The ECE and ME departments will be hosting a seminar, "Straintronics in two-dimensional materials" with Prof. Arend M. van der Zande from the University of Illnois Urbana-Champaign.

Abstract: Recently, strain and deformation has emerged as a means to control material and device properties on an unprecedented scale. Two-dimensional (2D) materials are ideal "ultra-strength" systems for tuning properties via strain: they host rich strain-induced quantum behavior, while the lower dimensionality enables new kinds of deformations and high fracture strength. However, in many next generation technologies, from heterogeneous integration of 2D materials with CMOS processes, to wearable electronics, and quantum systems, strain is an important yet unknown or uncontrolled parameter. First, we utilize atomic to micro scale imaging to unravel the breakdown of continuum mechanics and new scaling laws in the atomic limit, and their influence on the electronic properties of 2D materials. For example, we demonstrate designable strain using thin film stressors to spatially pattern the electronic structure of 2D materials. Additionally, we image the nanoscale shape of bends in 2D heterostructures and discover the scaling laws that define interlayer slip at van der Waals interfaces, enabling membranes orders of magnitude more deformable than conventional thin films. We then leverage these fundamental insights to apply strain and deformation engineering across a broad range of applications such as mobility enhancement in 2D transistors, stretchable electronics, biosensors, and reconfigurable nanoelectromechanical systems.

Arend M. van der Zande is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Science and Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with affiliations in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science, Materials Research Lab, and the Holonyak Micro and Nanotechnology Lab. He is a team lead on the Illinois Material Research Science and Engineering Center and was recently awarded the 2022 Society of Engineering Science Young Investigator Medal, the NSF CAREER award, and is on the Clarivate Analytics list of the world's most influential researchers in 2018-2022. He earned a Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell University in 2011 and a B.S in Physics and Mathematics from University of California, Santa Cruz in 2003. He then became a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Energy Frontier Research Center at Columbia University. He has published 65+ articles with >23,000 citations in journals including Nature, Science, Nature Materials, Advanced Materials, and Nano Letters.