The award was sponsored by AIXTRON, a market leader in MOVPE tool manufacturing and related technologies. Sundaram is on the research faculty at Georgia Tech-Lorraine and an adjunct faculty member in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). He leads the MOVPE growth-based activity in ECE Professor Abdallah Ougazzaden’s research group, which is focused on wide bandgap materials and nanostructure for opto-electronic applications.

Sundaram was recognized for his paper entitled “Selective Area van der Waals Epitaxial Growth of III-N Device Structures on Lateral Quality Controlled 2D h-BN.” This work is devoted to a Metalorganic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE) growth study of III-N based device structures such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) on layered h-BN realized on patterned sapphire substrates. Supported by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (the French equivalent of the National Science Foundation in the United States), this research would have direct applications in industry for flexible displays, wearable sensors, and InGaN-based tandem solar cells.

Sundaram’s coauthors on the paper are Taha Ayari and Jean Paul Salvestrini of GT-Lorraine and GT-CNRS UMI 2958; Abdallah Ougazzaden, Soufiane Karrakchou, and Paul L. Voss of the School of ECE at Georgia Tech; and Adama Mballo, Phuong Vuong, and Yacine Halfaya of GT-CNRS UMI 2958. Patterning and device fabrication were carried out at Institut Lafayette, a platform promoting technology transfer and innovation in the optoelectronics sector.