Welcome to Chang Research Group

Quantum phenomena are the underlying mechanism behind most of what we see and do during our day-to-day life. However, in most materials, quantum effects are obscured already at length-scales as small as the distance between two to five atoms within the substance, roughly one nanometer. Advances in emerging material systems during the last decade lead to novel types of materials, which are as thin as only one or a few atoms so that the entire material is only a surface or an ‘open’ interface. Systems of this kind, such as graphene and topological insulators, demonstrate quantum states that are protected and therefore are preserved over distances that are significantly larger than the length scale relevant to quantum phenomena in other materials. Our lab will utilize molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to fabricate clean quantum interface materials and hybridize these interfaces with clean functional materials. To examine the sought quantum phenomena at the interface/surface, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), Physical Property Measurement System (PPMS), 3He-4He Dilution Refrigerator and Neutron Scatterings will be involved in our labs.

Group News

02/2024 Hemian’s paper “Interface-induced superconductivity in magnetic topological insulators” is published in Science, Congratulations! See the story in Penn State News.    
01/2024 Xiaoda Liu receives the Dr. John Randall Shuman Troxell Memorial Scholarship, Zi-Jie Yan receives the W. Donald Miller Graduate Fellowship, Ling-Jie Zhou receives the Downsbrough Graduate Fellowship. Congratulations!
01/2024 Ling-Jie Zhou, Deyi Zhuo, and Zi-Jie Yan receives the David C. Duncan Graduate Fellowship in Physics for the 2023-2024 academic year. Congratulations!
12/2023 Yi-Fan’s paper “3D Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in Magnetic Topological Insulator Trilayers of Hundred-Nanometer Thickness” is published in Advanced Materials, Congratulations!
11/2023 Deyi’s paper “Axion insulator state in hundred-nanometer-thick magnetic topological insulator sandwich heterostructures” is published in Nature Communications, Congratulations!
11/2023 Hemian’s paper “Dirac-fermion-assisted interfacial superconductivity in epitaxial topological-insulator/iron-chalcogenide heterostructures” is published in Nature Communications, Congratulations!
10/2023 Wei’s paper “Electrical Switching of the Edge Current Chirality in Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulators” is published in Nature Materials, Congratulations! See the stories in Penn State News and IEEE Spectrum. Also see the News & Views in Nature Materials written by Philip J. W. Moll.
06/2023 Dr. Bomin Zhang from U. Pitt. joins our group as a postdoc, Welcome!
03/2023 Fei’s paper “Evolution of Dopant-Concentration-Induced Magnetic Exchange Interaction in Topological Insulator Thin Films” is published in Nano Letters, Congratulations!
02/2023 Ling-Jie’s paper “Confinement-induced chiral edge channel interaction in quantum anomalous Hall insulators” is published in PRL, Congratulations!
02/2023 Yi-Fan’s paper “Creation of chiral interface channels for quantized transport in magnetic topological insulator multilayer heterostructures” is published in Nature Communications, Congratulations!
01/2023 Han’s paper “Environmental Doping-Induced Degradation of the Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulators” is published in Nano. Lett., Congratulations! Han is an undergraduate student working in our labs.
01/2023 Ruoxi Zhang is also awarded the Downsbrough Graduate Fellowship and W. Donald Miller Graduate Fellowship in Physics for the 2022-2023 academic year by the Eberly College of Science. Congrats!
01/2023 Lingjie Zhou, Ruoxi Zhang, Deyi Zhuo, and Zijie Yan are awarded the David C. Duncan Graduate Fellowship in Physics for the 2022-2023 academic year by the Eberly College of Science. Congrats!
01/2023 With Prof. Chao-Xing Liu and Prof. Allan MacDonald, Prof. Chang wrote a review article about the QAH effect, which is published in Reviews of Modern Physics as a Colloquium.
12/2022 Dr. Yang Wang from the University of Delaware joins our group as a postdoc, Welcome!
10/2022 Hemian Yi’s paper “Crossover from Ising- to Rashba-type superconductivity in epitaxial Bi2Se3/monolayer NbSe2 heterostructures” is published in Nature Materials,Congrats! See the story in Penn State News.
05/2022 Yi-Fan Zhao’s paper “Zero Magnetic Field Plateau Phase Transition in Higher Chern Number Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulators” is published in PRL, Congrats!
03/2022 Bo Chen from Nanjing University joins our group as a visiting graduate student, Welcome! Bo will stay in our group for the next two years!
01/2022 Ruoxi Zhang is again awarded the David C. Duncan Graduate Fellowship in Physics for the 2021-2022 academic year by the Eberly College of Science. Congrats!
01/2022 Yi-Fan Zhao is again awarded both the W. Donald Miller Graduate Fellowship and the David C. Duncan Graduate Fellowship in Physics for the 2021-2022 academic year by the Eberly College of Science. Congrats!
10/2021 Prof. Chang received the Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research Award in 2021, Congrats!
09/2021 Yi-Fan’s paper “Even-Odd Layer-Dependent Anomalous Hall Effect in Topological Magnet MnBi2Te4 Thin Films” is published in Nano. Lett., Congratulations!
07/2021 Prof. Chang is appointed to the Henry W. Knerr Early Career Professorship, Congrats!
03/2021 Hemian’s paper “Surface charge induced Dirac band splitting in a charge density wave material (TaSe4)2I” is published in Phys. Rev. Research and highlighted by MAX IV News.
03/2021 Our high Chern number QAH insulator work is highlighted by ScientaOmicron.
02/2021 Yi-Fan Zhao is also awarded the W. Donald Miller Graduate Fellowship for the 2020-2021 academic year by the Eberly College of Science. Congrats!
02/2021 Yi-Fan Zhao is awarded the David C. Duncan Graduate Fellowship in Physics for the 2020-2021 academic year by the Eberly College of Science. Congrats!
02/2021 Ruoxi Zhang is awarded the David C. Duncan Graduate Fellowship in Physics for the 2020-2021 academic year by the Eberly College of Science. Congrats!
01/2021 Fei Wang’s paper “Interface-induced sign reversal of the anomalous Hall effect in magnetic topological insulator heterostructures” is published as an Article in Nature Communications, Congratulations!
12/2020 Yi-Fan Zhao receives the Physics Department Peter Eklund Award for Scientific Communication. Yi-Fan is one of two winners this year. Congratulations!
12/2020 Yi-Fan Zhao’s paper “Tuning the Chern number in quantum anomalous Hall insulators” is published as an Article in Nature, Congrats. See Penn State news!
09/2020 Xinyu Wu’s paper “Scaling behavior of the quantum phase transition from a quantum-anomalous-Hall insulator to an axion insulator” is published as an Article in Nature Communications. Congrats!
07/2020 NSF announces the 2020 MRSEC centers. Prof. Chang is a participant in IRG1 on 2D polar metals and heterostructures.
02/2020 Jue Jiang’s paper “Concurrence of quantum anomalous Hall and topological Hall effects in magnetic topological insulator sandwich heterostructures” is published as an Article in Nature Materials. Congrats!
01/2020 Morteza’s paper “Absence of evidence for chiral Majorana modes in quantum anomalous Hall-superconductor devices” is published as a Report in Science. Congrats! See Penn State news
12/2019 Prof. Chang is selected as an Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems (EPiQS) Materials Synthesis Investigator by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Prof. Chang is one of 13 winners nation-wide. Also see the Penn State news.
10/2019 Prof. Chang is awarded the Outstanding Young Researcher Award (Macronix Prize) from the International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers. This award highlights the research contributions of a young Chinese physicist or astronomer working in a region outside Asia. See the winner list from 1992. Also see the Penn State news.
06/2019 Dr. Morteza Kayyalha accepted the faculty position offer and will start as an Assistant Professor in EE department of Penn State in Jan. 2020. Big Congrats!
02/2019 Dr. Hemian Yi from Synchrotron-Soleil (France) joins our group as a postdoc, welcome!
01/2019 Prof. Chang got the 2019 NSF-CAREER Award. Congrats!
01/2019 Prof. Chang received the MIT Tech Review 35-Under-35 Innovation Award (China region) in 2018. Congrats!
04/2018 Prof. Chang got the 2018 Army Research Office (ARO) Young Investigator Program Award. Congrats!
03/2018 Fei’s paper, Chromium-Induced Ferromagnetism with Perpendicular Anisotropy in Topological Crystalline Insulator SnTe (111) Ultra-Thin Films, is published on PRB. Congrats!
02/2018 Prof. Chang is selected as a 2018 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in Physics. Also see Penn State News. Congrats!
02/2018 Dr. Morteza Kayyalha from Purdue University joins our group as a postdoc, Welcome!
01/2018 Di’s paper, Realization of the Axion Insulator State in Quantum Anomalous Hall Sandwich Heterostructures, is published on PRL (Editors’ suggestion). Congrats!
11/2017 Mingda’s paper, Dirac-electron-mediated magnetic proximity effect in topological insulator/magnetic insulator heterostructures, is published on PRB (Rapid Communication). Congrats!
06/2017 Jia Yu from Peking University joins our group as a REU student, Welcome!
06/2017 Yifan Zhao from Penn State University joins our group as a graduate student, Welcome!
03/2017 Fei Wang from Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMR,CAS) joins our group as a visiting student, Welcome!
03/2017 Prof. Chang is awarded 2017 International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Young Scientist Prize in the Structure and Dynamics of Condensed Matter (C10) “For the discovery of quantum anomalous Hall effect in magnetically doped 3D topological insulator films”! See MIT news and IUPAP news for more details.
02/2017 Dr. Chang joins The Penn State University. Chang Research Group is founded at Penn State.