Postdoctorate Scholars
Dr. Yongtao Cui
I joined the Shen group as a postdoc fellow in September 2011. I received my PhD degree in Applied Physics from Cornell University. My PhD work was focused on studies of magnetic dynamics in a nanomagnet excited by transfer of the spin angular momentum from itinerant electrons. I am now working on the Microwave Impedance Microscopy technique - using it to probe materials' dielectric properties at the nano-scale, and expanding its capacity to study even richer physics.
Dr. Wei Li
I am currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Shen Group and I joined the lab in the autumn of 2012. I received my BS degree and Ph.D. degree in Physics from Tsinghua University, China. During my Ph.D., I focused on the MBE-growth and in-situ low-temperature STM measurements of iron-based superconductor and topological insulator thin films. My current research interests lie in the observation of strongly-correlated electron materials in momentum space via high-resolution ARPES experiments. I am also very interested in the newly developed scanning Microwave Impedance Microscopy. With the capability of probing both the metals and insulators, it is a really powerful technique to explore the various properties of complex quantum materials.
Dr. Felix Schmitt
I received a Diplom from the Julius-Maximilians-Universitt Wrzburg in Germany in 2006. I was doing PES on the Kondo system CeSi2 then. I have always been fascinated with solid state physics and how systems with a vast amount of particles and countless interactions and correlations sometimes organize themselves to such a high degree that description and understanding is actually possible, and so I continue by pursuing a PhD degree in Stanford in a very similar area: Complementary to the p-doped cuprate high transition temperature superconductors --- as studied by my fellow team mates ---, the e-doped ones have a very similar doping-temperature phase diagram. I am fascinated by the question of how much of the underlying physics of those two is the same. ARPES for me is the most direct and elegant probe to learn more about these e-doped cuprates, like NCCO, PCCO, etc.
Dr. Hao Yan
I am currently a joint postdoctoral fellow between Shen and Melosh labs. I received my Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard in 2010. From 2010 to 2011 I was a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard under advisory of Charles Lieber. My current research focuses on the materials science of diamondoids- essentially molecular-scale diamond. Our unique capability to separate, chemically functionalize and assemble these molecules offers an ideal playground for materials scientists to study the properties of diamond and diamond-like structures at the nanometer scale. My current interest lies on the photoemission and electron-phonon interaction in diamondoids and their hybrid structures; in the long term I am also interested in understanding their thermal, mechanical and electronic properties, as well as their applications.
Dr. Yongliang Yang
I joined the Shen group in October 2010. I received a B. S. degree in Physics from Peking University of China in 2005 and Ph. D in Microelectronics from Chinese Academy of Science in China in 2010. I am currently working on scanning Microwave Impedance Microscopy (MIM). This technique probes local dielectric and conductivity information of materials. Our goals are batch fabricating the micro-cantilever tips for MIM and improving the sensitivity and resolution of the technique. I also study ferroelectric materials and Metal Insulator Transition materials.
Dr. Yan Zhang
My research interest is to study the novel phenomena in condensed matter systems, including high-Tc superconductivity, charge-density wave, orbital ordering, magnetic ordering, etc. I am interested in utilizing the angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) technique to study the exotic electronic structures of these materials. Together with the ultra-thin film and single crystal growth techniques, I would like to unveil the unconventional many-body interactions in these materials and to understand how the delicate balance between them could be responsible for emergent phenomena in condensed matter systems. The results could further provide solid experimental foundations for searching and understanding new functional materials.
