Welcome to the web page of UMass Optoelectronics Lab on 2D Materials. We are a research group working in the field of experimental condensed matter physics.   Of particular interest to us are the properties of fundamental excitations confined to crystals that are atomically thin. There are many types of such two-dimensional crystals. One prominent example is graphene, a single atomic layer of graphite (Nobel Prize in Physics 2010), whose unique electronic, thermal, mechanical, vibrational and optical properties have attracted worldwide interests from physicists, chemists and engineers. Another fascinating class is transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC). The rich polymorphism and the large variety of composition choice make TMDC a highly versatile system that can be semiconductors, semimetals or metals, supporting charge density waves, superconductivity, non-trivial topology and Berry curvature.

At UMass Amherst we employ the state-of-the-art nanofabrication technologies to design and construct mesoscopic devices made from these 2D crystals.  The response of fundamental excitations confined to the atomic layers at variable temperature, electric and magnetic fields are then explored.   Both optical and transport measurement methods are being developed in our lab which provide powerful tool sets for unveiling the intrinsic 2D material properties. Such endeavors may bring forth promising impacts on future nanotechnologies. One example is our recent work on graphene hot electron bolometers and graphene TeraHertz thermoelectric detector where we found that graphene has superior capabilities in retaining electronic energy from being passed to other degrees of freedom, making it a very sensitive light sensor over a large photon energy range.  The technological prospect of these discoveries have been covered by various press releases (physicsworld, the spie newsroom, nanotechweb, Optics & Photonics News). For more thorough description of our curent reserach projects, please see Reserach.