Dong Yu

Professor
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of California at Davis

Office:   203 Physics
Phone:  530-754-0832
Fax:      530-752-4717
Email:   yu at physics.ucdavis.edu


2021-          Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of California at Davis
2014-2021  Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of California at Davis
2008-2014  Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of California at Davis
2005-2008  Postdoc, Harvard University
2000-2005  Ph.D. in Physics, University of Chicago
1995-2000  B.S. in Material Science, University of Science and Technology of China

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8386-065X

Research Interest

Our research group explores condensed matter physics taking advantage of the monocrystallinity and the large surface-to-volume ratio in low dimensional nanocrystals. Our work is mainly supported by National Science Foundation and UC Lab Fees program. Recent research topics include:

1) Topological insulators: explore how charge and spin transport in topological insulators for spintronics and quantum computation.
 
Topological excitons

Rodrigo Becerra Silva, Jay Huang, Bob Minyu Wang, Ziyi Song, Henry Clark Travaglini, and Dong Yu, Superdiffusion of photoexcited carriers in topological insulator nanoribbons, Nano Letters 25, 7754–7761 (2025).

Adam L Gross, Yasen Hou, Antonio Rossi, Dong Yu, and Inna M Vishik, Nanosecond dynamics in intrinsic topological insulator Bi 2-x Sb x Se 3 revealed by time-resolved optical reflectivity, Physical Review B 103, L020301 (2021).

Yasen Hou, Rui Wang, Rui Xiao, Luke McClintock, Henry Clark Travaglini, John Paulus Francia, Harry Fetsch, Onur Erten, Sergey Y Savrasov, Baigeng Wang, Antonio Rossi, Inna Vishik, Eli Rotenberg, and Dong Yu, Millimetre-long transport of photogenerated carriers in topological insulators, Nature Communications 10, 5723 (2019).

2) Helicity-dependent photocurrent:  examine how photon helicity impacts the photocurrent generation.

CPGE

Bob Minyu Wang, Renzhi Sun, Ziyi Song, and Dong Yu, Temperature- and gate-tunable helicity-dependent photocurrent in Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 nanobelts, Physical Review B 109, 245305 (2024).

Bob Minyu Wang, Yuqing Zhu, Henry Clark Travaglini, Renzhi Sun, Sergey Y Savrasov, William Hahn, Klaus van Benthem, and Dong Yu, Spatially dispersive helicity-dependent photocurrent in Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 nanobelts, Physical Review B 108, 165405 (2023).


3) Halide perovskites: understand why these materials are so good at converting light into electricity and make it even better.

Exciton_perovskite

Luke McClintock, Ziyi Song, H Clark Travaglini, R Tugrul Senger, Vigneshwaran Chandrasekaran, Han Htoon, Dmitry Yarotski, and Dong Yu, Highly mobile excitons in single crystal methylammonium lead tribromide perovskite microribbons, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 13, 3698–3705 (2022).

Luke McClintock, Rui Xiao, Yasen Hou, Clinton Gibson, Henry Clark Travaglini, David Abramovitch, Liang Z Tan, Ramazan Tugrul Senger, Yongping Fu, Song Jin, and Dong Yu, Temperature and gate dependence of carrier diffusion in single crystal methylammonium lead iodide perovskite microstructures, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 11, 1000–1006 (2020).

Rui Xiao, Yasen Hou, Yongping Fu, Xingyue Peng, Qi Wang, Eliovardo Gonzalez, Song Jin, and Dong Yu, Photocurrent mapping in single-crystal methylammonium lead iodide perovskite nanostructures, Nano Letters 16, 7710–7717 (2016).

 4) Metal insulator transition: can we make a faster computer based on phase transition?

VO2 Ion

Yasen Hou, Rui Xiao, Xin Tong, Scott Dhuey, and Dong Yu, In situ visualization of fast surface ion diffusion in vanadium dioxide nanowires, Nano letters 17, 7702–7709 (2017).

Xingyue Peng, Yiming Yang, Yasen Hou, Henry C Travaglini, Luke Hellwig, Sahar Hihath, Klaus van Benthem, Kathleen Lee, Weifeng Liu, and Dong Yu, Efficient and hysteresis-free field effect modulation of ambipolarly doped vanadium dioxide nanowires, Physical Review Applied 5, 054008 (2016).

 Chris Miller, Mark Triplett, Joel Lammatao, Joonki Suh, Deyi Fu, Junqiao Wu, and Dong Yu, Unusually long free carrier lifetime and metal-insulator band offset in vanadium dioxide, Physical Review B 85, 085111 (2012).

 5) Nanowire and quantum dot solar cells: confine electrons and photons allows for enhanced absorption and more efficient solar cells.
PbS
                 
Yiming Yang, Xingyue Peng, Steven Hyatt, and Dong Yu, Broadband quantum efficiency enhancement in high index nanowire resonators, Nano Letters 15, 3541–3546 (2015).

Yiming Yang, Xingyue Peng, Hong-Seok Kim, Taeho Kim, Sanghun Jeon, Hang Kyu Kang, Wonjun Choi, Jindong Song, Yong-Joo Doh, and Dong Yu, Hot carrier trapping induced negative photoconductance in inas nanowires toward novel nonvolatile memory, Nano Letters 15, 5875–5882 (2015).

M Triplett, Y Yang, F Lιonard, A Alec Talin, M Saif Islam, and D Yu, Long minority carrier diffusion lengths in bridged silicon nanowires, Nano Letters 15, 523–529 (2015).

Tyler Otto, Chris Miller, Jason Tolentino, Yao Liu, Matt Law, and Dong Yu, Gate-dependent carrier diffusion length in lead selenide quantum dot field-effect transistors, Nano Letters 13, 3463–3469 (2013).
 

Publication List

  1. Bob Minyu Wang, Rodrigo Becerra Silva, and Dong Yu, Ultrafast photovoltage reversal in Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 nanobelts, Physical Review B 113, 045421 (2026).
  2. Rak-Hee Kim, Yeongmin Jang, Bob M Wang, Dong Yu, and Yong-Joo Doh, Anomalous Fraunhofer patterns in Cd3As2 Josephson junctions, Journal of the Korean Physical Society, 1–7 (2026).
  3. Jakub Kierdaszuk, Bob Wang, Ange Benise Niyikiza, Fengjiao Pan, Ying Peng, Zhifeng Ren, Dong Yu, and Junqiao Wu, Evidence of n-type doping in cubic boron arsenide, Advanced Materials , e14590 (2025).
  4. Tanner Q Kimberly, Bob Wang, Michelle H Frasch, Karen C Bustillo, Dong Yu, and Susan M Kauzlarich, Modulating the Electronic Transport of 2D Sb2Te3 Nanoplates by Coinage Metal Intercalation, Nano Letters 25, 9040–9046 (2025).
  5. Rodrigo Becerra Silva, Jay Huang, Bob Minyu Wang, Ziyi Song, Henry Clark Travaglini, and Dong Yu, Superdiffusion of photoexcited carriers in topological insulator nanoribbons, Nano Letters 25, 7754–7761 (2025).
  6. Yuqing Zhu, Ziyi Song, Rodrigo Becerra Silva, Bob Minyu Wang, Henry Clark Travaglini, Andrew C Grieder, Yuan Ping, Liang Z. Tan, and Dong Yu, Electrically switchable circular photogalvanic effect in methylammonium lead iodide microcrystals, arxiv 10.48550/arXiv.2403.15611 (2024).
  7. Bob Minyu Wang, Renzhi Sun, Ziyi Song, and Dong Yu, Temperature- and gate-tunable helicity-dependent photocurrent in Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 nanobelts, Physical Review B 109, 245305 (2024).
  8. Luke M McClintock, Long Yuan, Ziyi Song, Michael T Pettes, Dmitry Yarotski, Rijan Kar-kee, David A Strubbe, Liang Z Tan, Azza Ben-Akacha, Biwu Ma, Yunshu Shi, Valentin Taufour, and Dong Yu, Surface effects on anisotropic photoluminescence in one-dimensional organic metal halide hybrids, Small Structures , 2200378 (2023).
  9. Duhyuk Kwon, Bum-Kyu Kim, Yong-Joo Doh, Dong Yu, Jonghyun Song, and Myung-Ho Bae, Quantum interference probed by the thermovoltage in Sb-doped Bi2Se3 nanowires, iScience 26, 105691 (2023).
  10. Bob Minyu Wang, Yuqing Zhu, Henry Clark Travaglini, Renzhi Sun, Sergey Y Savrasov, William Hahn, Klaus van Benthem, and Dong Yu, Spatially dispersive helicity-dependent photocurrent in Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 nanobelts, Physical Review B 108, 165405 (2023).
  11. Luke McClintock, Ziyi Song, H Clark Travaglini, R Tugrul Senger, Vigneshwaran Chandrasekaran, Han Htoon, Dmitry Yarotski, and Dong Yu, Highly mobile excitons in single crystal methylammonium lead tribromide perovskite microribbons, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 13, 3698–3705 (2022).
  12. Rak-Hee Kim, Nam-Hee Kim, Bongkeon Kim, Yasen Hou, Dong Yu, and Yong-Joo Doh, Multiple andreev reflections in topological insulator nanoribbons, Current Applied Physics 34, 107–111 (2022).
  13. Kuen Wai Tang, Bob Minyu Wang, Henry Clark Travaglini, and Dong Yu, Modeling of the photocurrent induced by inverse spin hall effect under local circularly polarized photoexci-tation, Physical Review B 104, 205413 (2021).
  14. Kuen Wai Tang, Senlei Li, Spencer Weeden, Ziyi Song, Luke McClintock, Rui Xiao, R Tugrul Senger, and Dong Yu, Transport modeling of locally photogenerated excitons in halide perovskites, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 12, 3951–3959 (2021).
  15. Adam L Gross, Yasen Hou, Antonio Rossi, Dong Yu, and Inna M Vishik, Nanosecond dynamics in intrinsic topological insulator Bi 2- x Sb x Se 3 revealed by time-resolved optical reflectivity, Physical Review B 103, L020301 (2021).
  16. Luke McClintock, Rui Xiao, Yasen Hou, Clinton Gibson, Henry Clark Travaglini, David Abramovitch, Liang Z Tan, Ramazan Tugrul Senger, Yongping Fu, Song Jin, and Dong Yu, Temperature and gate dependence of carrier diffusion in single crystal methylammonium lead iodide perovskite microstructures, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 11, 1000–1006 (2020).
  17. Tae-Ha Hwang, Hong-Seok Kim, Yasen Hou, Dong Yu, and Yong-Joo Doh, Gate-Modulated Quantum Interference Oscillations in Sb-Doped Bi2Se3 Topological Insulator Nanoribbon, Journal of the Korean Physical Society 77, 797–801 (2020).
  18. Zaira I Bedolla-Valdez, Rui Xiao, Camila Cendra, Alice S Fergerson, Zekun Chen, Goktug Gonel, Alberto Salleo, Dong Yu, and Adam J Moulι, Reversible doping and photo patterning of polymer nanowires, Advanced Electronic Materials 6, 2000469 (2020).
  19. Hong-Seok Kim, Tae-Ha Hwang, Nam-Hee Kim, Yasen Hou, Dong Yu, H-S Sim, and Yong-Joo Doh, Adjustable quantum interference oscillations in Sb-doped Bi2Se3 topological in-sulator nanoribbons, ACS nano 14, 14118–14125 (2020).
  20. Nam-Hee Kim, Hong-Seok Kim, Yasen Hou, Dong Yu, and Yong-Joo Doh, Superconducting quantum interference devices made of Sb-doped Bi2Se3 topological insulator nanoribbons, Current Applied Physics 20, 680–685 (2020).
  21. Yasen Hou, Rui Xiao, Senlei Li, Lang Wang, and Dong Yu, Nonlocal chemical potential modulation in topological insulators enabled by highly mobile trapped charges, ACS Applied Electronic Materials 2, 3436–3442 (2020).
  22. Yasen Hou, Rui Wang, Rui Xiao, Luke McClintock, Henry Clark Travaglini, John Paulus Francia, Harry Fetsch, Onur Erten, Sergey Y Savrasov, Baigeng Wang, Antonio Rossi, Inna Vishik, Eli Rotenberg, and Dong Yu, Millimetre-long transport of photogenerated carriers in topological insulators, Nature Communications 10, 5723 (2019).
  23. Minjin Kim, Jihwan Kim, Yasen Hou, Dong Yu, Yong-Joo Doh, Bongsoo Kim, Kun Woo Kim, and Junho Suh, Nanomechanical characterization of quantum interference in a topo-logical insulator nanowire, Nature communications 10, 1–7 (2019).
  24. Zheng Ju, Yasen Hou, Andrew Bernard, Valentin Taufour, Dong Yu, and Susan M Kau-zlarich, Ambipolar Topological Insulator and High Carrier Mobility in Solution Grown Ultrathin Nanoplates of Sb-Doped Bi2Se3, ACS Applied Electronic Materials 1, 1917–1923 (2019).
  25. Rui Xiao, Yasen Hou, Matt Law, and Dong Yu, On the use of photocurrent imaging to deter-mine carrier diffusion lengths in nanostructured thin-film field-effect transistors, Journal of Physical Chemistry C 122, 18356–18364 (2018).
  26. Yasen Hou, Rui Xiao, Xin Tong, Scott Dhuey, and Dong Yu, In situ visualization of fast surface ion diffusion in vanadium dioxide nanowires, Nano letters 17, 7702–7709 (2017).
  27. Jungdong Kim, Eunsoon Oh, Rui Xiao, Sean Ritter, Yiming Yang, Dong Yu, Ju Hee Im, Sang Hyuk Kim, Won Jun Choi, and Jae-Gwan Park, Optical properties and bridge photode-tector integration of lead sulfide nanowires, Nanotechnology 28, 475706 (2017).
  28. Bum-Kyu Kim, Hong-Seok Kim, Yiming Yang, Xingyue Peng, Dong Yu, and Yong-Joo Doh, Strong superconducting proximity effects in PbS semiconductor nanowires, ACS nano 11, 221–226 (2017).
  29. Xingyue Peng, Yiming Yang, Yasen Hou, Henry C Travaglini, Luke Hellwig, Sahar Hihath, Klaus van Benthem, Kathleen Lee, Weifeng Liu, and Dong Yu, Efficient and hysteresis-free field effect modulation of ambipolarly doped vanadium dioxide nanowires, Physical Review Applied 5, 054008 (2016).
  30. Xingyue Peng, Yiming Yang, Rajiv RP Singh, Sergey Y Savrasov, and Dong Yu, Spin gen-eration via bulk spin current in three-dimensional topological insulators, Nature Communications 7, 10878 (2016).
  31. Hong-Seok Kim, Bum-Kyu Kim, Yiming Yang, Xingyue Peng, Soon-Gul Lee, Dong Yu, and Yong-Joo Doh, Gate-tunable superconducting quantum interference devices of PbS nanowires, Applied Physics Express 9, 023102 (2016).
  32. Rui Xiao, Yasen Hou, Yongping Fu, Xingyue Peng, Qi Wang, Eliovardo Gonzalez, Song Jin, and Dong Yu, Photocurrent mapping in single-crystal methylammonium lead iodide perovskite nanostructures, Nano Letters 16, 7710–7717 (2016).
  33. Yiming Yang, Xingyue Peng, Steven Hyatt, and Dong Yu, Absorption enhancement and carrier diffusion in single lead sulfide nanowire schottky solar cells, in Low-Dimensional Materials and Devices, Vol. 9553 (SPIE, 2015) pp. 36–42.
  34. Yiming Yang, Xingyue Peng, Steven Hyatt, and Dong Yu, Broadband quantum efficiency enhancement in high index nanowire resonators, Nano Letters 15, 3541–3546 (2015).
  35. Yiming Yang, Xingyue Peng, Hong-Seok Kim, Taeho Kim, Sanghun Jeon, Hang Kyu Kang, Wonjun Choi, Jindong Song, Yong-Joo Doh, and Dong Yu, Hot carrier trapping induced neg-ative photoconductance in InAs nanowires toward novel nonvolatile memory, Nano Letters 15, 5875–5882 (2015).
  36. M Triplett, Y Yang, F Lιonard, A Alec Talin, M Saif Islam, and D Yu, Long minority carrier diffusion lengths in bridged silicon nanowires, Nano Letters 15, 523–529 (2015).
  37. DM Nisson, AP Dioguardi, X Peng, D Yu, and NJ Curro, Anomalous nuclear magnetic resonance spectra in Bi2Se3 nanowires, Physical Review B 90, 125121 (2014).
  38. Yiming Yang, Xingyue Peng, and Dong Yu, High intensity induced photocurrent polar-ity switching in lead sulfide nanowire field effect transistors, Nanotechnology 25, 195202 (2014).
  39. Syamanta K Goswami, Jungdong Kim, Kimin Hong, Eunsoon Oh, Yiming Yang, and Dong Yu, Photocurrent and photovoltaic characteristics of copper sulfide nanowires grown by a hydrothermal method, Materials Letters 133, 132–134 (2014).
  40. Tyler Otto, Chris Miller, Jason Tolentino, Yao Liu, Matt Law, and Dong Yu, Gate-dependent carrier diffusion length in lead selenide quantum dot field-effect transistors, Nano Letters 13, 3463–3469 (2013).
  41. Tyler N Otto and Dong Yu, Positive temperature coefficient of resistance and bistable con-duction in lead selenide quantum dot thin films, Journal of Physical Chemistry C 117, 3713–3717 (2013).
  42. Rion Graham and Dong Yu, Scanning photocurrent microscopy in semiconductor nanostruc-tures, Modern Physics Letters B 27, 1330018 (2013).
  43. Rion Graham and Dong Yu, High carrier mobility in single ultrathin colloidal lead selenide nanowire field effect transistors, Nano Letters 12, 4360–4365 (2012).
  44. Dieter Isheim, Jason Kaszpurenko, Dong Yu, Zugang Mao, David N Seidman, and Ilke Arslan, 3-d atomic-scale mapping of manganese dopants in lead sulfide nanowires, Journal of Physical Chemistry C 116, 6595–6600 (2012).
  45. Yiming Yang, Jiao Li, Hengkui Wu, Eunsoon Oh, and Dong Yu, Controlled ambipolar dop-ing and gate voltage dependent carrier diffusion length in lead sulfide nanowires, Nano Letters 12, 5890–5896 (2012).
  46. Hengkui Wu, Yiming Yang, Eunsoon Oh, Fachun Lai, and Dong Yu, Direct synthesis of high-density lead sulfide nanowires on metal thin films towards efficient infrared light con-version, Nanotechnology 23, 265602 (2012).
  47. Chris Miller, Mark Triplett, Joel Lammatao, Joonki Suh, Deyi Fu, Junqiao Wu, and Dong Yu, Unusually long free carrier lifetime and metal-insulator band offset in vanadium dioxide, Physical Review B 85, 085111 (2012).
  48. Rion Graham, Chris Miller, Eunsoon Oh, and Dong Yu, Electric field dependent photocurrent decay length in single lead sulfide nanowire field effect transistors, Nano Letters 11, 717–722 (2011).
  49. Deyi Fu, Jijun Zou, Kevin Wang, Rong Zhang, Dong Yu, and Junqiao Wu, Electrothermal dynamics of semiconductor nanowires under local carrier modulation, Nano letters 11, 3809–3815 (2011).
  50. Dong Yu, Sarah Brittman, Jin Seok Lee, Abram L Falk, and Hongkun Park, Minimum volt-age for threshold switching in nanoscale phase-change memory, Nano Letters 8, 3429–3433 (2008).
  51. Jin Seok Lee, Sarah Brittman, Dong Yu, and Hongkun Park, Vapor–liquid–solid and vapor–solid growth of phase-change Sb2Te3 nanowires and Sb2Te3/GeTe nanowire heterostruc-tures, Journal of the American Chemical Society 130, 6252–6258 (2008).
  52. Philippe Guyot-Sionnest, Dong Yu, Pei-hsun Jiang, and Woowon Kang, Spin blockade in the conduction of colloidal CdSe nanocrystal films, The Journal of chemical physics 127, 014702 (2007).
  53. Dong Yu, Junqiao Wu, Qian Gu, and Hongkun Park, Germanium telluride nanowires and nanohelices with memory-switching behavior, Journal of the American Chemical Society 128, 8148–8149 (2006).
  54. Dong Yu, Brian L Wehrenberg, Praket Jha, Jiasen Ma, and Philippe Guyot-Sionnest, Electronic transport of n-type CdSe quantum dot films: Effect of film treatment, Journal of ap-plied physics 99, 104315 (2006).
  55. Dong Yu, Brian L Wehrenberg, Inseok Yang, Woowon Kang, and Philippe Guyot-Sionnest, Magnetoresistance of n-type quantum dot solids, Applied physics letters 88, 072504 (2006).
  56. Brian L Wehrenberg, Dong Yu, Jiasen Ma, and Philippe Guyot-Sionnest, Conduction in charged PbSe nanocrystal films, The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 109, 20192–20199 (2005).
  57. Philippe Guyot-Sionnest, Brian Wehrenberg, and Dong Yu, Intraband relaxation in CdSe nanocrystals and the strong influence of the surface ligands, The Journal of chemical physics 123, 074709 (2005).
  58. Dong Yu, Congjun Wang, Brian L Wehrenberg, and Philippe Guyot-Sionnest, Variable range hopping conduction in semiconductor nanocrystal solids, Physical Review Letters 92, 216802 (2004).
  59. Dong Yu,Congjun Wang, and Philippe Guyot-Sionnest, n-Type conducting CdSe nanocrystal solids, Science 300, 1277–1280 (2003).


Courses
 PHY 1A Principles of physics
PHY 9A, 9C General physics
PHY 9HB, 9HC, 9HD Hornor physics
PHY 110ABC  Electricity and Magnetism (Upper division)
PHY 122A Advanced Lab (Upper division)
PHY 250 Introduction to Nanoscale Science (Graduate)