Chuan Zhao - Research Highlight May 2017
Fourth-year PhD Student - Hao Zeng Group
Notable recent achievements:
- Zhao, Norden, Zhang et al. “Enhanced valley splitting in monolayer WSe2 due to magnetic exchange field”, Nature Nanotechnology (2017) doi:10.1038/nnano.2017.68
- Perera, Hui, Zhao et al. “Chalcogenide perovskites – an emerging class of ionic semiconductors”, Nano Energy 22, 129-135 (2016)
- Departmental Fellowship Winner 2017
Research Highlight:
I am working on valley control in two dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDs). Using the exchange field from a magnetic substrate, we achieved more than an order of magnitude enhancement in valley exciton splitting in monolayer TMDs. I also work on tuning the sign of valley splitting, which is not possible using external magnetic fields. Breaking valley degeneracy allows to control valley polarization by an electric field, a critical step towards vallytronics.
In addition to potential technical applications, I am interested in exploring novel physics such as anomalous valley Hall effect in these materials. It is the potential of observing exotic physics that keeps me working hard.