Physics Honors students Ustun Sunay and Alex Skinner have been selected to give oral presentations of their undergraduate honors research at the Eleventh Annual University of Alabama System Honor Research Day on Friday, April 13th, on the Tuscaloosa campus. Their abstracts were 17 out of 51 selected for oral presentations. Professors Mary Ellen Zvanut and Renato Camata are their honors research advisors.

Ustun's research is studying the activation and passivation of Mg in AlGaN alloys through a series of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements of the hydrogen interaction with Mg in these alloys as a function of thermal anneals. The data suggest that the rate of passivation and activation of Mg depends on the mole fraction of Al in the AlxGa1-xN. This newfound trend may prove to be beneficial in improving the annealing process of AlGaN alloys to optimize p-type conductivity.