Nan Jiang
University of Illinois Chicago, IL·Chemistry·Early-career
What happens when a single molecule sits on a surface, or when a material is only one atom thick? Answering this requires seeing both where atoms are and how their bonds vibrate, at scales smaller than a nanometer.
- Fields
Chemistry
Materials Science
Physics
- Topics
scanning tunneling microscopy
tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
borophene
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Image vibrational modes and electron-phonon coupling in borophene, a one-atom-thick boron sheet, with STM-TERS at about 5-ångström resolution to map strain, defects and doping.
- Chemically modify borophene with oxygen, combine it with organic molecules, and build stacked 2D van der Waals heterostructures to study how charge and lattice interact.
- Determine how individual organic molecules bind to specific sites on solid surfaces and align with neighbors, using ångström-scale Raman line profiles and 2D maps from STM-TERS.
- Uncover the elementary steps of forming and breaking chemical bonds in surface-supported nanostructures, combining STM-TERS measurements with quantum mechanics calculations.
More about the research
This research combines two tools to do that. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images individual atoms with a sharp metal tip. Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) uses light scattered at that tip to read the vibrations of chemical bonds. Together they reach about 5-ångström spatial resolution, which is less than a nanometer. The lab applies this STM-TERS method to two-dimensional materials and to molecules bound to surfaces.
Why it matters
Knowing how atomic-scale structure controls the properties of borophene and other 2D materials could help engineers tune them for flexible electronics, photonics, sensors and energy harvesting. Detailed pictures of how single molecules bond to surfaces may guide the design of atom- and energy-efficient materials and molecular assemblies.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Suneel Kumar Kodambaka
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, VA·Materials Science
Test whether atoms landing on van der Waals surfaces such as hexagonal boron nitride move faster than on conventional 3D solids, using in situ variable-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy during film growth.
Maria Kamenetska
Boston University, MA·Chemistry·Early-career
Build an all-optical microscope that uses optical tweezers to hold single molecules between two gold nanoparticles in solution. Test whether darkfield and Raman light signals reveal charge transport without force damage.
Keji Lai
University of Texas at Austin, TX·Physics
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.
The school
University of Illinois Chicago: 42 labs on PI Pages, $532M a year on research, 359 research doctorates a year.
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