 Look Who's at the Lab: Lu Li (September 2010)
In Look Who's at the Lab, we profile some of the hundreds of scientists who visit our lab every year.
Lu Li
Job Title: Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mag Lab user since: 2004
Number of visits to lab: about 15
Dates of most recent experiment: Sept. 13 – Sept. 27, 2010
Distance traveled (from home to lab): 1,300 miles (Cambridge to Tallahassee)
Research interests: condensed matter physics
Web site: http://electron.mit.edu/~lu/
E-mail: luli@mit.edu
Publications: Science, Nature Physics, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review B, Eupophys Letter
Title: Exploring Electronic State of Oxide Interfaces Using Capacitance Spectroscopy and Torque Magnetometry
Other participants: none
Synopsis: The LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructure is a potential candidate for a high mobility two-dimensional electron system with novel electronic and magnetic properties. Though LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 are both good band insulators, the interface is conductive, and even superconducting below 200 mK. In my current research, I focus on two studies on this system: the anomalous electrical screening property observed by capacitance spectroscopy, and the direct measurement of the magnetic moment using torque magnetometry. The observation of overscreening (negative electronic compressibility) supports the two-dimensionality of the electronic system. The torque magnetometry study provides a new probe to test the mechanism of the conductivity at the interface.
Facility: Millikelvin Facility; DC magnets and superconducting magnets
Equipment: capacitance bridge, lock-in amplifiers, voltmeters
Techniques: torque magnetometry, electrical transport, thermoelectric transport
Q: What's the best thing about working at the lab?
A: It's the help he gets from the staff, Li said. An example: Scientist and scholar Alexey Suslov stayed overnight twice to help Li set up his equipment and get it all working properly. Associate researcher Tim Murphy and scientist and scholar Ju-Hyun Park also helped Li get his experiment's probes working correctly.
Q: What does he miss most when he's at the lab?
A: That would be his infant son –and first child – Longhao, said Li.
Longhao was only 4½ months old when Li came to the lab to work for two weeks in September 2010. "He grew really fast!" said Li, 30. His son gained about 2½ pounds while Li was at the lab.
Q: What's the most unscientific thing about him?
A: Probably that he's a jogger, Li said.
Before his son was born, he often jogged four to five miles once or twice a week. Now that he has a baby at home, though, he's lucky to get in a short run once a week.
Q: Scientist and non-scientist: Whom would he most like to meet?
A: At the top of his scientist list is meeting Nobel Prize winning physicist Phil Anderson. Both work in the condensed-matter field of physics. For non-scientist, Li said, he would have to choose - his wife!
"I still want to see her all the time," he said.
Q: What's he reading these days?
A: It's a 928-page historic account by Oxford University professor David Walker Howe entitled "What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815 – 1848" (Oxford University Press).
Li's abiding interest in learning American history stems in part from his relocation from his homeland of China about eight years ago, when he was 22. He is originally from a rural province about 500 miles from Beijing.
Q: Complete this sentence: We could make great strides in science, if we could just figure out A: "the mechanism of high Tc superconductivity."
Q: What's his advice to someone just starting out in his field?
A: "Stay motivated." Earning a doctorate demands a tremendous amount of work and time, he said, which makes it easy to lose sight of your end goals and motivation.
Q: What keeps him awake at night?
A: That would be baby Longhao's crying – as many parents of newborns might have guessed.
Yet even when his son is sleeping soundly, Li said, he's still awake sometimes - mulling over his Magnet Lab experiments.
Q: What's his favorite quote or motto?
A: "Never, never, never, never give up." He likes that saying because "it's hard to stay motivated."
After moving from China, where the rest of his family of origin still remains, he struggled with mastering English and learning new customs. Fortunately, "physics is always the same" no matter where you are, he said. And his academic colleagues were friendly.
Q: What are his parting thoughts on science today?
A: "It's going great. I hope the funding situation gets better in the U.S."
- Lu Li, Y. Wang, S. Komiya, S. Ono, Y. Ando, G. D. Gu, and N. P. Ong "Diamagnetism and Cooper pairing above Tc in cuprates'', Physical Review B, 81, 054510 (2010)
- Lu Li "Probe for electronic dimensionality", Nature Physics, 6, 7 (2010)
- J. G. Checkelsky, Lu Li, and N. P. Ong "Divergent resistance at the Dirac point in graphene:Evidence for a transition in a high magnetic field", Physical Review B, 79, 115434 (2009)
- L. Wray, D. Qian, Y. Xia, Lu Li, J. G. Checkelsky, A. Pasupathy, K. K. Gomes, C. V. Parker, A. V. Fedorov, G. F. Chen, J. L. Luo, A. Yazdani, N. P. Ong, N. L. Wang, and M. Z. Hasan "Momentum
dependence of superconducting gap, strong-coupling dispersion kink, and
tightly bound Cooper pairs in the high-Tc (Sr,Ba)1", Physical Review B, 78, 184508 (2008)
- Lu Li, J. G. Checkelsky, Y. S. Hor, R. J. Cava, C. Uher, A. F. Hebard, and N. P. Ong "Phase transitions of Dirac electrons in bismuth", Science 321, 547-550 (2008)
- J. G. Checkelsky, Lu Li, and N. P. Ong "Zero-Energy state of graphene in a high magnetic field", Physical Review Letters, 100, 206801 (2008)
- K. L. Holman, E. Morosan, P. A. Casey, Lu Li, N. P. Ong, T. Klimczuk, C. Felser, and R. J. Cava "Crystal structure and
physical properties of Mg6Cu16Si7-type
M6Ni16Si7,
for M = Mg, Sc, Ti, Nb, and Ta", Materials Research Bulletin, 43, 9-15 (2007)
- Lu Li, Y. Wang, J.G. Checkelsky, M.J. Naughton, S. Komiya, S. Ono, Y. Ando, and N.P. Ong "Depairing field, onset temperature and the nature of the transition in cuprates", Physica C, 460, 48-51 (2007)
- Lu Li, Y. Wang, M. J. Naughton, S. Koyima, S. Ono, Y. Ando and N. P. Ong "Magnetization, Nernst effect and vorticity in the cuprates", Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, 310, 460-466 (2007)
- Y. Onose, Lu Li, C. Petronic and N. P. Ong "Anomalous thermopower and Nernst efect in CeColn5: Loss of entropy current in precursor state", Europhysics Letters, 79, 17006 (2007)
- Lu Li, J. G. Checkelsky, S. Komiya, Y. Ando and N. P. Ong, "Low-temperature vortex liquid in La2-xSrxCuO4", Nature Physics, 3, 311-314 (2007)
- E. Morosan, H. W. Zandbergen, Lu Li, M. Lee, J. G. Checkelsky, M. Heinrich, T. Siegrist, N. P. Ong and R. J. Cava "Sharp switching of the magnetization in Fe1/4TaS2", Physical Review B, 75, 104401 (2007)
- E. Morosan, Lu Li, N. P. Ong and R. J. Cava "Anisotropic properties of the layered superconductor Cu0.07TiSe2", Physical Review B, 75, 104505 (2007)
- N. P. Ong, Y. Y. Wang, Lu Li and M. J. Naughton "Comment on `Field-Enhanced diamagnetism in the pseudogap state of the cuprate Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ superconductor in an intense magnetic field' - Ong et al. reply", Physical Review Letters, 98, 119702 (2007)
- M. Lee, L. Viciu, Lu Li, Y. Wang, ML. Foo, S. Watauchi, R. A. Pascal, R.J. Cava and N. P. Ong "Large enhancement of the thermopower in NaxCoO2 at high Na doping", Nature Materials, 5, 537-540 (2006)
- Y.Wang, Lu Li and N. P. Ong "Nernst effect in high-Tc superconductors", Physical Review B, 73, 024510 (2006)
- Y. Wang, Lu Li, M. J. Naughton, G. Gu, S. Uchida and N. P. Ong "Field-enhanced diamagnetism in the pseudogap state of the cuprate Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δsuperconductor in an intense magnetic field", Physical Review Letters, 95, 247002 (2005)
- M. L. Foo, T. Klimczuk, Lu Li, N. P. Ong, R. J. Cava, Q. Huang, J. W. Lynn, and H. W. Zandbergen "Synthesis of three layer NaxCoO2 (x=0.3, 0.5, 0.6, 0.75, 1.0) and superconductivity in three layer Na0.3CoO2·1.3H2O", Solid-State Chemistry of Inorganic Materials V, 848, 275 (2005)
- Lu Li, Y. Wang, M. J. Naughton, S. Ono, Y. Ando and N. P. Ong "Strongly nonlinear magnetization above Tc in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ", Europhysics Letters, 72, 451-457 (2005)
- M. L. Foo, T. Klimczuk, Lu Li, N. P. Ong and R. J. Cava "Superconductivity in three-layer Na0.3CoO2·1.3H2O", Solid State Communications, 133, 407-410 (2005)
- Y. M. Xiong, Lu Li, X. G. Luo, H. T. Zhang, C. H. Wang, S. Y. Li and X. H. Chen "Transport properties of Ru-doped La1.85Sr0.15CuO4 and the effect of carrier concentration compensation", Journal of Physics - Condensed Matter, 15, 1693-1704 (2003)
- Z. Sun, X. H. Chen, R. Fan, X. G. Luo and Lu Li "Structure and magnetic properties of perovskite Sr2CuNbO6-δ", Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids, 64, 59-62 (2003)
- S. Y. Li, Y. M. Xiong, M. Q. Mo, R. Fan, C. H. Wang, X. G. Luo, Z. Sun, H. T. Zhang, Lu Li, L. Z. Cao and X. H. Chen "Alkali metal substitution effects in Mg1-xAxB2 (A = Li and Na)", Physica C, 363, 219-223 (2001)
- S. Y. Li, R. Fan, X. H. Chen, C. H. Wang, W. Q. Mo, K. Q. Ruan, Y. M. Xiong, X. G. Luo, H. T. Zhang, Lu Li, Z. Sun and L. Z. Cao "Normal state resistivity, upper critical field, and Hall effect in superconducting perovskite MgCNi3", Physical Review B, 64, 132505 (2001)
Date posted: Oct 2010
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