EE Colloquium: Designer 2-D Materials for New Sensing Paradigms

Dr. Shengxi Huang, assistant professor of electrical engineering and biomedical engineering, Penn State, will be the speaker.

Abstract:

Emerging 2-D quantum materials have gained increasing attention due to their unique electronic and optical properties and have shown promise in sensing applications. The realization of sensing devices using these materials still faces several challenges. For example, it is critical to gain clear understandings of (1) the fundamental light-matter interactions and their relations to the atomic structures, which govern many key material properties and device performances; and (2) the coupling with other nanostructures and molecules, which is a required structure for sensing devices and systems. This talk introduces new discoveries and pioneering works on these critical challenges and novel applications of these materials in biochemical sensing. The first part of this talk presents multi-dimensional engineering techniques to augment material performance, including 2-D Janus conversion and 1-D nanoscrolling. The second part of this talk focuses on the interaction of 2-D materials with organic molecules and related sensing applications. In particular, a novel enhancement effect of molecular Raman signals on 2-D surface was discovered, which offers a new paradigm of biochemical sensing with high specificity, high multiplexity, and low noise. The selection rule for the 2-D material substrates has been revealed, which is critical for device design. Two sensing applications for Alzheimer’s disease and respiratory viruses will also be discussed. The methodologies used here also provide a framework for the future study of many emerging materials and sensing scenarios.

Bio:

Shengxi Huang is an assistant professor of electrical engineering and biomedical engineering in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Materials Research Institute at Penn State. She earned her doctorate degree in electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) from MIT in June 2017, under the supervision of Mildred Dresselhaus and Jing Kong. Following that, she did a short postdoc at Stanford University with Tony Heinz and Jonathan Fan. She obtained her master’s degree in EECS from MIT in 2013, and her bachelor’s degree with the highest honors in micro- and nano-electronics at Tsinghua University, China, in 2011. Huang is the recipient of multiple awards, including NSF CAREER Award, AFOSR Young Investigator (YIP) Award, Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D Award (6 awardees worldwide), Kavli Fellowship for Nanoscience, Jin Au Kong Award for Best PhD Thesis at MIT, Xerox Foundation Fellowship, Ginzton Fellowship at Stanford University, and the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Students Abroad. Huang’s research interests involve optical spectroscopy of low-dimensional materials and other nanostructures, as well as the applications of nanomaterials in optoelectronics and sensing.