Alexander A. Balandin is an electrical engineer, solid-state physicist, and materials scientist best known for the experimental discovery of unique thermal properties of graphene and their theoretical explanation; studies of phonons in nanostructures and low-dimensional materials, which led to the development of the field of phonon engineering; investigation of low-frequency electronic noise in materials and devices; and demonstration of the first charge-density-wave quantum devices operating at room temperature.

Academic career

Alexander A. Balandin received his BS and MS degrees Summa Cum Laude in applied mathematics and applied physics from the

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT; , also known as PhysTech), is a public university, public research university located in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It prepares specialists in theoretical physics, theoretical and applied physics, ...

(MIPT), Russia. He received his second MS degree and Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

, U.S. After completion of his postdoctoral studies at the Department of Electrical Engineering of the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(UCLA), he joined the

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of Cali ...

(UCR) as a faculty member. He is presently a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

Presidential Chair Professor of Materials Science. He has served as the Founding Chair of the campus-wide

Materials Science and Engineering Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials scien ...

(MS&E) Program and as a Director of the Nanofabrication Facility (NanoFab) at UCR. Presently, he serves as a Director of the UCR's Phonon Optimized Engineered Materials (POEM) Center. Professor Balandin is a Deputy Editor-in-Chief for

Applied Physics Letters ''Applied Physics Letters'' is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published by the American Institute of Physics. Its focus is rapid publication and dissemination of new experimental and theoretical papers regarding applications of ...

(APL).

Research

Professor Balandin's research expertise covers a wide range of

nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

materials science Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials sci ...

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

phononics A phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter, specifically in solids and some liquids. In the context of optically trapped objects, the quantized vibration mode can be defined as ...

and

spintronics Spintronics (a portmanteau meaning spin transport electronics), also known as spin electronics, is the study of the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-st ...

fields with particular focus on low-dimensional materials and devices. He conducts both experimental and theoretical research. He is recognized as a pioneer of the

graphene Graphene () is a carbon allotrope consisting of a Single-layer materials, single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, honeycomb planar nanostructure. The name "graphene" is derived from "graphite" and the suffix -ene, indicating ...

thermal field and one of the pioneers of the

field. His research interests include

charge density wave A charge density wave (CDW) is an ordered quantum fluid of electrons in a linear chain compound or layered crystal. The electrons within a CDW form a standing wave pattern and sometimes collectively carry an electric current. The electrons in su ...

effects in low-dimensional materials and their device applications,

electronic noise In electronics, noise is an unwanted disturbance in an electrical signal. Noise generated by electronic devices varies greatly as it is produced by several different effects. In particular, noise is inherent in physics and central to thermod ...

in materials and devices, Brillouin – Mandelstam and

Raman spectroscopy Raman spectroscopy () (named after physicist C. V. Raman) is a Spectroscopy, spectroscopic technique typically used to determine vibrational modes of molecules, although rotational and other low-frequency modes of systems may also be observed. Ra ...

of various materials, practical applications of

in thermal management and energy conversion. He is also active in the areas of emerging devices and alternative computational paradigms. Professor Balandin was among the pioneers of the field of

and

phonon A phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter, specifically in solids and some liquids. In the context of optically trapped objects, the quantized vibration mode can be defined a ...

engineering. In 1998, Balandin published an influential paper on the effects of phonon spatial confinement on thermal conductivity of nanostructures, where the term “phonon engineering” appeared for the first time in a journal publication. In this work, he proposed theoretically a new physical mechanism for reduction of

thermal conductivity The thermal conductivity of a material is a measure of its ability to heat conduction, conduct heat. It is commonly denoted by k, \lambda, or \kappa and is measured in W·m−1·K−1. Heat transfer occurs at a lower rate in materials of low ...

due to the changes in the phonon

group velocity The group velocity of a wave is the velocity with which the overall envelope shape of the wave's amplitudes—known as the ''modulation'' or ''envelope (waves), envelope'' of the wave—propagates through space. For example, if a stone is thro ...

and

density of states In condensed matter physics, the density of states (DOS) of a system describes the number of allowed modes or quantum state, states per unit energy range. The density of states is defined as where N(E)\delta E is the number of states in the syste ...

induced by spatial confinement. The theoretically predicted changes in the acoustic phonon spectrum in individual

nanostructures A nanostructure is a structure of intermediate size between microscopic and molecular structure A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Ma ...

were later confirmed experimentally. Phonon engineering has applications in electronics, thermal management, and thermoelectric energy conversion. In 2008, Professor Balandin conducted pioneering research of

of graphene. In order to perform the first measurement of thermal properties of graphene, Balandin invented a new optothermal experiment technique based on

. He and his coworkers explained theoretically why the intrinsic thermal conductivity of graphene can be higher than that of bulk

graphite Graphite () is a Crystallinity, crystalline allotrope (form) of the element carbon. It consists of many stacked Layered materials, layers of graphene, typically in excess of hundreds of layers. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable ...

, and demonstrated experimentally the evolution of heat conduction when the system dimensionality changes from 2D (graphene) to 3D (graphite). The Balandin optothermal technique for measuring the thermal conductivity was adopted by many laboratories worldwide, and extended, with various modifications and improvements, to a range of other

2D materials In materials science, the term single-layer materials or 2D materials refers to crystalline solids consisting of a single layer of atoms. These materials are promising for some applications but remain the focus of research. Single-layer materials ...

. Balandin's contributions to graphene field go beyond graphene thermal properties and thermal management applications. His research group conducted detailed studies of low-frequency

in graphene devices; demonstrated graphene selective sensors, which do not rely on surface functionalization; and graphene

logic gates A logic gate is a device that performs a Boolean function, a logical operation performed on one or more Binary number, binary inputs that produces a single binary output. Depending on the context, the term may refer to an ideal logic gate, one ...

and circuits, which do not require electronic

band-gap In solid-state physics and solid-state chemistry, a band gap, also called a bandgap or energy gap, is an energy range in a solid where no electronic states exist. In graphs of the electronic band structure of solids, the band gap refers to the ...

in graphene. Professor Balandin made a number of important contributions to the field of low-frequency

, also known as

1/f noise Pink noise, noise, fractional noise or fractal noise is a signal or process with a frequency spectrum such that the power spectral density (power per frequency interval) is inversely proportional to the frequency of the signal. In pink nois ...

. His early work in the 1/f noise field included investigation of

noise Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...

sources in

GaN The word Gan or the initials GAN may refer to: Places * Gan, a component of Hebrew placenames literally meaning "garden" China * Gan River (Jiangxi) * Gan River (Inner Mongolia), * Gan County, in Jiangxi province * Gansu, abbreviated '' ...

materials and devices, which led to a substantial reduction in the noise level in such type of devices made of wide band-gap

semiconductors A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping levels ...

. In 2008, he started the investigation of electronic noise in graphene and other 2D materials. The main results of his research included understanding the mechanism of the 1/f noise in graphene, which is different from that in conventional semiconductors or

metals A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. These properties are all associated with having electrons available at the Fermi level, as against no ...

; the use of few-layer graphene to address the century-old problem of surface vs. volume noise origin; understanding unusual effects of irradiation on noise in graphene, which revealed a possibility of noise reduction in graphene after irradiation. He successfully used noise measurements as

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spectro ...

for better understanding of the specifics of

electron transport An electron transport chain (ETC) is a series of protein complexes and other molecules which transfer electrons from electron donors to electron acceptors via redox reactions (both reduction and oxidation occurring simultaneously) and couples this ...

in graphene and other low-dimensional (1D and 2D) materials. Professor Balandin's work helped in the rebirth of the

(CDW) research field. The early work on CDW effects was performed with bulk samples, which have quasi-1D crystal structures of strongly-bound 1D atomic chains that are weakly bound together by

van der Waals forces In molecular physics and chemistry, the van der Waals force (sometimes van der Waals' force) is a distance-dependent interaction between atoms or molecules. Unlike ionic or covalent bonds, these attractions do not result from a chemical ele ...

. The rebirth of the CDW field has been associated, from one side, with the interest in layered quasi-2D van der Waals materials and, from another side, with the realization that some of these materials reveal CDW effects at room temperature and above. Balandin group demonstrated the first CDW device operating at room temperature. Balandin and co-workers used original low-frequency noise spectroscopy to monitor

phase transitions In physics, chemistry, and other related fields like biology, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic Sta ...

in 2D CDW

quantum materials Quantum materials is an umbrella term in condensed matter physics that encompasses all materials whose essential properties cannot be described in terms of semiclassical particles and low-level quantum mechanics. These are materials that present ...

, demonstrated the extreme radiation hardness of CDW devices and proposed a number of

transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...

-less

logic circuits A logic gate is a device that performs a Boolean function, a logical operation performed on one or more Binary number, binary inputs that produces a single binary output. Depending on the context, the term may refer to an ideal logic gate, one ...

implemented with CDW devices.A. G. Khitun, A. K. Geremew, and A. A. Balandin, “Transistor-less logic circuits implemented with 2-D charge density wave devices,” IEEE Electron Device Lett., vol. 39, no. 9, pp. 1449–1452, 2018.

Honors and awards

Balandin received the following honors and awards: *The Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (VBFF), 2021 *The Brillouin Medal – International Phononics Society (IPS), 2019 “For discovery of unique phonon properties of graphene, and contributions to the development of graphene thermal management applications.” *Clarivate Analytics and Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher, since 2015 *Fellow of MRS – The

Materials Research Society The Materials Research Society (MRS) is a non-profit, professional organization for materials researchers, scientists and engineers. Established in 1973, MRS is a member-driven organization of approximately 13,000 materials researchers from academi ...

, 2014 *The MRS Medal – The

, 2013 “For discovery of the extraordinary high intrinsic thermal conductivity of graphene, development of an original optothermal measurement technique for investigation of thermal properties of graphene, and theoretical explanation of the unique features of the phonon transport in graphene” *Fellow of IEEE – The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, 2013 *Fellow of APS – The

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

, 2012 *The Pioneer of Nanotechnology Award –

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

, 2011 “For pioneering contributions to nanoscale phonon transport with applications in nanodevices, graphene devices, thermoelectric and thermal management of advanced electronics.” *Fellow of SPIE - The

International Society for Optical Engineering SPIE (formerly the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, later the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers) is an international not-for-profit professional society for optics and photonics technology, founded in 1955. It ...

, 2011 *Fellow of OSA - The

Optical Society of America Optica, founded as the Optical Society of America (later the Optical Society), is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals, organizes conferences and exhibitions, and ca ...

, 2011 *Fellow of AAAS - The

American Association for Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

, 2007 *

Office of Naval Research The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to plan ...

(ONR) Young Investigator Award, Arlington, U.S., 2002 *

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

(NSF) Faculty CAREER Award, 2001 * Civil Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) Award, Arlington, U.S., 1999 *

Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, doing business as Merrill, and previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investm ...

Innovative Engineering Research Award, WTC, New York, U.S., 1998 “For practically important engineering dissertation research”

Research Group

Balandin group's expertise covers a broad range of topics from

solid-state physics Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as solid-state chemistry, quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state phy ...

to experimental investigation of advanced materials and devices with applications in electronics and

energy conversion Energy transformation, also known as energy conversion, is the process of changing energy from one form to another. In physics, energy is a quantity that provides the capacity to perform Work (physics), work (e.g. lifting an object) or provides ...

. The synergy among different research directions is in the focus on spatial confinement-induced effects in advanced materials,

phonons A phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, Elasticity (physics), elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter physics, condensed matter, specifically in solids and some liquids. In the context of optically trapped objects ...

and strongly correlated phenomena such as charge-density waves. The main research activities include Raman and Brillouin – Mandelstam light scattering

;

nanofabrication Nanolithography (NL) is a growing field of techniques within nanotechnology dealing with the engineering (patterning e.g. etching, depositing, writing, printing etc) of nanometer-scale structures on various materials. The modern term reflects on ...

and testing of electronic devices with 2D and 1D materials; low-frequency

spectroscopy; thermal and electrical characterization of

materials A material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their ge ...

References

External links

*
Balandin Group at UCLA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balandin, Alexander A. 20th-century births Living people American electrical engineers Russian electrical engineers UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Notre Dame College of Engineering alumni University of California, Riverside faculty Fellows of the IEEE Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellows of SPIE Scientists from California Year of birth missing (living people) Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology alumni