Dr Xuezhi Ma

About the PI

I am Dr Xuezhi Ma, a scientist at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore. I recieved my Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering in 2019 from the University of California, Riverside, USA. Before I joined the current affiliation, I was a postdoc researcher in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University from November 2019 to November 2021.

My background in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering spans topics on all-optical chips design and fabrications, quantum optics, optical spectroscopy, nano-photonics, ultrafast optics, nonlinear optics, nanofabrication, and artificial intelligence. I am currently focusing on several research topics including the study of van der Waals phonon-polaritons using NSOM, all-optical chips design and fabrication for quantum computing, and excitons in two-dimensional semiconductors.

Current Funding

Singapore national 2023 MTC YOUNG INVESTIGATOR RESEARCH GRANT (YIRG)
2022 A*STAR CDF – Seed Projects

Featured Works

News

01/ 2024

I won the highly competitive Singapore national 2023 MTC YOUNG INVESTIGATOR RESEARCH GRANT (YIRG) (S＄325,000, after cutting 30% overhead) for three years. Congratulations！

05/2023

My first corresponding authored paper entitled As-grown Miniaturized True Zero-order Waveplates Based on Low-dimensional Ferrocene Crystals is published on Advanced Materials, congratulations!

10/2022

My first-authored work entitled Coherent momentum control of forbidden excitons is accepted by Nature Communications, congratulations!

09/2022

I, Prof. Yuan Ma, and Prof. Qiushi Liu are Guest Editor for Symmetry (IF = 2.94) on a special issue on: "Symmetry and Asymmetry in Nano-Optics, Nano-Photonics, and Optomechanics: Theory, Applications, and Reviews". We would like to invite professors and researchers to submit Reviews and research articles.

08/2022

My co-first-authored work entitled Strategical deep learning for photonic bound states in the continuum is published in Laser & Photonics Reviews.

07/ 2022

I received my first individual funding: 2022 A*STAR CDF – Seed Projects (S＄175,700, after cutting 30% overhead) for two years. Congratulations！

11/2021

I joined IMRE, A* STAR, Singapore as a Scientist.

11/2021

Our recent advance in nano-UV-VIS is published in Nature Communication.

Selected as 2021 Top 25 Physics Articles, and 2021 Top Chemistry and Materials Sciences Articles

Featured by Wikipedia, UC, Riverside, Phys.org, EurekAlert!, Nanowerk, True Viral News, Scitech Daily, Azonano, Azooptics, Engineering and Technology, Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine, Yahoo News, Futura-Science, Interesting Engineering, Popmech, Galileu, ScienMag, Mirage News, Science Springs, Interesting Engineering, Optics.org, Free, and many more.

10/2019

I graduate and received my Ph.D. degree and starts my new position at Texas A&M University.

07/2019

Our NSOM-TERS paper has been published by Nature Photonics.

Featured by Phy.org, EurekAlerk!, Nanowerk, Science Daily, Chem Europe, Physicsworld, Wikipedia page1, Wikipedia page 2, etc.

01/2019

My new type of remote-excitation Tip-enhanced Raman probe work is published in Nano Letters.

03/2018

I presented our work at the MRS March conference.

11/2017

My capillary transfer paper is now listed as the top 5 downloaded (in the past 30 days) in Nano Letters.

10/2017

My paper on capillary transfer is accepted by Nano Letters.

Research Interests

Phonon-polaritons

Phonon-polaritons in anisotropic van der Waals materials

Acoustics devices design and fabrication

Sonic crystal for multifunctionalities including acoustic cavities, deflector, focusing, sound trapping, etc.
Sound-matter interaction
Acoustic topological insulator

CMOS compatible all-optical chips for quantum information and quantum computing

Room temperature on-chip long coherent time nano-light-source.
Topological photonic chips, photonic crystal
On chip Bound states in the continuum (BICs)

Artificial intelligence for optical design

Machine learning for all-optical chips design
Machine learning for ultra-high quality factor resonance design

Two-dimensional Materials

Two-dimensional materials heterostructure device fabrication
Integration of two-dimensional materials with photonic chips
Excitons, exciton-polaritons, phonon-polaritons

Semiconductor Manufacturing

Germanium FinFETs fabrication and characterization
Two-dimensional materials optoelectronic devices Nano- and micro-fabrication