Speaker: Stephen M. Wu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of Rochester

Title: Strain engineering 2D quantum materials

Abstract:

Strain engineering in electronics has been widely utilized over the last 20 years to enhance carrier mobility in most standard Si-based CMOS fabrication processes. These process-induced strain engineering techniques, engineered from the nanofabrication process itself, are simple, reliable, applied device-to-device, and highly scalable down to the nanometer scale. In this talk, I will introduce our groups work in exploring how process-induced strain engineering translates to the world of 2D materials, and how this may be applied to engineer quantum materials properties. Control over the strain degree-of-freedom in 2D materials opens new pathways for exploration in engineered quantum materials, since strain in weakly-bonded 2D systems can go far beyond strain-engineering in conventional 3D-bonded materials. This will be discussed in the context of three different ongoing projects in our group: 2D straintronic phase-change transistors/memristors, moiré superlattice engineering with strain in twisted bilayer 2D heterostructures, and strain-controllable edge state superconductivity in 2D topological Weyl semimetals.