Speaker: Talat Rahman (U of Central Florida)

Host: C.Z. Wang

Title: Two-dimensional materials for a sustainable future: exploiting their novel optical and chemical properties

Abstract: In the pursuit of a sustainable future, the last decade has seen a concerted effort in accelerating the discovery of materials for energy needs. In this talk I will try to convince you that 2D materials provide a playground for understanding and manipulating their properties for harnessing novel functionalities. I will show how defects in single-layer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) transform the local electronic structure such that it captures and converts CO2 to value added products [1]. On the other hand, for the popular 2D transition metal dichalcogenides, it is the large exciton binding energy together with strong interactions between the electrons, holes, excitons, and phonons, that hold promises for applications in energy harvesting. Through examples from single layer MoS2 [2] and single and bilayer WSe2 [3] I will show how intra- and inter-valley charge dynamics and intra- and inter-layer exciton dynamics are the result of a complex collective response involving free charges, bright and dark excitons, and phonons. Our conclusions are validated by experimental data and provide opportunities for tuning material properties

Bio: Talat Rahman is a Trustee Chair Professor and a Pegasus Professor of Physics at University of Central Florida. She received her PhD in Physics from the University of Rochester. After postdoctoral research at the University of California, Irvine, she went through the professorial ranks at Kansas State University. She joined the University of Central Florida in 2006 and served as the chair of Physics for almost 10 years. Her research interests are in computational design of functional nanomaterials through microscopic understanding of their physical and chemical properties. A related interest is in multiscale modeling of chemical reactions and thin film growth processes. She is a fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Royal Society of Chemistry-UK, American Physical Society (APS) and American Vacuum Society (AVS) and past-chair of the APS Division of Computational Physics.

At UCF, she led the effort to transform undergraduate instructions by infusing evidence-based active-learning strategies. She is the site leader for the Bridge Program of American Physical Society and recipient of the AVS 2022 Mentoring Award. Her professional awards include Visiting Miller Professorship from University of California-Berkeley, Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize, Helene Lange Visiting Professorship from University of Oldenburg, Mercator Fellow from Ruhr University-Bochum, Higuchi Research Award from the University of Kansas, Research Incentive and Excellence Awards from UCF, and the Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award, Kansas State University