EE Colloquium: Toward Next Generation Electronics with 2D Materials

Josh Robinson, Penn State Materials Science and Engineering, will be the speaker.

Abstract:

The last decade has seen an exponential growth in the science and technology of two-dimensional materials. Beyond graphene, there is a huge variety of layered materials that range in properties from insulating to superconducting that can be grown over large scales for a variety of electronic devices and quantum technologies, such as topological quantum computing, quantum sensing and neuromorphic computing. In this talk, Robinson will discuss recent breakthroughs in synthesis and doping of 2D semiconductors and the realization of unique 2D forms of traditional 3D metals. He will introduce a novel synthesis method, dubbed confinement heteroepitaxy (CHet), that utilizes graphene to enable the creation of atomically thin metals, enabling a new platform for creating artificial quantum lattices with atomically sharp interfaces and designed properties. By shrinking these traditional metals to atomically thin structures, they found that their properties are completely different than their bulk counterparts, lending themselves to unique quantum and optical applications not possible before.

Biography:

Josh Robinson is a professor of materials science and engineering at the Pennsylvania State University with a focus on the synthesis and properties of 2D materials. He received his B.S. in Physics from Towson University in 2001 and PhD from Penn State in 2005. Following a post-doctoral fellowship at the Naval Research Lab, he returned to Penn State as a research professor in the Applied Research Laboratory in 2007. Subsequently, Robinson joined MatSE in 2012 as an assistant professor, promoted to associate professor in 2016, and full professor in 2020. He co-founded the Center for Two-Dimensional and Layered Materials in 2013, and currently serves as associate director of the center. In July 2015, he co-founded the NSF I/UCRC Center for Atomically Thin Multifunctional Coatings (ATOMIC), and in 2016 he became the director of user programs for the NSF-funded 2D Crystal Consortium.