Professor Kai Liu joined UC Davis in 2001. His research interest is in experimental studies of nanostructured materials for nanomagnetism, spin-transport, and advanced energy explorations. Due to their intricate nanostructures, extremely small length scales, rich surfaces and interfaces, low dimensionality, and interplay among constituents, nanostructured materials often exhibit new and enhanced properties over their bulk counterparts. Additionally, these novel properties can be tailored through extra degrees of freedom, such as structure and material. Professor Liu is particularly interested in magnetic nanostructures where the electron spin coherence may be preserved and exploited, providing a spin-based vision for electronics of the future. This is of critical importance as downscaling of CMOS-based devices face huge uncertainties regarding power consumption and dissipation, resulting in a catastrophic power crisis that has stalled progress across all scales. Spin-based applications represent potentially paradigm-shifting innovations and transformative opportunities that can address the grand challenges of our time.
Current Research topics include:
Nanosynthesis of artificially structured materials
Vortices in nanomagnets
Spin-transport in multilayered nanowires and other systems
Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
Exchange bias
Si-based half-metals