Detail:

Abstract:
　　Discoveries and rediscoveries of “star” materials with exceptional functionalities have been the central theme of materials science and propelled the modern technologies in the past decades. In this talk, I will share our passion and discoveries while studying perovskite-structured materials including both transition-metal oxides and organic-inorganic halides. Perovskite is probably the most versatile structure for functional materials. Oxide perovskites have rich phase diagrams and exotic physical properties due to the complex interactions between multiple degrees of freedoms. As an example of nonvolatile memory application, I will discuss a ferroelectric tunnel junction which can be modulated by both voltage bias and light illumination [1]. Another “hot” frontier is perovskite-structured hybrid metal halides, which can absorb light as a result of their band gap and transport carriers with negligible trapping [2]. Using phototransistors, we provided direct evidence on the ambipolar transport in this important class of materials [3]. Inspired on these examples, we could envision a perovskite-based future for energy harvesting, sensing, electronic, and photonic technologies.
[1] W. J. Hu, Z. Wang, W. Yu, T. Wu, Nature Communications 7, 10808 (2016).
[2] M. I. Saidaminov, et al., Nature Communications, 6, 7586 (2015).
[3] F. Li, C. Ma, H. Wang, W. Hu, W. Yu, A. D. Sheikh, T. Wu, Nature Communications, 6, 8238 (2015).

Biosketch：
　　Dr. Tom Wu received his B.S. degree from Zhejiang University in 1995 and Ph.D. degree from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2002. Before joining King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Feb. 2013 as Associate Professor, he worked in Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. Dr. Wu has authored/ co-authored nearly 200 peer-reviewed papers in the areas of oxide thin films, nanomaterials, and hybrid perovskites, with a focus on their electronic, magnetic and optical functionalities. He has two patents on oxide and carbon nanomaterials. His group has witnessed the career development of 14 PhD students and 25 postdocs. Dr. Wu also serves as Associate Editor for ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.