General Lab Information

Qiang Li

Chiral Materials and Unconventional Superconductivity, Group Leader, Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department

Qiang Li

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department
Bldg. 734, Room 249
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000

(631) 344-4490
liqiang@bnl.gov

In 2009, I became the newly created Advanced Energy Materials Group Leader. I have been a lead principal investigator of the DOE Office of Basic Energy Science’s superconducting materials and chiral materials program for over a decade and a half. I led BNL’s effort in a number of DOE projects from high temperature superconductors for grid scale energy storage, wind power generation, and next generation electrical machine, to vehicle waste heat recovery by thermoelectrics.

In Fall 2020, I joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy as a SUNY Empire Innovation Professor, and I continued to hold a joint appointment at BNL to lead the Advanced Energy Materials Group. I spend half my time at Stony Brook University.

My research interests range from basic physics and material sciences of superconductors, thermoelectrics, and topological quantum materials to their applications in energy and quantum information technology. 

Expertise | Publications | Highlights | Awards


Expertise

  • Topological quantum materials (e.g. chiral materials, topological insulatror and semimetals) and quantum phenomena (e.g. superconductivity, chiral anomaly, chiral magnetic effect, quantum Hall effect)
  • Superconducting materials and devices for electronics, energy and magnet applications
  • Quantum information science with an emphasis on correlating materials analysis with quantum devices, (e.g. Josephson junctions, qubits, transductions)
  • Low temperature transport property, thermodynamic property and magnetic property characterizations, and nano-structure/device fabrications
  • Thermoelectric materials and applications (e.g. devices for cooling, power generation and waste-heat recovery)
  • High pressure and high temperature synthesis, rapid solidification synthesis (e.g. melt-spin)
  • Single crystal and thin film growth by MBE, PLD, and CVD
  • Ion irradiation effect, correlation between properties and defects/strains
  • Roll-to-roll process and irradiation of superconducting tapes/films
  • Powder-in-tube fabrication of superconducting wires

Selected Publications

  • Luo L, Cheng D, Song B, Wang L-L, Vaswani C, Lozano PM, Gu G, Huang C, Kim RHJ, Liu Z, Park J-M, Yao Y, Ho K, Perakis IE, Li Q, Wang J (2021) A light-induced phononic symmetry switch and giant dissipationless topological photocurrent in ZrTe5. Nature Materials 20:329–334. doi: 10.1038/s41563-020-00882-4
  • Zhang P, Noguchi R, Kuroda K, Lin C, Kawaguchi K, Yaji K, Harasawa A, Lippmaa M, Nie S, Weng H, Kandyba V, Giampietri A, Barinov A, Li Q, Gu GD, Shin S, Kondo T (2021) Observation and control of the weak topological insulator state in ZrTe5. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-20564-8
  • Lozano PM, Gu GD, Tranquada JM, Li Q (2021) Experimental evidence that zinc impurities pin pair-density-wave order in La2−xBaxCuO4. Physical Review B. doi: 10.1103/physrevb.103.l020502
  • Aryal N, Jin X, Li Q, Tsvelik AM, Yin W (2021) Topological Phase Transition and Phonon-Space Dirac Topology Surfaces in ZrTe5. Physical Review Letters. doi: 10.1103/physrevlett.126.016401
  • Galeski S, Zhao X, Wawrzynczak R, Meng T, Förster T, Lozano PM, Honnali S, Lamba N, Ehmcke T, Markou A, Li. Q, Gu G, Zhu W, Wosnitza J, Felser C, Chen GF, Gooth J (2020) Unconventional Hall response in the quantum limit of HfTe5. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19773-y
  • Vaswani C, Wang L-L, Mudiyanselage DH, Li Q, Lozano PM, Gu GD, Cheng D, Song B, Luo L, Kim RHJ, Huang C, Liu Z, Mootz M, Perakis IE, Yao Y, Ho KM, Wang J (2020) Light-Driven Raman Coherence as a Nonthermal Route to Ultrafast Topology Switching in a Dirac Semimetal. Physical Review X. doi: 10.1103/physrevx.10.021013
  • Li Q (2019) Thermoelectrics with a twist. Nature Materials 18:1267–1268. doi: 10.1038/s41563-019-0523-0
  • Li Y, Terzic J, Baity PG, Popovic D, Gu GD, Li Q, Tsvelik AM, Tranquada JM (2019) Tuning from failed superconductor to failed insulator with magnetic field. Science Advances 5:eaav7686. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aav7686
  • Zhang C, Zhao W, Bi S, Rouleau CM, Fowlkes JD, Boldman WL, Gu G, Li Q, Feng G, Rack PD (2019) Low-Temperature Charging Dynamics of the Ionic Liquid and Its Gating Effect on FeSe0.5Te0.5 Superconducting Films. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 11:17979–17986. doi: 10.1021/acsami.9b02373
  • Ozaki T, Wu L, Zhang C, Si W, Jie Q, Li Q (2018) Enhanced critical current in superconducting FeSe0.5Te0.5films at all magnetic field orientations by scalable gold ion irradiation. Superconductor Science and Technology 31:024002. doi: 10.1088/1361-6668/aaa3c4
  • Chi H, Zhang C, Gu G, Kharzeev DE, Dai X, Li Q (2017) Lifshitz transition mediated electronic transport anomaly in bulk ZrTe5. New Journal of Physics 19:015005. doi: 10.1088/1367-2630/aa55a3
  • Ozaki T, Wu L, Zhang C, Jaroszynski J, Si W, Zhou J, Zhu Y, Li Q (2016) A route for a strong increase of critical current in nanostrained iron-based superconductors. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/ncomms13036
  • Li Q, Kharzeev DE, Zhang C, Huang Y, Pletikosic I, Fedorov AV, Zhong RD, Schneeloch JA, Gu GD, Valla T (2016) Chiral magnetic effect in ZrTe5. Nature Physics 12:550–554. doi: 10.1038/nphys3648
  • Rupich MW, Sathyamurthy S, Fleshler S, Li Q, Solovyov V, Ozaki T, Welp U, Kwok W-K, Leroux M, Koshelev AE, Miller DJ, Kihlstrom K, Civale L, Eley S, Kayani A (2016) Engineered Pinning Landscapes for Enhanced 2G Coil Wire. IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity 26:1–4. doi: 10.1109/tasc.2016.2542270
  • Si W, Han SJ, Shi X, Ehrlich SN, Jaroszynski J, Goyal A, Li Q (2013) High current superconductivity in FeSe0.5Te0.5-coated conductors at 30 tesla. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/ncomms2337
  • Liu H, Shi X, Xu F, Zhang L, Zhang W, Chen L, Li Q, Uher C, Day T, Snyder GJ (2012) Copper ion liquid-like thermoelectrics. Nature Materials 11:422–425. doi: 10.1038/nmat3273
  • Li Q, Hücker M, Gu GD, Tsvelik AM, Tranquada JM (2007) Two-Dimensional Superconducting Fluctuations in Stripe-OrderedLa1.875Ba0.125CuO4. Physical Review Letters. doi: 10.1103/physrevlett.99.067001
  • Hu YF, Si WD, Sutter E, Li Q (2005) In situ growth of c-axis-oriented Ca3Co4O9 thin films on Si (100). Applied Physics Letters 86:082103. doi: 10.1063/1.1868873
  • Valla T, Johnson PD, Yusof Z, Wells B, Li Q, Loureiro SM, Cava RJ, Mikami M, Mori Y, Yoshimura M, Sasaki T (2002) Coherence–incoherence and dimensional crossover in layered strongly correlated metals. Nature 417:627–630. doi: 10.1038/nature00774
  • Li Q, Tsay YN, Suenaga M, Klemm RA, Gu GD, Koshizuka N (1999) Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δBicrystalc-Axis Twist Josephson Junctions: A New Phase-Sensitive Test of Order Parameter Symmetry. Physical Review Letters 83:4160–4163. doi: 10.1103/physrevlett.83.4160
  • Valla T (1999) Evidence for Quantum Critical Behavior in the Optimally Doped Cuprate Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+. Science 285:2110–2113. doi: 10.1126/science.285.5436.2110

Research Highlights

Jan. 18, 2021

A light-induced phononic symmetry switch and giant dissipationless topological photocurrent in ZrTe5” published in Nature Materials

News article from Stony Brook University

News Release from Brookhaven National Laboratory

News Release from DOE Ames Lab

News article from Physics World

Nature Materials’ News and Views article

Jan. 7, 2021

"Experimental evidence that zinc impurities pin pair-density-wave order in La2-xBaxCuO4" published in Phys. Rev. B, Letter (Pedro's first paper as the first author, Congratulations!)

Jan. 5, 2020

"Topological Phase Transition and Phonon-Space Dirac Topology Surfaces in ZrTe5" published in Phys. Rev. Lett. (Niraj Aryal's first PRL as the first author, Congratulations!)

April 17, 2020

"Light-driven Raman coherence as a nonthermal route to ultrafast topology switching in a Dirac semimetal" published in Phyical Review X

News Release from Brookhaven National Laboratory

News Release from Ames Lab

Oct. 6 2016

"A route for a strong increase of critical current in nanostrained iron-based superconductors" published in Nature Communications (Toshi's first Nature Communications as the first author, Congratulations!)

News Release from Brookhaven National Laboratory

Dec. 19, 2014

"Chiral Magnetic Effect in ZrTe5" The first discovery of chiral magnetic effect in condensed matters, submiited for publication and appeared in arXiv (2014), published in Nature Physics (Feb. 8, 2016) 

News Release from Brookhaven National Laboratory

Awards & Recognition

  • Brookhaven Science and Technology Award (2019)
  • R&D 100 Award for aFCL (active Superconducting Fault Current Limiter) (2015)
  • Fellow of American Physical Society (2013)
  • “New York State Leader in Superconductivity” for making important contributions to the research, development and commercialization of superconductivity in New York State, the New York State Superconductor Technology Summit (2011 Schnectady, NY)
Qiang Li

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department
Bldg. 734, Room 249
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000

(631) 344-4490
liqiang@bnl.gov

Qiang's Links