Events

Structural design of 2D materials for electronic and optoelectronic applications

May 19, 2015 at 4:30 pm/36-428

Ju Li
Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Department of Materials Science and Engineering

abstract
In accordance with Richard Feynman’s 1959 statement, “there’s plenty of room at the bottom,” we explore the structural design space of 2D materials for electronic and optoelectronic applications. Homogenous and inhomogeneous elastic strain [Nature Photonics 6 (2012) 866; MRS Bulletin 39 (2014) 108], bending [ACS Nano 5 (2011) 3475], interlayer twist [Nano Letters 14 (2014) 5350] and slip [Nano Letters 15 (2015) 1302] lead to tunable, low-energy artificial atoms, artificial superlattices and pseudoheterostructures that can regulate quasiparticle motion (excitons [Adv. Mater. 26 (2014) 2572], electrons). The amenability of 2D materials for mechanical manipulations, combined with lithographic patterning and annealing [Nanoscale 4 (2012) 4883; PNAS 106 (2009) 10103] could lead to new topological physics [Science 346 (2014) 1344] and device designs.

bio
Ju Li is BEA Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. His group (http://Li.mit.edu) performs computational and experimental research on mechanical properties of materials, and energy storage and conversion. Ju obtained a PhD degree in nuclear engineering from MIT in 2000, and Bachelor’s degree in Physics from University of Science and Technology of China in 1994. He is a recipient of the 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, 2006 MRS Outstanding Young Investigator Award, and 2007 TR35 award from Technology Review magazine. Thomson Reuters included Ju in its Highly Cited Researchers list in 2014, among 147 scientists world-wide in the Materials Science category. Ju was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2014.