Carnegie Mellon University

Benjamin M. Hunt

Associate Professor
Materials Science & Engineering (Courtesy)

Condensed Matter Experiment
Wean Hall 6412
412-268-9918

email
lab website

Prof. Ben Hunt

Education & Professional Experience

PhD: Cornell University (2009)

Professional Societies:
American Physical Society

Honors and Awards:
Kaufman Young Investigator Award, 2016
DOE Early Career Research Award, 2017
Cottrell Scholar, 2019

Curriculum ViTAE

Associate Professor of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, 2021–
Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, 2015–2021
Post-doctoral Research: Columbia University, 2014–15
Post-doctoral Research: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009–14

Research Interests

I am broadly interested in condensed-matter physics, but particularly in the way that electrons behave when they are subjected to extreme conditions such as ultra-low temperatures and high magnetic fields. Under such conditions, electrons can display striking collective quantum behavior such as superconductivity, fractionalization of charge, and crystallization. Currently, we are investigating phenomena such as these by studying:

  • The physics of low-dimensional structures, especially "van der Waals heterostructures" of two-dimensional crystals (the most familiar of which is graphene), which we build in the lab and then fashion into mesoscopic devices using nanofabrication techniques, and
  • A variety of methods for probing these mesoscopic devices, such as electronic transport, capacitance, tunneling spectroscopy, and shot noise.

Recent Publications

F. Lüpke et al., Proximity-induced superconducting gap in the quantum spin Hall edge state of monolayer WTe2, Nature Physics 16, 526 (2020)

D. Aasen et al., Electrical Probes of the Non-Abelian Spin Liquid in Kitaev Materials, Phys. Rev. X 10, 031014 (2020)

M.R. Sinko et al., Superconducting contact and quantum interference between two-dimensional van der Waals and three-dimensional conventional superconductors, Phys. Rev. Mat. 5, 014001 (2020)

J. Liang et al., Molecularly Thin Electrolyte for All Solid-State Nonvolatile Two-Dimensional Crystal Memory, Nano Lett. 19 (12) 8911 (2019)

R. Garg et al., Electron Transport in Multidimensional Fuzzy Graphene Nanostructures, Nano Lett. 19 (8) 5335 (2019)

S.C. de la Barrera et al., Tuning Ising superconductivity with layer and spin-orbit coupling in two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides, Nature Comm. 9, 1427 (2018)

B.M. Hunt et al., Direct measurement of discrete valley and orbital quantum numbers in bilayer graphene, Nature Comm. 8, 948 (2017)

J.D. Sanchez-Yamagishi et al., Helical edge states and fractional quantum Hall effect in a graphene electron-hole bilayer, Nature Nanotechnology 12, 118 (2017)

R. Garg et al., Nanowire-Mesh-Templated Growth of Out-of-Plane Three-Dimensional Fuzzy Graphene, ACS Nano 11, 6301 (2017)

B.M. Hunt et al., Competing Valley, Spin, and Orbital Symmetry Breaking in Bilayer Graphene, Nature Comm. 8, 948 (2017)

More Publications:
ORCID  Researcher ID