Research

Design, Image, and Functionalize Quantum Nanomaterials

Rational Design of Quantum Nanomaterials 

It is one of the dreams of materials science to synthesize compounds by arranging atoms in arbitrary positions instead of conventional chemical synthesis. This dream has been partially realized over the past decades, thanks to the developments of van der Waals heterostructures and thin film growth through molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).
    We stack/grow atomically thin quantum materials layer-by-layer to design artificial heterostructures.This allows us to alter the material's symmetry and introduce long-range spatial modulation through moiré superlattices. Our primary interest lies in realizing unconventional ferroelectricity, nontrivial topology, and strongly-correlated phases of matter. Going beyond, this design flexibility  provides access to an unexplored parameter space of materials, likely leading to unprecedented emergent phenomena.
    We are also enthusiastic about expanding the capability of physical assembly approach to create hybrid heterostructures made of MBE-grown thin film and 2D materials.
Science (2021) / Science (2017) / Nat. Rev. Phys (2019) /Nature Commun (2019) / PRL (2017)



Nanoscale Imaging and Manipulation 

Nanoscale imaging tools are essential for accurately characterizing spatially-varying properties of quantum materials. We employ various scanning probe microscopy techniques to visualize and manipulate the physical properties of materials, including moiré superlattices, chemical potential, ferroelectricity, and magnetism. We are also interested in developing a unique imaging tool that allows us to extract both real-space and momentum-space information about electronic systems.
Science (2017) / Science (2021) / Nature Nanotech. (2022)

Functional Devices and Application

We believe that breakthroughs in technology arise in an unprecedented manner from basic research. We address problems in the computation and energy domains by applying nanofabrication technologies to van der Waals heterostructures and thin-film heterostructures. Our objective is to incorporate unconventional materials into electrical devices, aiming to realize spintronic, ferroelectronic, nonreciprocal, and superconducting devices that surpass the limitations of traditional semiconductors. By integrating knowledge and expertise from physics, materials science, and electrical engineering, we seek to prototype proof-of-concept devices for non-volatile information storage, neuromorphic computation, and quantum information processing.
Science (2021) / PRL (2017) / PRL (2016) / Nature Nanotech. (2020)