Faculty Directory

Research Interests

Aiming Yan’s research focuses on atomic-/nano-scale structural and property tailoring, and in-situ/operando study of functional materials via combined synthesis and advanced microscopy approaches. She is especially interested in precise structural design of atomically thin two-dimensional materials by using a state-of-the-art in-situ transmission electron microscope that is equipped with a sub-Angstrom electron beam. This effort enables further exploration of novel electrical and magnetic properties hosted in these nano- even atomic-sized local structures. Another main research direction Aiming is pursuing is to develop new material synthesis techniques based on chemical/physical vapor deposition methods to create novel two-dimensional materials and heterostructures with emerging physical properties.

Biography, Education and Training

2013- 2018   Postdoctoral scholar, Physics Department, University of California, Berkeley & Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

2007- 2013   Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

2003- 2007   B.S. in Materials Physics, Materials Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

Honors, Awards and Grants

2017  Microscopy & Microanalysis Postdoctoral Scholar Award by Microscopy Society of America

Selected Publications

1.    H. Long, T. Pham, A. Yan, Z. Guo, H. Ishida, W. Shi, S. Turner, M. Gilbert and A. Zettl, “Wafer-Scale On-Chip Synthesis and Field Emission Properties of Vertically Aligned Boron Nitride Based Nanofiber Arrays”, Applied Physics Letters, 114 (9), 093101, (2019)

2.    C. Jin, E. C. Regan, A. Yan, M. I. B. Utama, D. Wang, Y. Qin, S. Yang, Z. Zheng, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, S. Tongay, A. Zettl, F. Wang, “Observation of Moiré Excitons in WSe2/WS2 Heterostructure Superlattices”, Nature, doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-0976-y, (2019)

3.    A. Yan, C. S. Ong, D. Y. Qiu, C. Ophus, J. Ciston, C. Merino, S. G. Louie, A. Zettl, “Dynamics of symmetry-breaking stacking boundaries in bilayer MoS2”, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b08398, (2017)

4.    H. Barzegar*, A. Yan* (*equal contribution), S. Coh, E. Gracia-Espino, C. Ojeda-Aristizabal, G. Dunn, M. L. Cohen, S. G. Louie, T. Wågberg and A. Zettl. “Spontaneous Twisting of a Collapsed Carbon Nanotube”, Nano Research, doi:10.1007/s12274-016-1380-7, (2017)

5.    K. Yao, A. Yan, S. Kahan, A. Suslu, Y. Liang, E. S. Barnard, S. Tongay, A. Zettl, N. J. Borys, and P. J. Schuck, “Optically discriminating carrier-induced quasiparticle band gap and exciton energy renormalization in monolayer MoS2”, Physical Review Letters, 119 (8), 087401, (2017)

6.    C. Ojeda-Aristizabal, E. Santos, S. Onishi, A. Yan, H. Rasool, S. Kahn, Y. Lv, D. Latzke, J. Velasco Jr., M. Crommie, M. Sorensen, K. Gotlieb, C. Lin, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, A. Lanzara, A. Zettl, “Molecular arrangement and charge transfer in C60/graphene heterostructures”, ACS Nano, 11 (5), 4686-4693, (2017)

7.    P. Cao, P. Bai, A. A. Omrani, Y. Xiao, K. L. Meaker, H. Tsai, A. Yan, H. S. Jung, R. Khajeh, G. F. Rodgers, Y. Kim, A. S. Aikawa, A. Zettl, K. Xu, M. F. Crommie, and T. Xu, “Preventing Thin Film Dewetting via Graphene Capping”, Advanced Materials,DOI:10.1002/adma.201701536, (2017)

8.    H. Barzegar*, A. Yan* (*equal contribution), S. Coh, E. Gracia-Espino, G. Dunn, T. Wågberg, S. G. Louie, M. L. Cohen, and A. Zettl. “Electrostatically Driven Nanoballoon Actuator”, Nano Letters, 16 (11), 6787-6791, (2016)

9.    A. Yan, Y. Hua, V. P. Dravid. “Locally enhanced surface plasmons in nanoporous Au patterns and ‘hot spots’ modulated by atomically thin MoS2 with a comparison to SiO2substrate”, Applied Physics Letters,108 (9), 091901, (2016)

10.  A. Yan, W. Chen, C. Ophus, J. Ciston, Y. Lin, K. Persson, A. Zettl. “Identifying different stacking sequences in few-layer CVD-grown MoS2 by low-energy atomic-resolution STEM”, Physical Review B,93 (4), 41420 (2016)

11.  A. Yan, J. Velasco Jr, S. Kahn, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, F. Wang, M. F. Crommie, A. Zettl. “Direct growth of single-and few-layer MoS2on h-BN with preferred relative rotation angles”, Nano Letters, 15 (10), 6324–6331 (2015)

12.  X. Huang, Z. Zhao, L. Cao, Y. Chen, E. Zhu, Z. Lin, M. Li, A. Yan, A. Zettl, M. Y. Wang, X. Duan, T. Mueller, Y. Huang. “High-performance transition metal–doped Pt3Ni octahedra for oxygen reduction reaction”, Science, 348,1230-1234 (2015)

13.  H. R Barzegar, E. G. Espino, A. Yan, C. Ojeda-Aristizabal, G. Dunn, T. Wagberg, A. Zettl. “C60/Collapsed Carbon Nanotube Hybrids - A Variant of Peapods”, Nano letters 15 (2), 829-834 (2015)

14.  E. Gracia-Espino, H. R. Barzegar, T. Sharifi, A. Yan, A. Zettl, T. Wagberg. “Fabrication of One Dimensional Zig-Zag [6, 6]-Phenyl-C61-Butyric Acid Methyl Ester Nanoribbons from Two Dimensional Nanosheets”, ACS Nano9 (10), 10516-10522 (2015)

15.  K. Liu, C. Hsin, D. Fu, J. Suh, S. Tongay, M.  Chen, Y. Sun, A. Yan, J. Park,  K. M. Yu,  W. Guo, A. Zettl, H. Zheng,  D. C. Chrzan, J. Wu. “Self-passivation of defects: effects of high-energy particle irradiation on elastic modulus of multilayer graphene”, Advanced Materials, 27 (43), 6841-6847, (2015)

16. M. A. Worsley, T. T. Pham, A. Yan, S. J. Shin, J. R. I. Lee, M. Bagge-Hansen, W. Mickelson, A. Zettl. “Synthesis and Characterization of Highly Crystalline Graphene Aerogels”, ACS Nano, 8(10), 11013-11022 (2014)

17.  J. Hennek, J. Smith, A. Yan, M. Kim, W. Zhao, V. P. Dravid, A. Facchetti, T. Marks. “Oxygen ‘Getter’ Effects on Microstructure and Carrier Transport in Low Temperature Combustion-Processed Amorphous InXZnO (X = Ga, Sc, Y, La) Transistors”, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 135(29), 10729-10741 (2013)

18.  J. Wu, S. Padalkar, S. Xie, E. Hemesath, J. Cheng, G. Liu, A. Yan, J. Connell, N. Eiko, X. Zhang, L. Lauhon, V. P. Dravid. “Electron Tomography of Au-Catalyzed Semiconductor Nanowires”, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 117(2), 1059-1063(2013)

19. D. J. Late, Y. Huang, B. Liu, J. Acharya, S. N. Shirodkar, J. Luo, A. Yan, D. Charles, U. V. Waghmare, V. P. Dravid, C. N. R. Rao. “Sensing Behavior of Atomically Thin-Layered MoS2Transistors”, ACS Nano 7(6), 4879-4891 (2013)

20.  A. Yan, T. Sun, K. B. Borisenko, A. I. Kirkland, D. B. Buchholz, R. P. H. Chang, V. P. Dravid. “Multi-scale order in amorphous transparent oxide thin films”, Journal of Applied Physics 112, 054907 (2012) 

21.  D. J. Late, B. Liu, J. Luo, A. Yan, H. S. S. R. Matte,M. Grayson, C. N. R. Rao, V. P. Dravid. “GaS and GaSe Ultrathin Layer Transistors”, Advanced Materials, 24, 3549 (2012)