Welcome to ANNLab, led by Zafer Mutlu, Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, with courtesy appointments in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Physics.
From fundamental science to applied engineering · From atoms to systems
We work at the frontier of nanoscience and nanotechnology, building nanoscale materials and turning them into devices and circuits. We study how charge carriers, quantum states, and acoustic waves behave when they are confined to the nanoscale, and we develop that understanding into device technologies for three application areas: computing, communication, and sensing. The work runs end to end in-house, from material synthesis and nanofabrication to electrical measurement.
A central focus is atomically precise graphene nanoribbons, narrow carbon structures whose electronic properties are set by their width and edge geometry and can be programmed through chemistry. We develop them as transistor channels for computing beyond silicon and as chip-scale quantum sensors, for radiation detection in extreme environments and for detection approaching the single-molecule limit. Alongside this, we build topological acoustic wave devices for next-generation wireless communication, and we keep room for exploratory directions on questions that fall between fields.