Tianquan Lian
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Chemistry
When light hits a tiny semiconductor crystal, it can kick an electron free, and that electron can jump to a nearby molecule. This photoinduced electron transfer (ET) drives light-powered chemistry and could be used to carry information in future quantum technologies.
- Fields
Chemistry
Materials Science
Physics
- Topics
photoinduced electron transfer
chiral induced spin selectivity
semiconductor nanocrystals
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2029
What they work on
- Extend electron spin lifetimes in semiconductor nanoplatelets by increasing electron–hole separation in three-component nanoplatelet heterostructures (crystals built from layered materials), then use the best structures as donors.
- Measure chiral induced spin selectivity (CISS), where handed molecules favor one electron spin, during light-driven electron transfer in nanocrystal donor–chiral bridge–acceptor complexes, using time-resolved measurements.
- Design and fabricate mixed-layer 2D chiral perovskites to detect CISS effects as electrons transfer from thinner to thicker perovskite layers after light absorption.
- Characterize how polaritons, hybrid light–matter states formed by coupling nanocrystals to optical cavity modes, form and decay, and measure how they alter electron transfer to molecular acceptors.
- Develop design principles for semiconductor nanocrystals that combine slow electron spin relaxation with fast photoinduced electron transfer for quantum information applications.
More about the research
These projects ask how to control that jump. One approach traps light in an optical cavity. The other steers the electron's spin, a tiny magnetic orientation, using molecules that come in left- and right-handed forms.
Why it matters
Controlling where electrons go after light absorption is central to photocatalysis, which uses light to drive chemical reactions. Controlling electron spin is essential for spintronics and quantum information processing. Design rules for nanocrystal–chiral molecule systems and for cavity-controlled electron transfer could help researchers build light-driven spin devices and tune reaction rates. They could also inform future displays, light-emitting diodes and quantum information hardware.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Min Ouyang
University of Maryland, MD·Chemistry
Establish chemical principles for making ligand-free, all-inorganic chiral hybrid nanostructures that combine plasmonic, excitonic and spin functions in a single particle.
Mengxia Liu
Yale University, CT·Materials Science·Early-career
Design chiral hybrid perovskite heterostructures that boost spin polarization dependent on light's handedness and improve spin-to-charge conversion under broadband circularly polarized light.
Shaul Mukamel
University of California-Irvine, CA·Chemistry
Develop models and computational tools to predict and interpret spectroscopy signals made with entangled photons, combining electronic structure and quantum dynamics simulations.
The school
University of Pennsylvania: 90 labs on PI Pages, $2.2B a year on research, 750 research doctorates a year.
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