Keji Lai
University of Texas at Austin, TX·Physics
Many technologies depend on what happens when light hits a material: solar cells, light detectors, LEDs, and possibly future memory chips. The lab uses electrical measurements at very small scales to study new two-dimensional (2D) materials, crystals only one or a few atoms thick.
- Fields
Physics
Materials Science
Engineering
- Topics
excitons
trions
two-dimensional materials
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Measure the effective permittivity of excitons in monolayer semiconductors using cryogenic laser-illuminated microwave impedance microscopy, a scanning probe that senses local electrical response under light.
- Visualize the transport and diffusion of excitons and trions in 2D monolayers and heterostructures, and compare the electrical properties of excitons within one layer to those spanning two layers.
- Probe local properties, correlation and topology of exciton insulators and moiré excitons in twisted-layer moiré superlattices, with high spatial, temporal and spectral resolution.
- Test whether heterostructures of magnetic van der Waals layers and ferroelectric van der Waals or oxide materials show strongly enhanced magnetoelectric coupling, using machine-learning predictions validated by synthesis and characterization.
More about the research
It examines both how these materials respond to light and how their electric and magnetic properties can be combined.
Why it matters
Understanding how excitons move and break apart in atom-thin semiconductors could help engineers design better solar cells, photodetectors and light-emitting devices from 2D materials, including devices that work under intense light. Artificial multiferroics with strong magnetoelectric coupling could enable compact, power-saving memory and low-power electronics in which a voltage controls magnetism.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Christian Binek
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE·Physics
Engineer interfaces in oxide and van der Waals layered stacks to control magnetic and electric order, defects and spin textures, aiming at memristive devices and neuromorphic, brain-inspired computing.
Conrad Ingram
Clark Atlanta University, GA·Materials Science
Use theoretical calculations to predict mechanisms and guide the design of oxide-oxide interfaces in which electric fields control magnetism, aiming for higher magnetoelectric coefficients at room temperature.
Leonid Butov
University of California-San Diego, CA·Physics
Study spin transport carried by indirect excitons, electron-hole pairs split across separate semiconductor layers, using optical measurements in layered heterostructures.
The school
University of Texas at Austin: 49 labs on PI Pages, $1.1B a year on research, 871 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.