine (GT-L), Ayari is a Ph.D. student in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and is advised by Abdallah Ougazzaden, an ECE professor and GT-L director.

Ayari was recognized for his paper, “Van der Waal Epitaxy investigation of GaN-based materials on 2D h-BN by MOVPE for high performance opto-electronic devices.” This work is devoted to a Metalorganic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE) growth study of GaN-based materials on 2D h-BN. Supported by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (the French equivalent of the National Science Foundation in the United States), this project aims to demonstrate high performance nitride-based flexible optoelectronics that can be used in LEDs, solar cells, and high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs). This research would also have direct applications in flexible displays, wearable sensors, and InGaN-based tandem solar cells.

Ayari’s coauthors on the paper were Ougazzaden; Suresh Sundaram and Jean Paul Salvestrini, of GT-L and GT-CNRS UMI 2958, a lab focusing on research in non-linear optics and dynamics, smart materials, and computer science; Saiful Alam and Paul Voss, of the School of ECE at Georgia Tech and GT-CNRS UMI 2958; Adama Mballo and Yacine Halfaya, of GT-CNRS UMI 2958; and Simon Gautier, of Institut Lafayette, an organization promoting technology transfer from GT-L research labs and transatlantic industrial research and development opportunities in the optoelectronics sector.