Welcome to the Zhou lab at the University of Maryland! We are an experimental group in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, studying what electrons and excitons do in atomically thin semiconductors when Coulomb interactions dominate.
Our work runs along three lines: the many-body physics of electrons and excitons when Coulomb interactions dominate, from Wigner crystals to quantum anomalous Hall states to exciton condensates; quantum optics in solids, where a single atomic layer can act as a mirror, a cavity, or a strongly nonlinear medium; and quantum electronics and optoelectronics, where the same heterostructures become devices. The long-term aim is quantum matter that can be engineered with light and used as a resource for quantum simulation and quantum photonics. More on the Research page.
Openings
We have multiple openings for postdoctoral researchers and research scientists, and we welcome undergraduate and graduate students at all levels; no prior experience is required. Lab members gain hands-on experience in materials synthesis, nanofabrication, electronics, and optics. If you are interested in joining the lab, please contact You Zhou at youzhou_at_umd.edu.
News
Aug. 2026: Our collaborative paper on the Wigner polaron is published in Nature Physics. Featured in Phys.org and Maryland Today.
Aug. 2026: The NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Robust Quantum Simulation, in which You Zhou is a Senior Investigator, is renewed for Phase II. Thanks to NSF for supporting our research!
May 2026: Our collaborative paper on the quantum anomalous Hall effect is published in Physical Review X.
May 2026: You Zhou is promoted to Associate Professor.
Apr. 2026: You Zhou receives the Junior Faculty Outstanding Research Award from the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland.
Mar. 2026: Sabyasachi Das won the 2026 FIAP Ken Hass Outstanding Student Paper Award at the APS March Meeting! Congratulations!
Jan. 2026: Our collaborative paper on exciton diffusion is published in Science.
Jul. 2025: Our collaborative paper on quantum-confined excitons is published in Physical Review Letters.
Apr. 2025: Liuxin Gu won the Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship from the Graduate School at the University of Maryland! Congratulations!
Dec. 2024: Our collaborative paper on atomically thin cavities is published in Science Advances.
May 2024: Our collaborative paper on interlayer excitons is published in Physical Review Letters.
May 2024: Our collaborative paper on optical nonlinearity in van der Waals semiconductors is published in Nature Photonics, and highlighted by the Department of Energy Office of Science. We appreciate the support from DOE and NSF!
Apr. 2024: You Zhou received the 2DM Young Scientist Award from the journal 2D Materials and IOP Publishing.
Apr. 2024: You Zhou is recognized at the 2024 Maryland Research Excellence Celebration.
Jun. 2023: You Zhou received the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities.
Jun. 2023: You Zhou gave an invited talk at the 18th Optics of Excitons in Confined Systems (OECS 18) conference in Lecce, Italy.
May 2023: You Zhou received the Outstanding Young Scientist award from the Maryland Academy of Sciences and the Maryland Science Center.
Mar. 2023: You Zhou received the IUPAP Early Career Scientist Prize in Structure and Dynamics of Condensed Matter and gave an invited talk at the APS March Meeting.
Aug. 2022: You Zhou gave an invited talk at the 11th International Conference on Spontaneous Coherence in Excitonic systems (ICSCE-11).
Jun. 2022: You Zhou received the 2022 Department of Energy Early Career Award. Thanks to DOE for supporting our research!
Dec. 2021: You Zhou received the 2022 NSF CAREER award. Thanks to NSF for supporting our research!
Aug. 2021: Our recent results on electron crystals are discussed in Quanta Magazine.
Aug. 2021: Our recent results on temperature-independent thermal emission are highlighted by the Department of Energy.
Jun. 2021: Our paper on the observation of bilayer Wigner crystals and their quantum melting in an atomically thin heterostructure was published in Nature.
Jan. 2021: Our arXiv preprint reporting Wigner crystals in 2D materials was recommended with a commentary by Prof. Thierry Giamarchi, University of Geneva in the Journal Club of Condensed Matter Physics.
Nov. 2020: We organized a virtual mini-symposium on Correlated Insulating States in Two Dimensions at the Institute for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics at Harvard. Many exciting talks! YouTube links here.
Jun. 2020: Our paper on controlling the valley degree of freedom of excitons in twisted WSe2/WSe2 bilayers appeared in Phys. Rev. Lett. and was highlighted in Nature Reviews Materials.
Jan. 2020: Our paper on tuning the radiative lifetime of excitons in a MoSe2 monolayer was published in Phys. Rev. Lett. and was selected as Editor's suggestion. Find out more in Research Highlights.
Aug. 2019: You Zhou gave an invited talk at Fundamental Optical Processes in Semiconductors (FOPS 2019). Many inspiring talks and great discussions!
Contact
University of Maryland
8228 Paint Branch Dr, KEB 2246
College Park, MD 20742