Efficient Control of 2D Magnetism

Monday, November 14, 2022 from 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Location: 325 Physics South Hall & Zoom
Speaker: Cheng Gong, University of Maryland, College Park

Abstract:The recently discovered magnetic two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals materials [1, 2] provide ideal platforms to enable the atomic-thin, flexible, lightweight magneto-optical and magnetoelectric devices. Though many have envisioned that 2D magnets should allow efficient control of magnetism by a variety of external stimuli, true breakthroughs are still lacking, with limited proof-of-concept demonstrations reported thus far. There appear to be some fundamental obstacles for efficient control. In this talk, I will analyze the challenges and present our recent theoretical and experimental progress on efficient electrical and optical control of 2D magnetism [3-8]. The efficient control of 2D magnets potentially opens up new avenues towards low-power spintronics and photonics.

1. C. Gong et al. Nature 546, 265-269 (2017).
2. C. Gong, X. Zhang. Science 363, eaav4450 (2019).
3. C. Gong, et al. Nature Communications 10, 2657 (2019).
4. S.-J. Gong, et al. PNAS 115, 8511-8516 (2018).
5. E.-W. Du, et al. Nano Letters 20, 7230-7236 (2020).
6. Q. Wang, et al. Matter (in press, 2022).
7. T. Xie, et al. under review (2022).
8. S. Liang, et al. under review (2022).

Bio: Prof. Cheng Gong has been an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at University of Maryland, College Park since 2019. His research group focuses on magnetic, electronic and optical properties of 2D materials, heterostructures and nanodevices. He is a recipient of IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Semiconductor Physics 2020. In 2022, Prof. Gong won UMD’s “Invention of the Year”, the only award out of 342 inventions across all disciplines disclosed at UMD in the past two years. From 2014 to 2019, he was a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley, where he experimentally discovered the first magnetic 2D material. Prof. Gong received Ph.D. in 2013 in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas.