SPIE Presents Green Photonics Awards at Photonics West

To recognize innovative research in the advancement of green photonics for lighting, manufacturing, computing and energy, SPIE presented Green Photonics Awards to the top papers in each of four categories last week at Photonics West in San Francisco.

Steve Eglash of Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University and chairman of the Green Photonics virtual conference at Photonics West, presented the awards.

Awards included:

• Laser-Assisted Manufacturing and Micro/Nano Fabrication: “Femtosecond laser doping and nanostructuring of silicon for photovoltaics (PV),” by Benjamin Franta, Meg-Ju Sher, Yu-Ting Lin, Katherine C. Phillips and Eric Mazur of Harvard University for the development of advanced technologies for novel PV elements.

• Solid-State Lighting and Displays: “Infrared excited Yb: Er: Y202S phosphors with intense emission for lighting applications,” by Gangadharan Ajith Kumar, Madhab Pokhrel and Dhiraj K. Sardar of the University of Texas at San Antonio for the development of advanced technologies for the possible application in infrared-excited LEDs, lasers and displays.

• Communications: “Energy-efficient VCSELs for ‘green’ data and computer communication,” by Philip Moser, Philip Wolf, Gunter Larisch, Alexey Payusov, Gerrit Fiol, Werner Hofmann and Dieter Bimberg of Technische University Berlin, and James A. Lott and Nikolay N. Ledentsov of VI Systems GmbH for the development in advanced technologies for energy-efficient light sources for data transmission.

• Renewable Energy Generation-Fusion and Photovoltaics: “Simulations of solar cell enhancement using whispering-gallery modes of dielectric nanospheres,” by Jonathan Grandidier, Dennis M. Callahan Jr., Michael G. Deceglie, Jeremy N. Munday and Harry A. Atwater Jr. of California Institute of Technology for the development of advanced technologies for the enhancement of solar cell performance.

“Photonics pervades all areas of modern life,” Eglash said. “These awards recognize innovative research with the potential to advance new solar power systems, solid-state lighting for homes and businesses, faster and more capable computer networks, and many other technologies.”

The awarded papers were among more than 50 highlighted in the Green Photonics virtual conference. The conference featured panel discussions on technologies to reduce energy consumption as well as the technical presentations.

The papers are now published and may be found in the SPIE digital library.

For more information, visit: www.spie.org