Welcome to the Sood Lab at Princeton University!
We are a group of curious scientists and engineers working on fun problems in the areas of nanoscale thermal transport, microelectronics, and ultrafast science. Our approach involves visualizing materials on fast timescales, and asking how this dynamic behavior can be controlled for applications in energy-efficient computing, energy harvesting, and energy storage.
We are currently addressing fundamental questions such as: Can we actively control heat flow at the atomic scale? Can we make atomic-scale "movies" of electronic devices and image short-lived transient states in materials? Can we use external means to modulate ion transport in energy-storage materials? Can we create new "non-equilibrium” states of matter through ultrafast excitation? We enjoy working on interdisciplinary problems in energy and computing, with a core emphasis on understanding underlying phenomena. In addition to experimental work at Princeton, we are active users of advanced electron and X-ray sources at national labs across the country.
About the PI
Prof. Aditya Sood started at Princeton in Jan 2023 with joint appointments in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Princeton Materials Institute. Before coming to Princeton, he was a postdoc and research scientist at the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, at Stanford University and SLAC National Lab, where he worked with Profs. Aaron Lindenberg and Will Chueh on developing methods to visualize electrically- and optically-driven structural dynamics in low-dimensional materials. This work resulted in the first atomic-scale ultrafast "movie" of a memory bit, and the discovery of a new mechanism for ultra-efficient energy transfer at atomic junctions. He received his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford, working with Prof. Ken Goodson on nanoscale thermal transport in 2D materials and defect-rich crystals. His dissertation work included the demonstration of a nanoscale thermal switch based on ion intercalation, and the development of a microscopy technique to visualize heat flow near a single grain boundary.
He has been recognized by the ACS-PRF Doctoral New Investigator Award (2023), the Early Career Award from the AVS Nanoscale Science & Technology Division (2022), the MRS Postdoctoral Award (2022), the LCLS Young Investigator Award from SLAC National Laboratory (2021), the MRS Gold Graduate Student Award (2017), and the Batra Gold Medal from IIT Kanpur (2011). His teaching at Princeton has been recognized by two SEAS Commendations for Outstanding Teaching (Spring '23 & Fall '23).
Recent news
(06/2024) Welcome to our three undergraduate summer researchers! We are delighted to host Aditi Singh and Sawooly Li, who are rising sophomores in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton, and Nathaniel Cohen, who is a rising sophomore in Physics and Astronomy at Cal State University Northridge.
(05/2024) Congratulations to the group's first alum, Henry Erdman, for completing his senior thesis! Henry is graduating with a bachelors degree in Physics. For his senior thesis, he did some beautiful experiments on thermal transport in 2D materials.
(05/2024) Welcome to our new postdoc, Dr. Mithun K.P! Mithun joins us after getting a PhD in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. He is an expert in ultrafast spectroscopy.
(05/2024) Touhid Ahmed passes his PhD general exam with flying colors. Congrats Touhid!
(05/2024) Aditya gives an invited talk at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab (PPPL) and tours the facilities.
(04/2024) New paper in Nature Reviews Materials on interlayer hybridization in van der Waals layered 2D materials!
(04/2024) Aditya gives an invited talk at the MRS Spring Meeting in beautiful Seattle. His talk was titled: "Dynamic manipulation of thermal & structural properties using electrochemical & electrical stimuli".
(03/2024) Aditya gives an invited talk at the University of Rochester. Thanks to Prof. Andrea Pickel for being a wonderful host!
(01/2024) Aditya receives a Princeton Engineering Teaching Commendation from the SEAS Dean for his course 'Energy transport at the nanoscale'. This is a new course that he developed and taught for the first time at Princeton.
(01/2024) Our group is awarded a seed grant from the Princeton Center for Complex Materials MRSEC!
(12/2023) Aditya gives an invited talk at 3M's Tech Forum in Minneapolis
(10/2023) Our group is awarded its first grant -- the Doctoral New Investigator Award from the ACS-PRF!
(09/2023) Welcome to Henry Erdman, senior in the Physics department who will work on his senior thesis with us!
(08/2023) Aditya is elected to the executive committee of the AVS Nanoscale Science & Technology Division
(08/2023) Aditya gives an invited talk at the SPIE Optics + Photonics conference in San Diego
(07/2023) Aditya delivers a keynote at the North American Thermal Analysis Society meeting in Rockville
(07/2023) Aditya receives a Princeton Engineering Teaching Commendation from the SEAS Dean for his course 'Phase transformations in materials'
(05/2023) Welcome to summer REU Nicholas Zhu! Nick will work on simulating electron diffraction.
(01/2023) We welcome our first PhD student -- Touhid Ahmed from ECE!
Paper in Nature Nanotechnology: Electronic bridge allows rapid energy sharing between semiconductors
American Vacuum Society award: Aditya Sood receives the Early Career Award from the AVS Nanoscale Science and Technology Division 2022
Materials Research Society award: Mattia Biesuz and Aditya Sood receive MRS Postdoctoral Awards
Stanford News: Aditya Sood receives 2021 LCLS Young Investigator Award
PhysicsWorld: Stop-motion movie of atoms reveals short-lived state in nanoscale switch
IEEE Spectrum: Insulator-conductor transition points toward ultra-efficient computing
Stanford News: Scientists take first snapshots of ultrafast switching in a quantum electronic device
PhysicsWorld: Heat transport goes ballistic across 2D thin films
Stanford News: How can we design electronic devices that don't overheat?
PhysicsWorld: Grain boundaries limit heat flow in diamond
