Professor Xiangfeng Duan is co-leader of a team that is working to advance photonics — energy-efficient technologies that use particles of light in place of the electrons used in electronics — for applications such as artificial intelligence (AI) and image capture. The team will explore ways to improve signal processing using two-dimensional materials, which are arranged in layers only a few atoms thick and derive special qualities from quantum mechanics.
In a new Nobel Fund video, Duan and co-leader Professor Aydogan Ozcan from UCLA Engineering discuss their project.
A UCLA professor of chemistry since 2008, Professor Xiangfeng Duan has pioneered unconventional material integration approaches to functional heterostructures for electronic and energy devices.
Duan is one of seven Chemistry & Biochemistry faculty members selected to receive CNSI Noble Family Innovation Fund grants for their nanoscience research projects in 2021. The Noble Family Innovation Fund, established with a $10 million philanthropic commitment to the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, supports basic and translational research involving interactions on the nanoscale – measured in billionths of a meter. Funding is earmarked for projects with substantial promise for commercialization and societal impact. The goal is to create a model for academic research and entrepreneurship that enables strategic investment to seed discoveries that have the potential to be translated for the public good.