Xue Qikun

Xue Qikun (Chinese: 薛其坤; born 1963) is a physicist of Tsinghua University, Beijing. He has done much work in Condensed Matter Physics, especially on superconductors and topological insulators.^[1][2] In 2013, Xue was the first to achieve the quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE), an unusual orderly motion of electrons in a conductor, in his laboratory at Tsinghua University. Xue is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, vice president for research of Tsinghua University, and director of State Key Lab of Quantum Physics.^[3] In 2016 he was one of the first recipients of the new Chinese Future Science Award for experimental discovery of high-temperature superconductivity at material interfaces and the QAHE. This award has been described as "China's Nobel Prize"^[4][5].

Career

Xue earned his PhD. from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1994^[6]. From 1994 to 2000, he worked as a Research Associate at Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Japan, and as a visiting Assistant Professor at the Physics Department of North Carolina State University, USA. He became a Professor at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 1999, and since 2005 has worked as a Professor in the Physics Department of Tsinghua University. He is a partner investigator in Australia's Centre for Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies^[7].

Research and achievements

Xue pioneered high quality thin films of topological insulators and, in 2013, first achieved the quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE), at Tsinghua University. Nobel Laureate Chen-Ning Yang called this discovery "worthy of a Nobel Prize"^[8]. Xue's current research aims at preparation of low-dimensional structures exhibiting pronounced quantum phenomena, and understanding of growth dynamics and quantum mechanical effects on solid surfaces and in thin films^[9], including:

• atomic-scale probing of surface electronic and magnetic properties by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy
• molecular beam epitaxial growth of novel quantum materials including low-dimensional and interface-related superconductivity and topological insulators
• quantum size effects in various low-dimensional structures
• study of electronic band structures of thin films using angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and molecular beam epitaxy.
• exploration of novel quantum phenomena in materials with transport measurements
• development of new measurement techniques with high spatial and energy resolutions

Honors

• 2004, State Natural Science Second Class Award
• 2005, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
• 2010, TWAS Prize in Physics ^[10]
• 2011, State Natural Science Second Class Award
• 2011, Outstanding Scientific Research Team Award^[11]
• 2014, Outstanding Scientist Award^[12]
• 2016, The first Future Science Prize in physical science ^[13]

Selected papers

1. Experimental Observation of the Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in a Magnetic Topological Insulator^[14]
2. Superconductivity in One-Atomic-Layer Metal Films Grown on Si(111)^[15]
3. Superconductivity Modulated by Quantum Size Effects^[16]

References