The Center for E3S is expanding its research in semiconductors based on two-dimensional chalcogenides and graphene nanoribbons with the expectation that both materials are intrinsically amenable to have defect levels significantly lower than the semiconductor materials in use today. Two new faculty members, Steven Louie, Professor of Physics at UC Berkeley, and Jing Kong, GNR team chalcogenide team Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT, are joining in support of these technical emphases in the Nanoelectronics research theme.

Professor Steven Louie, an expert in theoretical condensed matter physics and nanoscience, will lend his simulation and modeling expertise to the bottom-up graphene nanoribbon semiconductor-based research efforts. He will join the Center’s synthetic organic chemists, Professor Felix Fischer, UC Berkeley and Professor Timothy Swager, MIT, who are exploring experimental approaches for fabricating graphene nanoribbons to have electronic properties for milli-volt switching.

Professor Jing Kong, an authority on monolayer semiconductor synthesis, will join Professor Ali Javey, who pioneered the Center’s efforts on two-dimensional chalcogenide materials and device research. The November 2015 publication in Science of Professors Javey and Eli Yablonovitch on a successfully treating chalcogenide materials chemically to control defects further affirmed the Center’s research direction. While practically all experimental research efforts in chalcogenides are based on micron-sized samples, Professor Kong has been working on synthesis of large area and high quality chalcogenide materials.

Professor Eli Yablonovitch, E3S Center Director and leader of the Nanoelectronics research theme, noted: “One key achievement of the E3S Nanoelectronics theme is the recognition of the importance of material perfection in the realization of milli-volt switching. The research of Professor Kong will be a bridge to the practical application of chalcogenides as a materials platform for semiconductors. The basic understanding of the influence of structural modifications and dopants on the properties of graphene nanoribbons systems derived from Professor Louie’s theoretical studies will have immediate impact on the synthetic efforts of Professors Fischer and Swager.”