Xin Li won the Young Scientist Award at the 2014 European Materials Research Society Meeting, held May 26-30 in Lille, France.

Based at Georgia Tech-Lorraine (GT-L), Li is a Ph.D. student in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and is advised by Abdallah Ougazzaden, an ECE professor and director of GT-L.

Li was recognized for her paper, "BAlN Thin Layers for Deep UV Applications," which she coauthored with Suresh Sundaram, Youssef El Gmili, and Tarik Moudakir of the CNRS UMI 2958; Frédéric Genty and Ouarda Legrani of the Université of Lorraine; Russ Dupuis, ECE professor at the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta; Paul Voss, ECE associate professor at GT-L; Jean Paul Salvestrini of the CNRS UMI 2958 and the Université of Lorraine; and Ougazzaden.

This work is devoted to a Metalorganic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE) growth study of boron aluminum nitride (BAlN) materials and the remarkable progress made toward improving crystalline quality and extending the limit of boron incorporation. 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 the first vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) operating in the deep UV region that can be used in medical and environmental applications.

These promising results achieved advance prospects for MOVPE-grown boron alloys, which can offer extremely large freedom for band gap, strain engineering with tailoring of refractive index for III-nitrides-based devices, including short wavelength optoelectronics and high power, high frequency electronics.