AoE & CRF Awards in HKU Physics

AoE Project

CRF Awards

Area of Excellence

on Theory, Modeling, and Simulation of Emerging Electronics

Project Coordinator: Prof. F.C. Zhang (HKU)
PI (HKU-Physics): Prof. G.H. Chen and Prof. J. Wang
Co-I (HKU-Physics): Dr. X.D. Cui and Prof. S.Q. Shen

This is a multi-institutional interdisciplinary project held by The University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and is funded by the Areas of Excellence Scheme. The current project team comprises Professor Fu-Chun Zhang (Physics, HKU), Professor Philip Chan (Provost, PolyU), Professor Guanhua Chen (Chemistry, HKU), Professor Weng-Cho Chew (EE, HKU), Professor Hong Guo (Physics, McGill Univ.), Professor Jian Wang (Physics, HKU), and several co-investigators.

The project strives to develop a suite of multi-scale electronic design automation (EDA) tools ranging from atomistic simulation methods to circuit simulators and to electromagnetic solvers for electrical signals for emerging sub-22nm technology. With these tools, we will study the sub-22nm devices and their systems; and calculate their physical and dynamical properties, and explore the possible paradigm shifts of next generation electronics. Our objectives are specifically listed below:

• To simulate from first-principles the electrical properties and processes of sub-22nm devices with atomistic details
• To investigate lithography modeling, and to employ efficient electromagnetic solvers to simulate electrical signals, power delivery, crosstalk, interference, and noise in multi-scale complex integrated circuits
• To calculate and model the electrical, chemical and mechanical properties of new materials for sub-22nm technology
• To develop modeling tools for emerging spintronics
• To use electron beam lithography technology to fabricate the sub-22nm devices for measurement and calibration of the parameters in our EDA tools
• To develop a set of multi-scale EDA tools for emerging devices and integrated circuits

 Project Home Page
 

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CRF (Collaborative Research Fund) Awards in HKU Physics

HKU8/CRF/11G

HKU, CUHK, HKUST

Quantum Control and Quantum Information Processing
Project Coordinator:Prof. Z. D. Wang (HKU)
Co-I: Dr. W. Yao (HKU), Dr. H. F. Chau (HKU), Prof. R. B. Liu (CUHK), Prof. S. Du (HKUST)

Quantum control and quantum information processing using atomic optical systems and solid state systems are cutting edge sciences with applications in device science, communication, cryptography, and metrology. In this collaborative project, we bring together the existing research strength in these areas in Hong Kong to form a team to address important issues in these areas. In particular, we will concentrate on the experimental studies on quantum state control, quantum information processing, and quantum communications using systems including photons, atoms and artificial atoms in solids. These studies will be backed up by the theorists in our team. We expect that the collaborative research in this emerging interdisciplinary field will not only advance our understanding of the exotic quantum world, but also expand our imagination for tomorrow’s quantum technological innovation.

HKU10/CRF/08

HKU, CUHK, HKUST

Nano-Spintronics - Quantum Control of Electron Spins in Semiconductors
Project Coordinator: Prof. F.C. Zhang (HKU)
Co-I (HKU-Physics): Dr. X.D. Cui, Prof. S.Q. Shen,Prof. M.H. Xie

Spin based electronics or spintronics as a new generation of electronics is an emerging field with a great promise to advance the semiconductor industry. Spintronics aims to use electron’s spin, a tiny magnet or compass, to replace the role of electric charge in electronics. Metallic spintronics has already had a lot of applications. One of the recent focuses is the generation, manipulation and detection of spin-current, a counterpart of charge current, which may open a new route in the future spintronics. In this group project we will consolidate the existing research strength in both experiment and theory to form a versatile team in Hong Kong to focus on the generation and detection of the spin current.

HKUST3/CRF/09

HKUST, HKBU, CUHK, HKU

Quantum Order in Novel Materials: Superconductivity and Topological Order
Project Coordinator: Prof. T.K. Ng (HKUST)
Co-I (HKU-Physics): Prof. S.Q. Shen, Prof. Z.D. Wang, and Prof. F.C. Zhang

Iron-based (pnictides) superconductors and topological insulators are the most important discoveries in hard condensed matter physics in recent years. The two classes of materials exhibit the common feature of exotic quantum behaviors (quantum order). Elucidating the principles that govern the properties of these materials and exploring their technological implication are the goals of the physics community. The complexity in tackling the many intervening issues in this area calls for a collaborative approach. With the help of a previous Collaborative Research Grant, a research team to tackle this problem is ready. The proposal consolidates the team to study holistically the novel quantum order behind these materials and to explore the nature of general topological order, a key ingredient in quantum information science. Several team members have entered this new field with influential results already produced. The goal of the team is to continue the high-quality research and become internationally recognized.

CUHK3/CRF/10

CUHK, HKU, U.C. Berkeley (USA) and IHEP, CAS (China)

High Precision Measurement of Neutrino Oscillation at Daya Bay
Project Coordinator: Prof. M.C. Chu (CUHK)
Co-I (HKU-Physics): Prof. K.S. Cheng, Dr. J.K.C. Leung and Dr. J.C.S. Pun

The recent discovery of neutrino oscillation – a neutrino travelling in space transforms from one type to another – has profound impacts on particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Oscillation Experiment aims to measure a key but yet unknown neutrino oscillation parameter, θ₁₃, to an unprecedented precision of better than 3 degrees, which is critical to the design of future experimental tests of a possible explanation of why matter dominates anti -matter in the universe, a key condition for our existence.

The Hong Kong team has been an active member of the Daya Bay Collaboration, an international team with 38 institutions. We will contribute to the commissioning and monitoring of the experiment and analysis of data, with the help of a subsystem of the antineutrino detector built by our team. We will also design and construct a continuous radon monitoring system as well as a cover gas system to minimize radon contamination of the detectors.

More details please refer to here.

CityU6/CRF/08

CityU, HKUST, HKU

Studies of Fundamental Properties of Nanosurfaces and Selected Applications
Project Coordinator: Prof. M.A. Van Hove (CityU)
Co-I (HKU-Physics): Dr. A. Djurisic and Dr. H.S. Wu
The performance of nanoscale devices is often dominated by their surface properties. For example, surfaces introduce undesired electronic states in electronic and optoelectronic devices constructed from semiconducting nanostructures. By contrast, surface activity should be enhanced in nanostructures used as antibacterial agents. To improve such performance, our aim is to provide quantitative atomic-scale information about nanoscale surfaces. Our project will achieve this by introducing a new methodology: we will intentionally design and fabricate novel and highly-controlled nanoplatforms that allow for the first time detailed determination of surface structure and modeling of their relevant surface properties.