Associate Professor of Physics
About
Professor Zhao's group is interested in probing, understanding, and eventually controlling emergent electronic and magnetic phases in quantum materials, including both three-dimensional (3D) bulk and two-dimensional (2D) atomic and moiré crystals. In particular, her group focuses on the 3D and 2D materials with strong electron-electron interactions and/or strong spin-orbit coupling. Her primary experimental tools are a broad set of optical spectroscopy and microscopy techniques, including linear and nonlinear, static and ultrafast, elastic and inelastic ones. If you are interested in our research, please explore Professor Zhao's group website (Zhao Research Group) for more information.
For her work, Professor Zhao is a recipient of the 2018 NSF CAREER Award, 2019 Bryan R. Coles Prize of SCES, 2020 AFOSR YIP Award, 2021 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, 2022 Henry Russel Award, and 2023 Mildred Dresselhaus Junior Guest Professorship. She also serves on the editorial boards for Physical Review X and Progress in Quantum Electronics.
Selected Publications:
Electric quadrupole second harmonic generation revealing dual magnetic orders in a magnetic Weyl semimetal (Youngjun Ahn, Xiaoyu Guo, Rui Xue, Ke Qu, Kai Sun, David Mandrus, Liuyan Zhao) Nature Photonics 18, 26 (2024)
Evidence of Noncollinear Spin Texture in Magnetic Moiré Superlattices (H. Xie*, X. Luo*, Z. Ye*, Z. Sun*, G. Ye, S.-H. Sung, H. Ge, S. Yan, Y. Fu, S. Tian, H. Lei, K. Sun, R. Hovden, R. He, L. Zhao) Nature Physics, 19, 1150 (2023)
Twist Engineering of the Two-Dimensional Magnetism in Double Bilayer Chromium Triiodide Homostructures (H. Xie*, X. Luo*, G. Ye*, Z. Ye, H. Ge, S.H. Sung, E. Rennich, S. Yan, Y. Fu, S. Tian, H. Lei, R. Hovden, K. Sun, R. He, L. Zhao) Nature Physics 18, 30 (2022).
Ultrafast Modulations and Detection of a Ferro-Rotational Charge Density Wave Using Time-Resolved Electric Quadrupole Second Harmonic Generation (X. Luo, D. Obeysekera, C. Won, S. H. Sung, N. Schnitzer, R. Hovden, S.W. Cheong, J. Yang, K. Sun, L. Zhao) Phys. Rev. Letters 127, 126401 (2021).
Mirror Symmetry Breaking in a Model Insulating Cuprate (A. de la Torre, K.L. Seyler, L. Zhao, S. Di Matteo, M.S. Scheurer, Y. Li, B. Yu, M. Greven, S. Sachdev, M.R. Norman, D. Hsieh) Nature Physics 17, 777 (2021).
Observation of the Polaronic Character of Excitons in a Two-Dimensional Semiconducting Magnet CrI3 (W. Jin, H. H. Kim, Z. Ye, G. Ye, L. Rojas, X. Luo, B.Yang, F.Yin, J.A. Horng, S.Tian, Y. Fu, G. Xu, H. Deng, H. Lei, K. Sun, A.W. Tsen, R. He, L. Zhao) Nature Communications 11, 4780 (2020).
Tunable Layered-Magnetism-Assisted Magneto-Raman Effect in a Two-Dimensional Magnet CrI3 (W. Jin, Z. Ye, X. Luo, B. Yang, G. Ye, F. Yin, H. H. Kim, L. Rojas, S. Tian, Y. Fu, S. Yan, H. Lei, K. Sun, A.W. Tsen, R. He, L. Zhao) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, 24664 (2020).
Symmetry-Resolved Two-Magnon Excitations in a Strong Spin-Orbit-Coupled Bilayer Antiferromagnet (S. Li, E. Drueke, Z. Porter, W. Jin, Z. Lu, D. Smirnov, R. Merlin, S.D. Wilson, K. Sun, L. Zhao) Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 087202 (2020).
Magnetic-Field-Induced Quantum Phase Transitions in a Van Der Waals Magnet (S. Li*, Z. Ye*, X. Luo*, G. Ye, H.H. Kim, B. Yang, S. Tian, C. Li, H. Lei, A.W. Tsen, K. Sun, R. He, L. Zhao) Phys. Rev. X 10, 011075 (2020).
Observation of a Ferro-Rotational Order Coupled with Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Fields (W. Jin*, E. Drueke*, S. Li, A. Adamasu, R. Owen, M. Day, K. Sun, S.W. Cheong, L. Zhao) Nature Physics 16, 42 (2020).
Field(s) of Study
- Ultrafast Optics and Nonlinear Optics
- Condensed Matter Experiment
- Correlated Electron Systems, Strong Spin-Orbit Coupled Systems, Two-Dimensional Systems
