Yang Liu

2015 Regional Award Finalist — Post-Doc

Yang Liu

Current Position:
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Electrical Engineering

Institution:
Stanford University (Previously at Princeton University)

Discipline:
Electrical Engineering

Recognized for: Experimental studies of many-body quantum phases in two-dimensional electron systems

Areas of Research Interest and Expertise: Semiconductor Physics; Electronic Properties of Low-Dimensional Semiconductor Structures; Low-Temperature, High-Magnetic Field Characterization of Mesoscopic Electronic Systems, Nanofabrication 

Biography:

PhD, Electrical Engineering, Princeton University
MSc, Engineering, Tsinghua University
BE, Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University

At low temperature (~ 20 mK) and high magnetic field (~ 10 T), the electrons’ in-plane motion is quantized into different harmonic oscillators with discrete energy levels, the Landau levels. When a Landau level is partially filled, the clean two-dimensional electron (or hole) system displays a myriad of novel many-body quantum phases -- such as the fractional quantum Hall effect, the charge density waves, the Wigner crystal, etc. -- arising from the dominance of the Coulomb interaction energy over the kinetic energy.

Yang Liu’s graduate and postdoctoral research is focused on the experimental studies of these quantum phases in ultra-clean GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells grown by molecular beam epitaxy. These studies explore the complexities of the electron-electron interaction, which not only induces interesting quantum states, but is also a key constituent of the materials physics.

“I hope the novel quantum phases I studied in 2DESs can be implemented in future semiconductor/quantum devices, and my research will help people to better understand properties of materials.”

 Key Publications:

  1. Liu Y., Hasdemir S., Shabani J., Shayegan M., Pfeifer L.N.,  West K.W., Baldwin K.W. Multicomponent fractional quantum Hall states with subband and spin degrees of freedom. arXiv. 2015
  2. Liu Y.,  Kamburov D., Hasdemir S., Shayegan M., Pfeifer L.N., West K.W., Baldwin K.W. Fractional quantum Hall effect and Wigner crystal of two-flux composite fermions. Phys. Rev. Lett.  2014
  3. Liu Y.,Hasdemir S., Wójs A., Jain J.K., Pfeiffer L.N., West K.W., Baldwin K.W., Shayegan M. Spin-polarization of composite fermions and particle-hole symmetry breaking. Physical Review. 2014
  4. Liu Y.,  Hasdemir S.,  Kamburov D.,  Graninger A.L., Shayegan M., Pfeiffer L.N., West K.W., Baldwin K.W., Winkler R. Even-denominator fractional quantum Hall state at a Landau level crossing. Physical Review. 2014

Other honors:

2012    Princeton University Charlotte Elizabeth Procter Honorific Fellowship
2013    Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad (Awarded the “Special” Prize, given only to 5 students worldwide)
2014    Princeton EE Outstanding Dissertation Awards
2015    GLAM Postdoctoral Fellowship, Stanford University