Nano Letters publishes our work on the prediction of an electric field induced normal insulator to topological insulator transition in phosphorene.

Jan. 21, 2015

This represents the tuning of topological behavior with electric field, an effect that would lead to spin-separated, gapless edge states. This is a collaborated work with Prof. Adalberto Fazzio’s group. Qihang is the first author.

Atomistic theory of large semiconductor quantum wires predicts surprising features in the density of states, totally different than the textbook expectation

Nov. 30, 2014

Jianping Wang (a co-operate PHD with USTC, China) is the first author.

Theory predicts that the polarity of (001) STO is responsible for the thermodynamic stabilization of the oxygen vacancies at the LAO surface

Oct. 13, 2014

Thus explaining the formation of 2DEG and critical thickness without a polar catastrophe scenario. Liping (now a research associate professor in Temple University) is the first author.

First-principles study reveals the hidden forms of spin polarization in centrosymmetric materials that could not be perceived from the generally accepted origin—asymmetry of crystal space group

April 13, 2014

Group theory is used to establish a complete picture of spin-polarization effects in nonmagnetic crystals originated fundamentally from specific atomic site asymmetries. Reviewed by Nature Physics | News and Views: “Spin–orbit interactions: Hide and seek” by Bart Partoens, “It is remarkable that this insight has been overlooked for so long — it seems the reigning paradigm has been too strong. The results presented by Zhang and colleagues will certainly lead to some changes in the next editions of textbooks discussing spin effects in solids. The work carried out by the authors is a beautiful example of how first-principles calculations can provide fundamental new insights into the properties of matter. This is a collaborated work with Prof. Arthur J. Freeman’s group. Xiuwen and Qihang are the co-first authors.

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