Our research is deeply entrenched in the study of emergent properties of quantum materials, specifically topological materials and kagome materials, by computational physics. We specialize in predicting realistic materials that possess the requisite topological properties and exploring their potential applicability in advanced technology. 

See our recent review articles:

1. J. Xiao and B. Yan, First-principles calculations for topological quantum materials, Nature Reviews Physics, 3,283–297 (2021).

2. B. Yan and C. Felser.  Topological Materials: Weyl Semimetals. Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics 8(1) , 337–354(2017).

3. B. Yan and S.C. Zhang, Topological Materials, Reports on Progress in Physics 75 (9), 096501 (2012).

We am keen on deciphering exotic material properties that topology can induce. Such properties, like nonlinear light-matter interactions, have the potential to be used in energy harvesting and optoelectronics and have a deep origin in quantum geometry (e.g., Berry curvature and quantum metric).

See our recent works and review:

1. Y. Jiang, T. Holder, and B. Yan, Revealing Quantum Geometry in Nonlinear Quantum Materials, Rep. Prog. Phys. 88 076502 (2025). 

2. D. Kaplan, T. Holder and B. Yan, Unification of nonlinear anomalous hall effect and nonreciprocal magnetoresistance in metals by the quantum geometry, Physical Review Letters 132 (2), 026301 (2024).

3. N. Wang, D. Kaplan, Z. Zhang, T. Holder, N. Cao, A. Wang, X. Zhou, F. Zhou, Z. Jiang, C. Zhang, S. Ru, H. Cai, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, B. Yan*, and W. Gao*. Quantum metric-induced nonlinear transport in a topological antiferromagnet. Nature 621, 487–492 (2023).

Another intriguing facet of our research stems from the ubiquitous presence of chirality in chemical and biological molecules, exemplified by structures like DNA and sugars. Our aspiration is to comprehend the intricate relationship between chirality and electronic properties through the lens of quantum mechanics. 

See our recent works:

1. Y. Zhao, K. Zhang, J. Xiao, K. Sun and B. Yan,  Magnetochiral charge pumping due to charge trapping and skin effect in chirality-induced spin selectivity, Nature Communications 16, 37 (2025).

2. B. Yan, Structural Chirality and Electronic Chirality in Quantum Materials, Annu. Rev. Mater. Res. 54, 97–115 (2024).

3. Y. Liu, J. Xiao, J. Koo, and B. Yan,  Chirality-driven topological electronic structure of DNA-like materials. Nature Materials 20 , 638–644 (2021).

We are developing AI tools and agents for quantum materials study. 

Recently, we developed AI Benchmarks -- QMBench -- a comprehensive benchmark designed to evaluate the capability of LLM agents in quantum materials research. This specialized benchmark assesses the model's ability to apply condensed matter physics knowledge and computational techniques such as density functional theory to solve research problems in quantum materials science.