Lab news
Publications, awards, grants, media coverage and talks from the lab and its collaborators.
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2026
Xiamen University announces Liyuan Zhang’s lecture on the quantum Hall effect
The announced programme uses trilayer graphene and zirconium pentatelluride to examine how dimensionality affects quantum transport.
Stretching ZrTe₅ tunes its quantum oscillations through a spin zero
Under tensile strain along the crystal’s a axis, the resistance oscillations weakened and then reappeared with the opposite sign.
Thermopower and magnetic torque reveal multiple electron orbits in PtBi₂
PtBi₂ crystals showed a large magnetoresistance at low temperature. Two independent measurements picked up several sets of quantum oscillations.
How oxygen vacancies affect hole transport and ultraviolet response in SnO
Researchers identified ordered oxygen vacancies in few-layer tin monoxide and measured how devices made from the flakes carried charge and responded to light.
2025
Physics education team receives a Guangdong teaching achievement first prize
SUSTech Physics recorded the provincial award in December 2025. Liyuan Zhang is among the contributors to the undergraduate education project.
Wuhan high-field forum announces a talk on fabricating quantum devices
The Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center announced Zhang as the speaker for its tenth forum of 2025.
Co-intercalated ZrNCl shows a superconducting transition near 15 K
Researchers inserted sodium ions and 1,3-diaminopropane molecules between ZrNCl layers and followed the superconducting transition in magnetic fields.
Thickness changes the superconducting response of 3R-TaSe₂
Flakes just two unit cells thick remained superconducting in a parallel magnetic field more than three times the Pauli limit.
2024
Probing spin ice in HoAgGe with a scanning tunneling microscope
Pairs of dips in tunneling spectra away from defects disappeared when the crystal warmed above its spin-ice ordering temperature.
China Youth Daily visits the Mesoscopic Physics Laboratory
During a May 19 visit, a photojournalist documented an instrument built by the lab and a researcher handling its low-temperature insert.
From photons to electrons: Liyuan Zhang discusses his path into research
At SUSTech, Zhang spoke to more than 200 students and faculty about his research career and the skills undergraduates can bring to an open problem.
Zhang presents three-dimensional quantum Hall research at the Suzhou materials physics forum
The April 13 programme in Suzhou included Zhang’s presentation on new material platforms for the three-dimensional quantum Hall effect.
2023
Both electrons and holes support superconductivity in monolayer MoTe₂
A gate switched the carrier type in the monolayer. Superconductivity set in near 7–8 K for either type.
NSFC awards a Key Program grant for further research on the three-dimensional quantum Hall effect
SUSTech Physics records the grant in August 2023 and identifies Liyuan Zhang as principal investigator.
ZrTe₅ flakes show negative magnetoresistance for two in-plane field directions
Resistance decreased as the in-plane magnetic field grew, both when the field followed the current and when it crossed it.
Shenzhen awards first prize to the three-dimensional quantum Hall experiment
The group's experimental observation of the three-dimensional quantum Hall effect received first prize in Shenzhen's 2022 Natural Science Awards.
Three-dimensional quantum Hall study wins Guangdong Natural Science Award first prize
Guangdong recognised a collaboration between SUSTech and the University of Science and Technology of China in its 2022 science and technology awards.
Exfoliating and stacking two-dimensional materials in ultrahigh vacuum
A device-fabrication system keeps freshly exposed interfaces under vacuum while researchers assemble van der Waals heterostructures.
2022
Tracking a topological transition by straining ZrTe₅
Quantum oscillations tracked a change of topology as uniaxial strain reshaped the electronic bands.
Quantum matter and devices team receives Shenzhen Youth May Fourth Medal
A SUSTech physics team whose leaders include Liyuan Zhang and Hai-Zhou Lu received the collective medal in 2022.
Heat transport in ZrTe₅ shows signs of fluid-like flow
Thermal conductivity and effective mean free path changed unusually in the same temperature window.
2021
Three-dimensional quantum Hall experiment featured at national science exhibition
A public exhibition in Beijing featured the quantum transport experiment by researchers from SUSTech, the University of Science and Technology of China and their collaborators.
Three transport signals mark a common temperature in ZrTe₅ flakes
Increasing flake thickness from 42 to 89 nm shifted the characteristic temperature from about 200 to 160 K.
FePSe₃ layers detect infrared radiation at room temperature
The detector used the temperature sensitivity of FePSe₃ resistance to read out heating by infrared light.
Few-layer ZrTe₅ devices exhibit the two-dimensional integer quantum Hall effect
Protecting the flakes during fabrication made it possible to resolve a Hall plateau and a zero-energy state associated with the bulk band gap.
Dielectric measurements probe stacking faults in α-RuCl₃
Crystals with different amounts of stacking disorder showed distinct dielectric and magnetic responses.
Transport in β-Bi₄I₄ beyond the quantum limit
Low-field oscillations measured the cyclotron mass; transport at much higher fields showed evidence of a gap.
A large transverse thermoelectric response in ZrTe₅
The Nernst signal depended strongly on crystal orientation; the transverse figure of merit reached 0.12 at 13 T and 120 K.
2020
In-plane magnetoresistance of HfTe₅ changes sign with temperature
Rotating the field within the crystal plane revealed temperature-dependent anisotropic magnetoresistance and a planar Hall signal.
Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reports on the search for a three-dimensional Hall signal
A feature on SUSTech revisited the collaboration’s choice of zirconium pentatelluride for transport measurements.
Liyuan Zhang receives the 2020 XPLORER PRIZE
Zhang was named a recipient in the interdisciplinary studies category for his work on the observation of the three-dimensional quantum Hall effect.
A negative magnetothermopower signal in ZrTe₅
Comparing electrical and thermoelectric measurements exposed quadratic field terms in both responses.
Liyuan Zhang addresses SUSTech’s Class of 2020
Speaking for the faculty at SUSTech’s outdoor commencement, Zhang asked graduates to keep learning from experience as they began the next stage of their lives.
Hall plateaus emerge near the quantum limit in bulk HfTe₅
Plateaus in Hall resistance coincided with minima, but not zeros, in longitudinal resistance.
Surface oxidation changes transport in thin MoTe₂
Exposed flakes tended toward insulating transport, while protected flakes exhibited a low-temperature superconducting transition.
Quantum Hall experiment named one of China's ten scientific advances of 2019
The Ministry of Science and Technology's High Technology Research and Development Center selected the collaboration's experiment on bulk ZrTe₅.
Thermoelectric Hall conductivity reaches a plateau in the extreme quantum limit
Once ZrTe₅ reached its lowest Landau level, the measured transverse thermoelectric conductivity levelled off as the field increased.
Academies select three-dimensional quantum Hall result among China’s top science news of 2019
Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering voted the collaborators’ experiment into their annual selection of ten domestic science and technology stories.
Zinc doping improves light stability in perovskite single crystals
The study compared local lattice strain with the evolution of photoluminescence over 60 days.
2019
Measuring heat conduction along all three axes of HfTe₅
Thermal conductivity along the a, b and c axes followed a ratio of about 28:1:8, with the weakest conduction across the layers.
Watch the lecture: Liyuan Zhang on three-dimensional quantum Hall experiments
The Institute of Physics has archived Zhang’s talk from the 382nd Zhongguancun Forum on Condensed Matter Physics.
Superconductivity sets in at up to 5.3 K in few-layer MoTe₂
Yuan Gan and colleagues compared the superconducting transition in flakes and bulk material, then used a gate to tune the flakes’ transition temperature and critical field.
GaTe/InSe heterostructures extend detection into the shortwave infrared
A stacked junction responded at 1064 and 1550 nm without cooling.
Thinner GdTe₃ supports a charge density wave at higher temperatures
Temperature-dependent Raman spectra placed the transition at 377 K in a bulk crystal and 431 K in a flake about 10 nm thick.
Liyuan Zhang receives SUSTech’s President’s Award for Outstanding Research
SUSTech recognised Hisao Ishibuchi, Jigen Tang and Liyuan Zhang individually at its 2019 Teachers’ Day ceremony.
How well can a prefabricated electrode contact a 2D crystal?
Low-temperature measurements showed that mechanical transfer can make highly transparent superconducting contacts. Electrode roughness limits their performance.
From crystal growth to repeated measurements: SUSTech profiles the ZrTe₅ experiment
A university feature follows the experimental work behind the May 8 paper, including crystal selection and measurements on many samples.
Nature publishes evidence for a three-dimensional quantum Hall effect in bulk ZrTe₅
Low-temperature measurements on bulk crystals revealed a Hall plateau together with longitudinal resistivity close to zero.
Superconductivity persists in a 5 nm iron chalcogenide flake
The transition temperature fell only slightly, while the field required to suppress superconductivity depended strongly on its orientation.
An indium selenide cap helps black phosphorus detect visible and near-infrared light
A stacked black phosphorus/indium selenide device responded at wavelengths from 405 to 1550 nm. The upper layer also protected the black phosphorus.
Antimony inclusions leave a quantum-oscillation signature in FeSb₂
Transport and magnetic torque measurements helped separate signals from the host crystal and from antimony trapped inside it.
Raman spectra resolve two pressure-driven transitions in α-RuCl₃
As pressure increased, the layers first changed their stacking arrangement and then ruthenium atoms formed pairs within a layer.
2018
A layered photodetector responds to light from 405 to 1550 nm
A device combining MoTe₂, graphene and SnS₂ delivered a sensitive response over a broad range of wavelengths.
Heat conduction differs twelvefold between two axes of ZrTe₅
At room temperature, thermal conductivity along the interlayer b axis was about 0.33 W/(m·K), far below its value along the a axis.
A gate tunes the screening of magnetic molecules on graphene
After cobalt phthalocyanine molecules were adsorbed onto graphene, changing the carrier density altered how graphene electrons screened the molecular moments.
Thinning ZrTe₅ switches the dominant carriers from electrons to holes
Hall measurements and quantum oscillations revealed a crossover near 40 nm in the relative contributions of electrons and holes.
2017
Can in-plane magnetization produce a quantum anomalous Hall state?
Calculations for buckled honeycomb monolayers of group-V elements predicted two types of topological phases with different Chern numbers.
Reflected light reveals the layer count in three 2D semiconductors
Optical measurements calibrated against atomic force microscopy offered a quick way to identify monolayer and few-layer flakes on a specified substrate.