I am a materials scientist and physicist working at the intersection of magnetism, advanced materials, and nanotechnology, currently serving as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Rice University.

My research focuses on designing, fabricating, and understanding materials at the nanoscale—particularly ultra-thin (2D) materials and magnetic systems that are critical for next-generation electronics and spintronics. I am especially interested in how we can engineer materials and devices with tailored magnetic and electronic properties for future technologies.

Over the course of my research career, I have developed expertise across the full materials-to-device pipeline:

• Instrumentation: Designed and automated a laser-based magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) system for precise magnetic measurements

• Materials synthesis: Developed novel 2D materials, including non–van der Waals systems that are difficult to isolate using conventional methods

• Thin-film deposition: Engineered magnetic nanostructures using techniques such as magnetron sputtering and physical vapor deposition

• Nanofabrication: Built nanoscale devices using cleanroom processes, including lithography, etching, and dry transfer methods

• Characterization: Investigated magnetic and electronic behavior using advanced metrology and transport measurements

My work includes stabilizing complex magnetic structures such as vortices on curved nanostructures, chemically transforming materials to unlock new functionalities, and studying electron and spin transport in nanoscale devices. These efforts contribute to understanding key phenomena like exchange bias, spin torques, and terahertz emission.

I am particularly motivated by bridging fundamental science and practical applications, with an eye toward scalable materials and device technologies relevant to the semiconductor and electronics industries.

I enjoy working in collaborative, multidisciplinary environments and am always open to discussions around semiconductor R&D, process engineering, advanced materials, and device physics.

1. Kumar A, Balan A, Hameed S et al. Prospects and challenges for exchange bias in van der Waals heterostructures, Newton, 100469 (2026). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newton.2026.100469 

2. A.Kumar, S.Hameed, T.Denneulin, A. P. Balan et al. “Switchable Exchange Bias Resulting From Correlated Domain Structures in Orthogonally Coupled Antiferromagnet/Ferromagnet van der Waals Heterostructures.” Small 21, e06284 (2025). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202506284

3. Raj, R. A., Joseph, A., Bhowmik, R. N., Balan, A. P., & Joy, L. K., "Untangling the Influence of Intrinsic Parameters in Magnetic and Ferroelectric Properties of CoFe2-xGdxO4 System and its Suitability for Magnetoelectric Applications". Materials Research Bulletin, 113410 (2025). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.materresbull.2025.113410
   
   

4. A. Puthirath Balan, A. Kumar, P. Reiser, J. Vimal Vas, T. Denneulin, K. D. Lee, T. G. Saunderson, M. Tschudin, C. Pellet-Mary, D. Dutta, C. Schrader, T. Scholz, J. Geuchies, S. Fu, H. Wang, A. Bonanni, B. V. Lotsch, U. Nowak, G. Jakob, J. Gayles, A. Kovacs, R. E. Dunin-Borkowski, P. Maletinsky, M. Kläui, "Identifying the Origin of Thermal Modulation of Exchange Bias in MnPS3/Fe3GeTe2 van der Waals Heterostructures." Adv. Mater. 36, 2403685 (2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202403685
   
   

5. A. Puthirath Balan, A. Kumar, T. Scholz, Z. Lin, A. Shahee, S. Fu, T. Denneulin, J. Vas, A. Kovács, R. E. Dunin-Borkowski, H. I. Wang, J. Yang, B. V. Lotsch, U. Nowak, M. Kläui, "Harnessing Van der Waals CrPS4 and Surface Oxides for Nonmonotonic Preset Field Induced Exchange Bias in Fe3GeTe2" ACS Nano 18, 8383-8391 (2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.3c13034
   
   

6. Lozhkina, Olga, Fabian Kammerbauer, Maria-Andromachi Syskaki, Aravind Puthirath Balan et al. "Tailoring Magnetic Properties and Suppressing Anisotropy in Permalloy Films by Deposition in a Rotating Magnetic Field." Physical Review Applied 20, 014021 (2023). DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.20.014021
   
   

7. Puthirath Balan, Aravind, et al. "Magneto-structural phase transition in exfoliated pyrrhotite (Fe7S8) ultra-thin sheets." Oxford Open Materials Science 3, itac020 (2023). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfmat/itac020
   
   

8. Balan, Aravind Puthirath, et al. "Non-van der Waals quasi-2D materials; recent advances in synthesis, emergent properties and applications." Materials Today 58 (2022): 164-200. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mattod.2022.07.007
   
   

9. Sam, Shan Abraham, Aravind Puthirath Balan et al. "Nanocomposite Permanent Magnets Based on SrFe 12 O 19-Fe 3 O 4 Hard-Soft Ferrites." Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism 34, 3333-3344 (2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10948-021-06070-y
   
   

10. Raj, RS Arun, S. Meenu, Aruna Joseph, Rosmy Jose, D. Sajan, Anku Guha, Rabindra Nath Bhowmik, Aravind Puthirath Balan, and Lija K. Joy. "Study of the modified magnetic, dielectric, ferroelectric and optical properties in Ni substituted GdFe1− x Ni x O3 orthoferrites." Nanotechnology 33, 035705 (2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6528/ac2c42
    
    

11. Serles, Peter, Taib Arif, Anand B. Puthirath, Shwetank Yadav, Guorui Wang, Teng Cui, Aravind Puthirath Balan et al. "Friction of magnetene, a non–van der Waals 2D material." Science Advances 7, eabk2041 (2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abk2041
    
    

12. Puthirath, Anand B., Aravind Puthirath Balan, Eliezer F. Oliveira, Vishnu Sreepal, Francisco C. Robles Hernandez, Guanhui Gao, Nithya Chakingal et al. "Apparent Ferromagnetism in Exfoliated Ultrathin Pyrite Sheets." The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 125, 18927-18935 (2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c04977
    
    

13. Archana, V. N., Shan Abraham Sam, Aravind Puthirath Balan, and M. R. Anantharaman. "Magneto-optical properties of a magneto-plasmonic nanofluid based on superparamagnetic iron oxide and gold nanoparticles." Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 536, 168092 (2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmmm.2021.168092
    
    

14. Puthirath, Anand B., Sharmila N. Shirodkar, Guanhui Gao, Francisco C. Robles Hernandez, Liangzi Deng, Rabin Dahal, Amey Apte, Aravind Puthirath Balan et al. "Scale-Enhanced Magnetism in Exfoliated Atomically Thin Magnetite Sheets." Small 16, 2004208 (2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202004208
    
    

15. Narayanan, Soorya P., Pallavi Thakur, Aravind Puthirath Balan, Asha Ann Abraham, Femi Mathew, Munaiah Yeddala, Thoufeeq Subair et al. "Two-Dimensional Amorphous Cr2O3 Modified Metallic Electrodes for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction." Physica Status Solidi (RRL)–Rapid Research Letters 13, 1900025 (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/pssr.201900025
    
    

16. Aravind, P. B., M. Heigl, M. Fix, F. Groß, J. Gräfe, A. Mary, C. R. Rajgowrav et al. "Bistability of magnetic states in Fe-Pd nanocap arrays." Nanotechnology 30, 405705 (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6528/ab2d7f  
    
    

17. Puthirath Balan, Aravind, Sruthi Radhakrishnan, Ram Neupane, Sadegh Yazdi, Liangzi Deng, Carlos A. de los Reyes, Amey Apte et al. "Magnetic properties and photocatalytic applications of 2D sheets of nonlayered manganese telluride by liquid exfoliation." ACS Applied Nano Materials 1, 6427-6434 (2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsanm.8b01642
    
    

18. Puthirath Balan, Aravind, Sruthi Radhakrishnan, Ritesh Kumar, Ram Neupane, Shyam Kanta Sinha, Liangzi Deng, Carlos A. de los Reyes et al. "A Non-van der Waals two-dimensional material from natural titanium mineral ore ilmenite." Chemistry of Materials 30, 5923-5931 (2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b01935
    
    

19. Balan, Aravind Puthirath, Sruthi Radhakrishnan, Cristiano F. Woellner, Shyam K. Sinha, Liangzi Deng, Carlos De Los Reyes, Banki Manmadha Rao et al. "Exfoliation of a non-van der Waals material from iron ore hematite." Nature Nanotechnology 13, 602-609 (2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0134-y
    
    

20. Puthirath, Anand B., Sudeshna Patra, Shubhadeep Pal, M. Manoj, Aravind Puthirath Balan, and S. Jayalekshmi. "Transparent flexible lithium ion conducting solid polymer electrolyte." Journal of Materials Chemistry A 5, 11152-11162 (2017). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C7TA02182H
    
    

21. Lisha, R., T. Hysen, P. Geetha, P. B. Aravind, M. Shareef, A. Shamlath, Sunil Ojha, R. V. Ramanujan, and M. R. Anantharaman. "Defect induced enhancement of exchange bias by swift heavy ion irradiation in zinc ferrite–FeNiMoB alloy-based bilayer films." Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 360, 68-74 (2015). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2015.07.129

1. Origin and Thermal Evolution of Exchange Bias in MnPS3/Fe3GeTe2 antiferromagnetic/ferromagnetic van der Waals Heterostructures, Aravind Puthirath Balan, Aditya Kumar…. Mathias Kläui et al, 2025 Joint MMM-Intermag Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, January 13-17, 2025.

2. Complex Exchange Bias driven by Natural Oxide Layers in CrPS4/Fe3GeTe2 Antiferromagnetic/Ferromagnetic van der Waals Heterostructures, Aravind Puthirath Balan, Aditya Kumar…. Mathias Kläui et al, 2025 Joint MMM-Intermag Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, January 13-17, 2025.

3. Thermal cycling induced metamorphosis of exchange bias in MnPS3/Fe3GeTe2 van der Waals heterostructures, Aravind Puthirath Balan, Aditya Kumar…. Mathias Kläui et al, Intermag 2024, 5 - 10 May 2024, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

4. Harnessing van der Waals CrPS4 and surface oxides for unique pre-set field induced Exchange Bias in Fe3GeTe2, Aravind Puthirath Balan, Aditya Kumar…. Mathias Kläui et al, Intermag 2024, 5 - 10 May 2024, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

5. Exchange bias in fully compensated vdW Fe3GeTe2/MnPS3 heterostructures, Aravind Puthirath Balan, Aditya Kumar…. Mathias Kläui et al, WE-Heraeus-Seminar / Towards Functional van der Waals Magnets by Unlocking Synergies with Orbitronics, Magnonics, Altermagnetism, and Optics, 02 - 05 January 2024, Bad Honnef, Germany.

6. Non-van der Waals quasi 2D materials for Spintronics, Aravind Puthirath Balan, Workshop on Perovskite Spintronics, 21. – 22 August 2023, Mainz, Germany.

7. Non-van der Waals quasi 2D materials for Spintronics, Aravind Puthirath Balan, 2nd China-Germany bilateral meeting on topological devices, 2D materials and the future of spintronics, 3 - 4 August 2023, Mainz, Germany.

8. Magnetism in two-dimensions, Aravind Puthirath Balan, Advanced Functional Materials for Energy Harvesting, Storage and Biomedical Applications, E-Summer School, 13-19 May 2020, Bishop Moore College, Kerala, India.

9. Hematene - A New Non-van-der Waals 2D Material, Douglas Galvao, Aravind Balan, Sruthi Radhakrishnan, Cristiano Woellner, Shyam Sinha, L. Z. Deng, Carlos de los Reyes, B. Manmadha Rao, Maggie Paulose, Ram Neupane, Robert Vajtai, Ching-Wu Chu, Gelu Costin, Angel A. Martí, Peter van Aken, Oomman Varghese, Chandra Tiwary, M Anantharaman, P. M. Ajayan, Proceedings of 2018 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit, Boston, Nov. 25-30, 2018, EP03.07.05.

10. Hysteresis free switching between collinear and vortex states in closely packed Fe-Pd nanocap arrays, P. B. Aravind, M. Heigl, M. Fix, J. Gräfe, S. Thomas, M. Krupiński, M. Marszałek, M. R. Anantharaman, M. Albrecht, Proceedings of 9th Joint European Magnetic Symposia 2018 (JEMS 2018), Sep. 3-7, 2018, P-C.105.