My research utilizes both optical and transport methods to study low-dimensional materials, especially the topology, strong correlations, and supercondutivity in rhombohedral graphene (RG). 

Due to the limited size of two-dimentional materials (typically ~ 10 um), it is extremely challenging to study them with traditional spectroscopy methods due to the diffraction limit. Therefore, we developed a customized Fourier-transform Infrared (FTIR) photocurrent spectroscopy technique, where photocurrents reflect only the absorption within the sample and won't suffer from photons hitting outside. This method significantly enhances the signal-to-noise raito and allows us to investigate low-energy physics in the far-IR and THZ range. One major achievement is that for the first time we were able to directly measure the absorption spectra across the correlation gap in rhombohedral trilayer graphene (RTG) / hBN moiré superlattice and determine the Coulomb interaction strength U to be ~ 18 meV.

Another main direction I am exploring is the interplay between spin-orbit couplings (SOC) and RG. Intrinsic SOC is negligibly weak in crystalline graphene, but we could induce strong SOC via proximitized transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). In TMD-proximitized RTG devices, we demonstrated that, contrary to the previous common understanding that SOC should universally enhance graphene superconductivity, in RTG SOC instead plays an diverse role: some superconducting states are induced or enhanced, but others are suppressed. We have also discovered a few newly induced superconducting states, and one of them (SC5) is strikingly unconventional: in-plane magnetic fields will not suppress it but instead persistently enhancing it up to our instrumental limits, different from all previously discovered 2D superconductors and reaching a record-high Pauli-limit violation ratio. 

Jan. 2020 - present 

Graduate Research Assistant, Physics Department, Masschusetts Institute of Technology (Advisor: Long Ju)

Sep. 2019 - Dec. 2019

Visiting Scholar, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University (Advisor: Feng Miao)

July. 2018 - Sep. 2018

Undergrad Visiting Scholar (CSST program), Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of California, Los Angeles (Advisor: Kang L. Wang)

Sep. 2016 - July. 2019

Undergrad Research Assistant, International Center of Quantum Materials, Peking University (Advisor: Xi Lin)

Jan. 2020 - May. 2026 (Expected)

Ph.D. candidate, Physics Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

- M.S. in Physics (2024.6)

Sep. 2015 - July. 2019

B.S. in Physics, School of Physics, Peking University

Minor Major in Computer Science, School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University

Address: 77 Massachusetts Ave, 13-2010, Cambridge, MA 02139

Email: jxyang at mit.edu