Xin Li received the Best Paper Award at Photoptics 2015, the Third International Conference on Photonics, Optics, and Laser Technology, held March 12-14 in Berlin, Germany. A Ph.D. student in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), Li is advised by Abdallah Ougazzaden, and she is based at Georgia Tech-Lorraine.

The title of the award-winning paper is “BAlGaN-based Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser Operating in Deep UV Region.” In addition to Ougazzaden, Li’s coauthors on the paper are Suresh Sundaram, Pierre Disseix, Sophie Bouchoule, Gilles Le Gac, Gilles Patriarche, François Réveret, Joel Leymarie, Youssef El Gmili, Jeremy Streque, Frederic Genty, Jean-Paul Salvestrini, Paul Voss, and Russell Dupuis. All of her coauthors represent the School of ECE (either based in Atlanta or at Georgia Tech-Lorraine in Metz, France), the UMI 2958 Georgia Tech CNRS, Institut Pascal UMR 6602 CNRS, LPN CNRS, Supélec, and/or Université de Lorraine.

Li’s thesis work is supported by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (the French equivalent of the National Science Foundation in the United States), which aims to demonstrate the first vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) operating in the deep UV region that can be used in medical and environmental applications. This paper reports the promising results already achieved regarding the surface-emission enhanced multiple quantum wells and MOVPE growth study for new BAlN materials with applications in high-reflective distributive Bragg mirrors for deep UV wavelengths, which lay the foundation for final RC-LEDs and VCSELs.