News

2024

We received a Doctoral New Investigator (DNI) grant from the ACS Petroleum Research Fund (PRF). We thank the ACS PRF for supporting our research on the atomic-scale design of novel photocatalysts.

Ruijuan received the prestigious Oxide Electronics Prize for Excellence in Research at the 30th International Workshop on Oxide Electronics in Darmstadt, Germany. She was recognized “for her outstanding progress in the creation and control of dielectric and ferroelectric properties in complex oxide thin films and freestanding membranes.”

Our work on surface phonon polaritons in SrTiO₃membranes is highlighted on the ALS website.
Konnor presented his work at the MSE Department Celebration of Excellence in Graduate Research seminar.

Ruijuan visited the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, hosted by Dr. Jochen Mannhart and Dr. Varun Harbola. Thanks for the kind invitation and great visit!
Our work on surface phonon polaritons in SrTiO₃membranes got published on Nature Communications! Congratulations!

Reza presented his work at the CDP 2024 Spring Meeting in Raleigh. We received lots of valuable feedback from the CDP faculty and member companies. We thank CDP for their support for our research!
Ruijuan was invited to give a talk in the Joint Materials and Solid Mechanics Seminar at Brown University. Thanks Prof. Lucas Caretta for the invitation!
Kaden Figuerres has joined us as an undergraduate researcher. Kaden is currently pursuing his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering at NC State University. Welcome, Kaden!
Eli Rodrigues has joined us as an undergraduate researcher. Eli is currently pursuing his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering at NC State University. Welcome, Eli!
Congratulations and farewell to Ian and Sharon who will be starting their graduate studies at Penn State University.

Ruijuan has organized a symposium (EL07) about ferroic materials at the 2024 Spring MRS meeting in Seattle. She was also invited to present at the symposium QT06 about emerging phase transitions in lead-free antiferroelectric thin films.
Senior Spotlight features Ian on the Department website! Congrats!

Tyler will join us as a graduate researcher in Fall 2024. Tyler worked as a research engineer in the Tearney Lab at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine after completing his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the State University of New York at New Patlz. Tyler is going to start as a first-year graduate student in Materials Science and Engineering at NC State University in Aug. 2024. Welcome, Tyler!
Jongyun will join us as a graduate researcher in Fall 2024. Jongyun worked as a researcher in the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) after completing his B.S. in Semiconductor Science and Technology at the Jeonbuk National University. Jongyun is going to start as a first-year graduate student in Materials Science and Engineering at NC State University in Aug. 2024. Welcome, Jongyun!
Ruijuan gave an invited talk at the APS March Meeting in Minneapolis.

Ruijuan was invited to present at the 2024 Fundamental Physics of Ferroelectrics Workshop in Washington, D.C.

Ruijuan gave an invited talk at the MRS Fall Meeting in Boston.
Congratulate Reza for winning the first place prize in the AFM imaging contest at the Carolina Science Symposium!
Ruijuan joined the Materials Horizons Community Board.

Reza did a fantastic job presenting our group’s first research poster at the CDP Fall 2023 meeting in State College, PA. We received lots of valuable feedback from the CDP member companies and faculty!
Ruijuan is organizing a symposium with Dr. John Heron (UMich), Dr. Morgan Trassin (ETH Zürich), and Dr. Di Yi (Tsinghua Univ.), on Ferroic Materials at the 2024 Spring MRS meeting in Seattle (April 22-26, 2024): EL07 – Emerging Ferroic Materials – Synthesis, Properties, and Applications. Abstract submission is now open!! Please consider submitting your abstract to EL07 and share your exciting research in Seattle next Spring!

Ruijuan is co-organizing a symposium with Dr. Jian Liu (UTK) and Dr. Gang Cao (CU-Boulder) at EMA 2024: Basic Science and Electronics Division Meeting in Denver (Feb. 13-16, 2024). Please consider submitting your abstract to the symposium: S13-Frontiers in Ferroic Oxides: Synthesis, Properties, and Applications.

Our second PLD system was installed!
Ian has joined us as an undergraduate researcher. Ian is currently pursuing his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering at NC State University. Welcome, Ian!
Konnor has joined us as a graduate researcher. Konnor completed his B.S. in Physics at the Penn State University. He will start as a first-year Ph.D. student in Materials Science and Engineering at NC State University, co-advised by Prof. Ruijuan Xu and Prof. Yin Liu. Welcome, Konnor!

Our group was awarded a seed grant from the Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics. We thank the CDP for their support of our work!

We are awarded the Faculty Research and Professional Development (FRPD) grant from NC State!

Our collaboration work got published on Nature Communications! Congratulations to the team!

Ruijuan’s work has been highlighted as a University Research News headline on the DOE Office of Science homepage!
Ruijuan’s work got published on Advanced Materials and featured by NC State University Communications, Materials Today, Physics World (a website from the UK Institute of Physics), Ceramic Tech Today (the blog of the American Ceramic Society), Phys.org. Congratulations to Ruijuan!

Ruijuan was invited to give a virtual talk titled, “Emergent ferroelectricity in oxide membranes”, at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University. Thanks, Prof. Di Yi for the invitation!

Ruijuan was invited to give a talk titled, “Emergent ferroelectricity in oxide membranes”, at the Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics Fall 2022 meeting, in State College, PA.

Sharon has joined us as an undergraduate researcher. Sharon is currently pursuing her B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering at NC State University. Welcome, Sharon!
Reza has joined us as a graduate researcher. Reza completed his B.S. in Materials and Metallurgy Engineering at the Sharif University of Technology. Reza is going to start as a first-year graduate student in Materials Science and Engineering at NC State University in Jan. 2023. Welcome, Reza!
Ruijuan was invited to give a colloquium talk titled, “Emergent ferroelectricity in oxide membranes”, in the Department of Physics, NC State University. Thanks, Prof. Dali Sun for the invitation!

Ruijuan was invited to give a virtual talk titled, “Size-induced ferroelectricity in antiferroelectric oxide membranes”, at Tsinghua University. Thanks, Prof. Pu Yu for the invitation!
The Xu lab has officially started!