BELLINGHAM, Washington, USA -- Innovative research in photonics for green energy sources, efficient lighting, laser-assisted manufacturing, and computing will be recognized with Green Photonics Awards at SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco next week.

Steve Eglash (Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford University), chair of the Green Photonics virtual conference at Photonics West, will present awards to the top papers in each of four categories.

"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. These are vitally important elements in the strategy to move toward more energy efficiency and improved living conditions around the world. Photonics, with its interdisciplinary nature, has enormous capability to drive such improvements. The winners of the Green Photonics Awards and others presenting in this virtual conference at Photonics West are leading the way toward a better future."

Awards include:

• Laser-assisted Manufacturing and Micro/Nano Fabrication, to "Femtosecond laser doping and nanostructuring of silicon for photovoltaics" by Benjamin Franta, Meng-Ju Sher, Yu-Ting Lin, Katherine C. Phillips, and Eric Mazur (Harvard University), for pioneering contributions in the development of advanced technologies for novel photovoltaic elements.
• Solid State Lighting and Displays, to "Infrared excited Yb: Er: Y₂O₂S phosphors with intense emission for lighting applications" by Gangadharan Ajith Kumar, Madhab Pokhrel, and Dhiraj K. Sardar (University of Texas at San Antonio), for pioneering contributions in the development of advanced technologies for the possible application in infrared excited LED, lasers, and displays.
• Communications, to "Energy-efficient VCSELs for 'green' data and computer communication" by Philip Moser (Technische Univ. Berlin); James A. Lott (VI Systems GmbH); Philip Wolf, Gunter Larisch, Alexey Payusov, and Gerrit Fiol (Technische Univ. Berlin); Nikolay N. Ledentsov (VI Systems GmbH); and Werner Hofmann and Dieter Bimberg (Technische Univ. Berlin), for pioneering contributions in the development of advanced technologies for energy-efficient light sources for data transmission.
• Renewable Energy Generation: Fusion and Photovoltaics, to "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 (California Institute of Technology), for pioneering contributions in the development of advanced technologies for the enhancement of solar cell performance.

The award-winning papers are among more than 50 highlighted in the Green Photonics virtual conference. Along with the technical presentations, the virtual conference features industry executives in a panel discussion on technologies that have great potential to reduce our collective energy consumption and offer alternate energy sources within five to ten years.

Papers will be published in the SPIE Digital Library after presentation. The SPIE Digital Library contains more than 325,000 articles from SPIE Journals and Conference Proceedings, with approximately 18,000 new research papers added each year.

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, was founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. Serving more than 180,000 constituents from 168 countries, the Society advances emerging technologies through interdisciplinary information exchange, continuing education, publications, patent precedent, and career and professional growth. SPIE annually organizes and sponsors approximately 25 major technical forums, exhibitions, and education programs in North America, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific. SPIE provided over $2.5 million in support of education and outreach programs in 2011.

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