Zhou LabMaterials Science and EngineeringUniversity of Maryland
We stack atomically thin semiconductors into gate-tunable heterostructures and probe them with light. In them, electrons freeze into crystals, spins order into topological magnets, and atomically thin layers become mirrors, cavities, and strongly nonlinear media for light: physics we study for its own sake and turn into quantum optoelectronic devices.
Key results
Research
In gate-tunable stacks of atomically thin semiconductors, electrons can freeze into crystals and spins can order into topological magnets. We create these phases and read them out with light.
Wigner polarons probe an electron crystal Nature Physics, 2026
A single atomic layer can act as a mirror for light, and two such layers can form a cavity. We engineer how the excitons in these layers interact to strengthen their optical nonlinearity, working toward the few-photon regime.
Giant optical nonlinearity from Fermi polarons Nature Photonics, 2024
Gates, strain, and light all retune these layers. We build them into compact optical cavities and place them on metasurfaces that pattern the excitons’ energy landscape.
A chiral cavity from atomically thin mirrors Science Advances, 2024
Recent news
Lifu Zhang and Liuxin Gu’s paper showing that Wigner polarons probe the dynamics of an electron crystal was published in Nature Physics, with an accompanying News & Views by Mauro Brotons-Gisbert and Brian Gerardot (“Wigner crystals get dressed”), and featured by Phys.org and Maryland Today.
The NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Robust Quantum Simulation (RQS), in which You Zhou is senior personnel, was renewed for Phase II (2026–2031). Thanks to NSF for supporting our research.
Beini Gao’s paper on the quantum anomalous Hall effect, a joint project with the Hafezi group, was published in Physical Review X. Read the plain-language research highlight.
You Zhou was promoted to Associate Professor.
You Zhou received the Junior Faculty Outstanding Research Award from the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland.
Sabyasachi Das won the 2026 FIAP Ken Hass Outstanding Student Paper Award at the APS March Meeting! Congratulations!
Openings
We have openings for postdoctoral researchers and research scientists, and we welcome graduate and undergraduate students at all levels. How to join the lab explains how to get in touch and what members learn.
We welcome collaborations that draw on our 2D heterostructure fabrication, cryogenic optical spectroscopy from 400 to 1700 nm with photon-correlation measurements, and cryogenic microwave measurements up to 40 GHz. See our facilities and collaborators.