Xi Wang, assistant professor of physics at Washington University in St. Louis, has received a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation.
The CAREER award is NSF's most prestigious honor for early-career faculty, supporting those who demonstrate exceptional promise in both scientific discovery and education.
Wang's research focuses on creating and studying a new class of quantum materials built from atomically thin layers. By stacking these layers with extremely precise angles, scientists can produce intricate interference patterns known as moiré lattices. These patterns act like tiny landscapes that guide how electrons move and interact.
In Wang’s work, two different moiré patterns are combined to create what are known as bichromatic supermoiré lattices. The resulting structures reshape the electronic environment of a material in ways that are impossible in conventional crystals.
Recent experimental progress from Wang’s group has shown that these engineered materials can host unusual states of matter, including new types of excitons—particles formed when electrons bind to positively charged “holes.” Even more strikingly, the quantum behavior of these materials can be tuned using external controls such as electric fields.
This line of research builds on Wang’s earlier work demonstrating that supermoiré lattices can be designed as reconfigurable quantum platforms, where the underlying energy landscape of a material can be programmed rather than fixed by nature. Such control opens new opportunities to study how complex quantum states emerge and evolve.
Ultimately, Wang aims to develop methods for programming quantum materials on demand, enabling scientists to explore new quantum phases and interactions. Insights from these systems could help guide future technologies based on quantum materials, including advanced sensing, electronics, and quantum information devices.
The CAREER award also supports an integrated education and outreach program. Wang will develop hands-on laboratory experiences that introduce undergraduate students to modern quantum materials research. The project also includes outreach activities for K-12 students, using demonstrations and classroom kits to illustrate concepts such as layered materials and moiré patterns.
Through these efforts, Wang hopes to make emerging quantum science more accessible while helping train the next generation of researchers and innovators.
