Ke Wang
Assistant Professor, School of Physics and Astronomy
Contact
228 Physics And Nanotechnology Building
115 Union St. Se
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Affiliations
Ke Wang
Assistant Professor, School of Physics and Astronomy
My field of study is experimental condensed matter physics, with a research focus on studying novel quantum physics in gate-defined nanostructures on 2D Van der Waals materials.
Electronic properties of solids can undergo dramatic change when the material thickness is reduced to the atomic limit. Notably, even the band structures of mono-layers and bi-layers can be distinctively different in both graphene and transition metal dichalcogenide. The exotic bandstructures of 2D materials are uniquely different from those in conventional 2DEGs, including relativistic dispersion relationship, displacement-field tunable bandgap, spin-valley locking near band edges, and anisotropic effective mass.
We further tailor these interesting bandstructures to new platforms of studying novel quantum physics. We prepare ultra high quality atomically-thin electronic systems by assembling Van der Waals heterostructures encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitrides, and fabricate gate-defined nanostructures using state-of-the-art lithography techniques. With experimental control over local Hamiltonians, we manipulate spin, layer, valley and sublattice quantum numbers towards realizing novel functional quantum devices in optoelectronics, spintronics, valleytronics and quantum computing, and study new phases of matter such as Dirac fluid, Luttinger liquid, Bell states and non-Abelian fractional quantum Hall excitations.
Education
Ph.D., Princeton University, 2014
B.S., University of Science and Technology of China, 2008
Professional Background
Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University, 2014-2017
Honors and Awards
- NSF Career Award, 2020
- International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Young Scientist Prize, 2020
Selected Publications
Review: Moiré-of-Moiré Superlattice in Twisted Trilayer Graphene
Wei Ren, Ziyan Zhu, Xi Zhang, Mitchell Luskin, Ke Wang
J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, 37 353001 (2025)
Stability Diagram of Layer-polarized Quantum Hall States in Twisted Trilayer Graphene
Konstantin Davydov, Daochen Long, Jack Tavakley, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Ke Wang
J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 16, 31, 7990–7997 (2025)
Unconventional domain tessellations in moiré-of-moiré lattices
Daesung Park, Changwon Park, Kunihiro Yananose, Eunjung Ko, Byunghyun Kim, Rebecca Engelke, Xi Zhang, Konstantin Davydov, Matthew Green, Hyun-Mi Kim, Sang Hwa Park, Jae Heon Lee, Seul-Gi Kim, Hyeongkeun Kim, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Sang Mo Yang, Ke Wang, Philip Kim, Young-Woo Son, Hyobin Yoo
Nature 641, 896–903 (2025)
Tunable Atomically Enhanced Moiré Berry Curvatures in Twisted Triple Bilayer Graphene
Konstantin Davydov, Ziyan Zhu, Noah Friedman, Ethan Gramowski, Yaotian Li, Jack Tavakley, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Mitchell Luskin, Efthimios Kaxiras, Ke Wang
Physical Review B 111, L161120 (2025) (Letter & Editors' Suggestion)
2024
Electron Collimation in Twisted Bilayer Graphene via Gate-defined Moiré Barriers
Wei Ren, Xi Zhang, Ziyan Zhu, Moosa Khan, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Efthimios Kaxiras, Mitchell Luskin, Ke Wang
Nano Letters 24, 40, 12508–12514 (2024)
Easy-to-configure zero-dimensional valley-chiral modes in a graphene point junction
Konstantin Davydov, Xi Zhang, Wei Ren, Matthew Coles, Logan Kline, Bryan Zucker, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Ke Wang
Science Advances 10, eadp6296 (2024)
Tunable Inter-Moiré Physics in Consecutively-Twisted Trilayer Graphene
Wei Ren, Konstantin Davydov, Ziyan Zhu, Jaden Ma, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Efthimios Kaxiras, Mitchell Luskin, Ke Wang
Physical Review B 110, 115404 (2024) (Editors' Suggestion)
Transport Study of Charge-Carrier Scattering in Monolayer WSe2
Andrew Y. Joe, Kateryna Pistunova, Kristen Kaasbjerg, Ke Wang, Bumho Kim, Daniel A. Rhodes, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, James Hone, Tony Low, Luis A. Jauregui, Philip Kim
Physical Review Letters 132, 056303 (2024)
2023
Selective Manipulation and Tunneling Spectroscopy of Broken-Symmetry Quantum Hall States in a Hybrid-edge Quantum Point Contact
Wei Ren*, Xi Zhang*, Jaden Ma, Xihe Han, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Ke Wang
Physical Review B 108, 245423 (2023)
2022
Zhang, X., Ren, W., Bell, E., Zhu, Z., Tsai, K.T., Luo, Y., Watanabe, K., Taniguchi, T., Kaxiras, E., Luskin, M., Wang, K. (2022). Gate-tunable Veselago interference in a bipolar graphene microcavity. Nature communications. 13 (1), [6711].
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34347-w
2021
Zhang, X., Tsai, K.T., Zhu, Z., Ren, W., Luo, Y., Carr, S., Luskin, M., Kaxiras, E., Wang, K. (2021). Correlated Insulating States and Transport Signature of Superconductivity in Twisted Trilayer Graphene Superlattices. Physical review letters. 127 (16), [166802].
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.166802
2020
Lee, I.H., He, M., Zhang, X., Luo, Y., Liu, S., Edgar, J.H., Wang, K., Avouris, P., Low, T., Caldwell, J.D., Oh, S.H. (2020). Image polaritons in boron nitride for extreme polariton confinement with low losses. Nature communications. 11 (1), [3649].
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17424-w
2019
Wang, K., Elahi, M.M., Wang, L., Habib, K.M.M., Taniguchi, T., Watanabe, K., Hone, J., Ghosh, A.W., Lee, G.H., Kim, P. (2019). Graphene transistor based on tunable Dirac fermion optics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 116 (14), [6575-6579].
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1816119116
Elahi, M.M., Masum Habib, K.M., Wang, K., Lee, G.H., Kim, P., Ghosh, A.W. (2019). Impact of geometry and non-idealities on electron "optics" based graphene p-n junction devices. Applied Physics Letters. 114 (1), [013507].
DOI: 10.1063/1.5064607
Wang, K., Harzheim, A., Taniguchi, T., Watanabei, K., Lee, J.U., Kim, P. (2019). Tunneling spectroscopy of quantum hall states in bilayer graphene p-n junctions. Physical review letters. 122 (14), [146801].
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.146801
2018
Wang, K., De Greve, K., Jauregui, L.A., Sushko, A., High, A., Zhou, Y., Scuri, G., Taniguchi, T., Watanabe, K., Lukin, M.D., Park, H., Kim, P. (2018). Electrical control of charged carriers and excitons in atomically thin materials. Nature Nanotechnology. 13 (2), [128-132].
DOI: 10.1038/s41565-017-0030-x
Wintz, D., Chaudhary, K., Wang, K., Jauregui, L.A., Ambrosio, A., Tamagnone, M., Zhu, A.Y., Devlin, R.C., Crossno, J.D., Pistunova, K., Watanabe, K., Taniguchi, T., Kim, P., Capasso, F. (2018). Guided Modes of Anisotropic van der Waals Materials Investigated by near-Field Scanning Optical Microscopy. ACS Photonics. 5 (4), [1196-1201].
DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.7b01518
Bhandari, S., Wang, K., Watanabe, K., Taniguchi, T., Kim, P., Westervelt, R.M. (2018). Imaging quantum dot formation in MoS2 nanostructures. Nanotechnology. 29 (42), [42LT03].
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/aad79f
2017
Bhandari, S., Wang, K., Watanabe, K., Taniguchi, T., Kim, P., Westervelt, R.M. (2017). Imaging Electron Motion in a Few Layer MoS2 Device. Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 864 (1), [012031].
DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/864/1/012031
2016
Kutterolf, S., Schindlbeck, J.C., Anselmetti, F.S., Ariztegui, D., Brenner, M., Curtis, J., Schmid, D., Hodell, D.A., Mueller, A., Pérez, L., Pérez, W., Schwalb, A., Frische, M., Wang, K.L. (2016). A 400-ka tephrochronological framework for Central America from Lake Petén Itzá (Guatemala) sediments. Quaternary Science Reviews. [200-220].
DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.08.023
Li, J., Wang, K., McFaul, K.J., Zern, Z., Ren, Y., Watanabe, K., Taniguchi, T., Qiao, Z., Zhu, J. (2016). Gate-controlled topological conducting channels in bilayer graphene. Nature Nanotechnology. 11 (12), [1060-1065].
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2016.158
Crossno, J., Shi, J.K., Wang, K., Liu, X., Harzheim, A., Lucas, A., Sachdev, S., Kim, P., Taniguchi, T., Watanabe, K., Ohki, T.A., Fong, K.C. (2016). Observation of the Dirac fluid and the breakdown of the Wiedemann-Franz law in graphene. Science. 351 (6277), [1058-1061].
DOI: 10.1126/science.aad0343
Wintz, D., Zhu, A.Y., Wang, K., Ambrosio, A., Devlin, R., Crossno, J., Kim, P., Capasso, F. (2016). Optical characterization of van der Waals materials via near-field microscopy. In 2016 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, CLEO 2016. (2016 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, CLEO 2016.). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc..
Wintz, D., Zhu, A.Y., Wang, K., Ambrosio, A., Devlin, R., Crossno, J., Kim, P., Capasso, F. (2016). Optical characterization of van der Waals materials via near-field microscopy. Optics InfoBase Conference Papers. [SW1R.2].
2015
Zajac, D.M., Hazard, T.M., Mi, X., Wang, K., Petta, J.R. (2015). A reconfigurable gate architecture for Si/SiGe quantum dots. Applied Physics Letters. 106 (22), [223507].
DOI: 10.1063/1.4922249
Mi, X., Hazard, T.M., Payette, C., Wang, K., Zajac, D.M., Cady, J.V., Petta, J.R. (2015). Magnetotransport studies of mobility limiting mechanisms in undoped Si/SiGe heterostructures. Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics. 92 (3), [035304].
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.92.035304
2013
Wang, K., Payette, C., Dovzhenko, Y., Deelman, P.W., Petta, J.R. (2013). Charge relaxation in a single-electron Si/SiGe double quantum dot. Physical review letters. 111 (4), [046801].
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.046801
2012
Dovzhenko, Y., Wang, K., Schroer, M.D., Petta, J.R. (2012). Electrically controlling single spin coherence in semiconductor nanostructures. In Quantum Dots. (255-276). Cambridge University Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511998331.016
Payette, C., Wang, K., Koppinen, P.J., Dovzhenko, Y., Sturm, J.C., Petta, J.R. (2012). Single charge sensing and transport in double quantum dots fabricated from commercially grown Si/SiGe heterostructures. Applied Physics Letters. 100 (4), [043508].
DOI: 10.1063/1.3678043