Graduate Students
Will Clay
I am a graduate student in Physics and I joined the Shen group in the summer of 2006. I am currently working on a project to research and develop Diamondoids, which are molecular crystals of diamond-like hydrocarbons. Little is known about the properties of the larger Diamondoids, so we are currently pursuing many different avenues of research on them. Possible applications include superconductivity, nano-scale devices, and field emission electronics. I find this project interesting because it enables me to do work in a broad range of disciplines including chemistry, material science, and electronics, while still being able to do pure physics research.
Zhuoluo (Albert) Feng
I am a graduate student in the Applied Physics department. I obtained my B.S. degree from Tsinghua University in China and then joined the group in 2009. I am currently working on copper oxide superconductors, a system simple in structure but rich in physics. The central problem is the nature of superconducting and pseudo gaps and their interactions, which I will study using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. In addition to intriguing fundamental sciences, I am also interested in applying my knowledge in condensed matter physics to solving the energy crisis we are facing today.
Yu He
My current research includes photon emission spectroscopy studies in High Tc superconductors, specifically LSCO and Bi2212 system in cuprates, and 122 family in pnictides. In these systems, the scenario of how Mott insulator melts into superconductors and how two-gap feature influences superconductivity are mostly addressed. Other general interests include but are not confined to: spin resolved ARPES, topological order, transport under magnetic field, long range order in solids; drama, Ruan/guitar, song-writing, long-range jogging, hiking and doodle. I joined Stanford Applied Physics department and later on the Shen Group in Fall 2010, shortly after graduation from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC/0600) in the summer.
Hitoshi Ishiwata
I am a first year PhD student in the Electrical Engineering department. I joined the Shen group in autumn 2008. I received a BS and MS from Waseda University in Japan. I am working on growth and electrical application of diamond. Diamond's hardness and sparkle make it popular as jewelry, but it also has a huge potential for electrical application such as room-temperature superconductivity, quantum computing, next generation solar cell (PETE project), spintronics and wide bandgap power devices. Its exceptional properties such as superconductivity and negative electron affinity is not yet fully understood. My goal as graduate student is to reveal those mechanisms by developing growth techniques and studying electrical applications. Diamond is also available in the nano form--diamondoids--so the properties of diamond can be studied in detail from micro scale down to nano scale for exciting unexplored physics.
Worasom Fern Kundhikanjana
I am a graduate student in the Applied Physics Department. I join the Shen group in summer 2007. I received a BS from Brown University. I am working on developing a Near Field Microwave Microscope. This technique probes the electrical properties of a material, i.e. the dielectric constant and conductivity. Our primary goals are improving the sensitivity of the technique and looking for possible applications such as studying ferro electric material, nano particles in biological system, and system with a first order phase transition near room temperature.
James (JJ) Lee
My overall research goals focus on materials with novel electronic and magnetic properties. I enrolled in the applied physics department of Stanford in the fall of 2009 after graduating from UC Berkeley in the spring. I then joined the Shen group in the summer of 2010. My current interests are in thin films and interfaces, especially those of transition metal oxides. The properties of films are often vastly different from those of the bulk, and hence they have both promising applications as well as interesting physics. In addition to traditional ARPES, I am interested in the development and use of new techniques to probe electronic and spin structure, such as RIXS and spin-resolved ARPES.
Zhongkai Liu
I am currently a graduate student in physics department and I received my BS degree in Tsinghua University, China. Now I'm working on developing the new time- and spin- resolved photoemission spectrometer. With the capability of detecting electron spins, I'm looking forward to study novel systems such as magnetic material and spin-orbit coupling system. And also, with the time resolution, we will be able to study system's dynamical behavior, which would lead us to some really interesting physics problems.
Yue (Eric) Ma
I received my BS degree in Physics from Peking University before I joined the Applied Physics department of Stanford University in 2010. I have a very broad interest in physics while now I'm mostly fascinated by the various quantum phases in correlated systems. Currently I'm working on Microwave Impedance Microscopy which has the capability of mapping local complex dielectric constant with a spatial resolution of ~50nm. Hopefully I could use this powerful tool to study the detailed dynamics of phase transition in real space. As an outdoor lover, I enjoy hiking, biking and tuning my bike and camping gears a lot. I'm also a big fan of film soundtracks. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Dan Riley
I received my BSE in engineering physics from Case Western Reserve University in 2008. I am currently a PhD student in the Physics department, and I joined the Shen group in 2008. I work on the Photon Enhanced Thermionic Emission (PETE) project, which is a scheme to increase the energy conversion efficiency of thermionic devices to be implemented as topping cycles for solar thermal systems. A PETE device combines the photoelectric effect and thermionic emission in a synergistic fashion. A solar thermal system in tandem with a PETE device has potential to be groundbreaking, efficient and economically viable solar energy conversion system. I greatly enjoy the diversity of expertise that the development of such a device requires. I have a strong interest in the wide scale implementation of renewable energy sources, from their initial scientific development to the creation of a device that is economically and environmentally beneficial. My goal as a graduate student is to advance our knowledge in solar energy conversion to benefit mankind.
Jared Schwede
I am a graduate student in the department of physics, and I began work in the Shen lab in 2008. I am interested in photoexcitation with an eye towards energy applications. The Shen group is intimately familiar with the processes of photoexcitation and photoemission. My hope is to apply this enormous expertise to gain unique insight into novel solar energy designs.
Jonathan Sobota
I graduated from Cornell University
in 2007 with a BS in Engineering Physics. I'm now a
graduate student in the Department of Physics. I'm
fascinated by the way in which the countless constituents
of matter, and the interactions between them, conspire
to give a material its macroscopic properties-- not
only properties that we're familiar with, but also
exotic and counterintuitive properties. My goals for
future work include:
1) to use photoemission to study magnetic materials and
the high-temperature superconductors; and
2) to help advance the technology used to probe these
materials. Currently, I'm contributing to the development
of our time- and spin- resolved spectrometer
Inna Vishik
I am a graduate student in the Applied Physics department, and I joined the Shen lab in 2007. My interests lie in strongly-correlated transition metal oxides, and in particular, the cuprate high-temperature superconductors. I am using ARPES, particularly high-resolution laser-ARPES, to study the rich physics found in the cuprate superconductor Bi-2212 including strong electron-boson coupling, superconductivity, and the pseudogap state above Tc.
Shuolong Yang
I am a graduate student in the Applied Physics Department. I am always fascinated by the fact that the fundamental rules of physics govern the novel behaviors of materials and predict new generation of technologies. Ultrafast time-domain spectroscopies therefore attracts my attention, since it allows a direct measurement of the non-equilibrium dynamics. I am currently working on the development of Time- and Angle-Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy, and hoping it will help us understand the rich physics in a wide variety of materials including hight Tc superconductors and the newly discovered topological insulators.
Ming Yi
I am a graduate student in the physics department. I joined the Shen group in the spring of 2008. When I was an undergraduate at MIT, I studied the high Tc cuprate BSCO using STM, and have since been very fascinated by the high level of ordering in strongly correlated systems and the wide range of unusual and exotic properties that arise. I am now using ARPES to probe and study electron dynamics and ordering phenomena in rich systems such as the newly discovered iron pnictide superconductors, and to contribute to piecing together the larger picture that is fundamental to all these correlated systems.
