You Zhou
University of Maryland, MD·Physics·Early-career
Just as vapor can freeze into a solid crystal, electrons in a material can arrange themselves into a regular pattern at low temperatures, forming a Wigner crystal. This was predicted more than 80 years ago, but it is hard to create and observe.
- Fields
Physics
Materials Science
Engineering
- Topics
Wigner crystal
electron crystallization
two-dimensional materials
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Fabricate coupled bilayers of transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductors and test how their atomic structure and stacking affect the stability of Wigner crystals, ordered patterns of electrons.
- Develop quantitative methods to measure the lattice structure and motion of electrons in the Wigner crystal phase.
- Use electrical control to melt electron crystals through quantum fluctuations and explore new correlated phases such as electron glasses.
More about the research
Two-dimensional (2D) materials only a few atoms thick offer a new way to study it. Stacking these sheets in different combinations and orientations strongly changes how their electrons behave.
Why it matters
Understanding how electron crystals form and melt in stacked atom-thin semiconductors adds basic knowledge about strongly interacting electrons. Electrically controlled transitions between these electron phases could eventually inform new electronic, optoelectronic and quantum computing and communication devices.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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.
Wanyi Nie
University at Buffalo, NY·Materials Science
Grow and characterize heterostructures of chiral hybrid perovskites and 2D transition metal dichalcogenides to study interlayer excitons, electron–hole pairs spanning the interface.
Yusong Bai
Brown University, RI·Physics·Early-career
Establish correlated electronic states and electric-field-controlled metal-insulator transitions in heterostructures where ordered nanocrystal superlattices impose periodic potentials on atomically thin materials, using low-temperature electrical transport.
The school
University of Maryland: 49 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 602 research doctorates a year.
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