Brief Vita

• Associate Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Tennessee (2021-present)
• Assistant Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Tennessee (2015-2021)
• Postdoctoral Fellow Physicist, Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley (2012-2015)
• Advanced Light Source Doctoral Fellow, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (2011-2012)
• PhD, University of Arkansas (2012)
• MS, University of Houston (2006)
• BS, Nanjing University, China (2004)

Selected Honors

• Humboldt Research Fellowship (2025)
• UT Chancellor’s Honor for for Professional Promise in Research and Development (2021)
• Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award (2019)
• College of Arts and Sciences Early Career Award for Research and Creativity (2019)
• National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2019)

Highlights

• Symmetry Breaking in Quantum Systems

Research

I am an experimental condensed matter physicist. My research targets development of novel quantum materials that propel the fundamental understanding on emergent phenomena and deliver innovative concepts / routes for nanotechnologies. A major focus is correlated electronic materials such as transition metal oxides (TMOs), which exhibit a variety of unusual quantum phenomena that often elude conventional predictions as well as afford unparalleled functionalities. Moreover, I create interfaces between materials with distinct ground states by oxide-based heteroepitaxy in order to twist their properties and discover new phases in ways that are unavailable in solid state chemistry. This atomically controlled synthesis is synergistically coupled with advanced synchrotron-based characterizations to comprehend the underlying correlated physics and facilitate quantum materials-by-design. My research covers systems that display metal-insulator transition, high-temperature superconductivity, colossal magnetoresistance, orbital ordering/reconstruction, strong spin-orbit coupling, quantum magnetism, multiferroics, as well as magnetic switching.

For Prospective Students

I always welcome highly motivated graduate and undergraduate students to join my group. If you are interested in studying quantum states of matter and functional materials by using atomic layering and national synchrotron / neutron facilities, please email me or stop by my office. Ph.D. positions are currently available.

Selected Publications After Joining UT

Google Scholar shows >3500 citations and an h-index of 31.
*Corresponding Author

1. Strain-modulated Slater-Mott crossover of pseudospin-half square-lattice in (SrIrO3)1/(SrTiO3)1 Superlattices, J. Yang, L. Hao, D. Meyers, T. Dasa, L. Xu, L. Horak, P. Shafer, E. Arenholz, G. Fabbris, Y. Choi, D. Haskel, J. Karapetrova, J.-W. Kim, P. J. Ryan, H. Xu, C. D. Batista, M. P. M. Dean, and Jian Liu*, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 177601 (2020). [DOI]
2. Comprehensive control of metamagnetic transition of antiferromagnetic Mott insulator Sr2IrO4 by in-situ anisotropic strain, H. Zhang, L. Hao, J. Yang, J. Mutch, Z. Liu, Q. Huang, K. Noordhoek, A.F. May, J.-H. Chu, J.W. Kim, P.J. Ryan, H.D. Zhou, Jian Liu*, Advanced Materials 32, 2002451 (2020).[DOI]
3. Anomalous Magnetoresistance due to Longitudinal Spin Fluctuations in a Jeff = 1/2 Mott Semiconductor, L. Hao, Z. Wang, J. Yang, D. Meyers, J. Sanchez, G. Fabbris, Y. Choi, J.-W. Kim, D. Haskel, P. J. Ryan, K. Barros, J.-H. Chu, M. P. M. Dean, C. D. Batista, and Jian Liu*, Nat. Commun.10, 5301 (2019). [DOI]
4. Novel spin-orbit coupling driven emergent states in iridate-based heterostructures, L. Hao. D. Meyers, M.P.M. Dean, and Jian Liu*, J. Phys. Chem. Solids128, 39 (2019). [DOI]
5. Epitaxial stabilization of Sr3Ir2O7 thin films, J. Yang, L. Hao, P. Nanney, K. Noordhoek, D. Meyers, L. Horak, J. Sanchez, J.-H. Chu, C. Nelson, M. P. M. Dean, Jian Liu*, Appl. Phys. Lett. 114, 182401 (2019). [DOI]
6. Epitaxial growth and antiferromagnetism of Sn-substituted perovskite iridate SrIr0.8Sn0.2O3, J. Yang, L. Hao, Q. Cui, J. Lin, L. Horak, X. Liu, L. Zhang, H. Yang, J. Karapetrova, J.-W. Kim, P. J. Ryan, M. P. M. Dean, J. Cheng, Jian Liu*, Phys. Rev. Materials 3, 124411 (2019). [DOI]
7. Giant magnetic response of a two-dimensional antiferromagnet, L. Hao, D. Meyers, H. Suwa, J. Yang, C. Frederick, T. R. Dasa, G. Fabbris, L. Horak, D. Kriegner, Y. Choi, J.-W. Kim, D. Haskel, P. J. Ryan, H. Xu, C. D. Batista, M.P.M. Dean, Jian Liu*, Nature Physics 14, 806 (2018). [DOI]
8. Decoupling carrier concentration and electron-phonon coupling in oxide heterostructures observed with resonant inelastic x-ray scattering, D. Meyers, K. Nakatsukasa, S. Mu, L. Hao, J. Yang, Y. Cao, G. Fabbris, H. Miao, J. Pelliciari, D. McNally, M. Dantz, E. Paris, E. Karapetrova, Y. Choi, D. Haskel, P. Shafer, E. Arenholz, T. Schmitt, T. Berlijn, S. Johnston, Jian Liu*, M. P. M. Dean, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 236802 (2018). [DOI]
9. Two-dimensional Jeff = 1/2 antiferromagnetic insulator unraveled from interlayer exchange coupling in artificial perovskite iridate superlattices, L. Hao, D. Meyers, C. Frederick, G. Fabbris, J. Yang, N. Traynor, L. Horak, D. Kriegner, Y. Choi, J.-W. Kim, D. Haskel, P. J. Ryan, M. P. M. Dean, Jian Liu*, Phys. Rev. Lett.119, 027204 (2017). [DOI]
10. Electron accumulation and emergent magnetism in LaMnO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures, Z. Chen, Z. Chen, Z. Q. Liu, M. E. Holtz, C. J. Li, X. Renshaw Wang, W. M. Lü, M. Motapothula, L. S. Fan, J. A. Turcaud, L. R. Dedon, C. Frederick, R. J. Xu, R. Gao, A. T. N’Diaye, E. Arenholz, J. A. Mundy, T. Venkatesan, D. A. Muller, L.-W. Wang, Jian Liu*, and L. W. Martin, Phys. Rev. Lett.119, 156801(2017). [DOI]