Mircea Cotlet
Senior Scientist, Soft Bio / Advanced Optical Facility, Center for Functional Nanomaterials

Brookhaven National Laboratory
Center for Functional Nanomaterials
Bldg. 735, Room 2019
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000
(631) 344-7778
cotlet@bnl.gov
Expertise | Research | Education | Appointments | Publications | Highlights | Awards | Certifications
Expertise
- charge carrier transport, chirality in low dimensional materials.
- pump-probe ultrafast spectroscopy and microscopy, single nanostructure optical microscopy, low temperature photophysics.
Research Activities
My research focuses on the investigation of light-matter interactions in low dimensional semiconductors and related heterostructures. These include 2D van der Waals nanomaterials, colloidal quantum dots and perovskites and related heterostructures made of such nanomaterials. I am particlarly interested interfacial carrier transport and spin selective carrier transport in heterostroctures for quantum information processing. I also manage and maintain the Advanced Optical Facility of the CFN , having a strong interest in the development of novel ultrafast methods for materials science in general.
Education
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, Ph.D. 2002, Chemistry
Professional Appointments
2014 –present Senior Scientist (RS6) with continuous appointment, Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory
2007 –2013 Scientist (S2-S3, term appointment), Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory
2006 – 2007 Technical Staff Member, Chemistry Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos NM
2004 – 2006 Director’s Postdoctoral Researcher, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos NM
2003 Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher (European Science Foundation), Harvard University, Cambridge MA
Selected Publications
- Li H, Sarker P, Zhang X, et al (2024) Enhancing Chiroptoelectronic Activity in Chiral 2D Perovskites via Chiral–Achiral Cation Mixing. Advanced Optical Materials. https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.202401782
- Shrestha S, Li M, Park S, et al (2023) Room temperature valley polarization via spin selective charge transfer. Nature Communications 14:. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40967-7
- Li J, Zhu K, Reid O, et al (2024) Dual Interfacial Hydrogen Bonds Enable Efficient Deep-Blue LEDs Based on a Hybrid Copper Iodide. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4114691/v1
- Shrestha S, Cotlet M (2023) Interfacial Charge Transfer in Atomically Thin 2D Transition-Metal Dichalcogenide Heterostructures. ACS Applied Optical Materials 1:1192–1207. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaom.3c00122
- Tsai H, Shrestha S, Vilá RA, et al (2021) Bright and stable light-emitting diodes made with perovskite nanocrystals stabilized in metal–organic frameworks. Nature Photonics 15:843–849. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-021-00857-0
- Li Q, Zhou D, Chai J, et al (2020) Structural distortion and electron redistribution in dual-emitting gold nanoclusters. Nature Communications 11:. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16686-8
- Ramakrishnan S, Song D, Xu Y, et al (2023) Solvent-Mediated Formation of Quasi-2D Dion-Jacobson Phases on 3D Perovskites for Inverted Solar Cells Over 23% Efficiency. Advanced Energy Materials 13:. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202302240
- Chen J-S, Li M, Cotlet M (2019) Nanoscale Photoinduced Charge Transfer with Individual Quantum Dots: Tunability through Synthesis, Interface Design, and Interaction with Charge Traps. ACS Omega 4:9102–9112. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.9b00803
- Li M, Chen J-S, Cotlet M (2019) Light-Induced Interfacial Phenomena in Atomically Thin 2D van der Waals Material Hybrids and Heterojunctions. ACS Energy Letters 4:2323–2335. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.9b01399
Research Highlights
Synergistic activities
2018–on Member, Editorial Advisory Board Wiley - Particle and Particle Systems Characterization (PPSC) Journal
Awards & Recognition
2021 The 519th Brookhaven Lecture
2020 Brookhaven National Laboratory Science and Technology Award
2019 Inventor of the Year Award, Battelle Corporation
Certifications
2010-2022 Adjunct Professor, Material Science and Chemical Engineering Department, Stony Brook University
2020-2022 Lecturer, Material Science and Chemical Engineering Department, Stony Brook University

Brookhaven National Laboratory
Center for Functional Nanomaterials
Bldg. 735, Room 2019
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000
(631) 344-7778
cotlet@bnl.gov