Biography:
Prof. Yang is a tenured Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Physics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He currently serves Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence and Secretary of IEEE Hong Kong Joint Chapter of Electron Devices and Solid-State Circuit. His recent research focuses on accelerating the development of functional materials using high-throughput screening techniques, large-scale DFT calculations, and physics-informed machine learning. Prof. Yang also engages in developing 2D electronic, spintronic and optoelectronic devices, as well as exploring the electronic, magnetic, topological, and optical properties of 2D materials and their heterostructures. To date, Prof. Yang has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers on renowned journals such as Science, Nature Materials, Nature Electronics, and Nature Nanotechnology (> 10,000 citations and H-index 52), contributed to two book chapters and filed 1 PCT /2 US patents.
Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors such as monolayer MoS₂ hold significant promise for advancing nanoelectronics. However, integrating high-k dielectrics with 2D semiconductors to achieve high performance devices remains a challenge. In this talk, I will present our understanding of designing high-performance interfaces between high-k dielectrics and 2D MoS2. First, we demonstrate that hydrogenation is an effective method for passivating dangling bonds at the interface between conventional high-k dielectrics and MoS₂, in which hydrogenation selectively occurs on high-k dielectrics such as Si3N4 and HfO2 without affecting the MoS2. Second, we introduce a data-driven approach to expedite the discovery of inorganic molecular crystals (IMCs) as high-k dielectrics. From enormous candidates in Materials Project, we identify 6 IMCs as the promising high-k dielectrics for 2D semiconductors. These findings advance the understanding of integrating high-k dielectrics with 2D semiconductors and could be useful for the development of a wide range of 2D electronic and optoelectronic devices.
