Prof. Deji Akinwande [The University of Texas at Austin, USA]

Title: Stressing Out 2D Materials under Extreme Pressures and Strains

Time: 10:00 - 11:00 AM, Monday, August 1, 2016

Place: Auditorium Room 410, HPSTAR (Shanghai)

Abstract:

Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials have attracted broad interest owing to their outstanding properties that includes electronics, photonics, and mechanics. In this work, we discuss the current progress in the basic studies of 2D materials under strain and pressure. We find that strain or pressure engineering can be used to tune the opto-electro-mechanical properties including electronic phase transitions, structural phase transition, bandgap tuning, direct to indirect gap transition, and 2D to 3D reconfiguration. In the extremes of pressure, superconductivity emerges at low temperatures. Our investigation covers several members of the 2D family including transitional metal dichalcogenides, black phosphorus and 2D heterostructures.

Biography of the Speaker:

Prof. Deji Akinwande received the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2009, where he conducted research on the synthesis, device physics, and circuit applications of carbon nanotubes and graphene. His Master’s research in Applied Physics at Case Western Reserve University pioneered the design and development of near-field microwave probe tips for nondestructive imaging and studies of materials.

He is the Jack Kilby/TI Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Prof. Akinwande has been honored with the 2016 Presidential PECASE award, the inaugural IEEE Nano Geim and Novoselov Graphene Prize, the IEEE “Early Career Award” in Nanotechnology, the NSF CAREER award, the Army and DTRA Young Investigator awards, the 3M Nontenured Faculty Award, and was a past recipient of fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Stanford DARE Initiative. He recently co-authored a textbook on carbon nanotubes and graphene device physics by Cambridge University Press, 2011. His recent results on silicene have been featured online by nature news, Time magazine among other media outlets. His work on flexible 2D electronics was selected as among the "best of 2012" by the nanotechweb news portal and has been featured on MIT's technology review and other technical media outlets. He is a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Electron Device Society and an Editor for the IEEE Electron Device Letters.

Prof. Akinwande just won the White House Young Scientist (PECASE) Award this year and was greeted by President Obama at the White House. This is the most pretigious award given to a young scientist in the United States.