BIO
Personal Profile
I'm a postdoc in the Louie group at UC Berkeley. I explore new routes to engineer quantum many-body phenomena in materials. In particular, I'm interested in the accurate prediction, and subsequent tuning, of electronic and optical excitations in two-dimensional materials using ab initio, first-principles techniques: density functional theory and many-body perturbation theory (GW-BSE).
Work experience
Postdoctoral researcher in the Louie group (2019 - present)
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Developed a novel computational method, called pristine unit-cell matrix projection method (PUMP), which led to the first parameter-free GW-BSE calculation of excitons in a moiré superlattice (with 4000 atoms). Achieving an overwhelming computational speed up of at least a million.
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Discovered a modulated Wannier and a surprising intralayer charge-transfer moiré exciton in the WSe2/WS2 heterostructure, demonstrating that excitons can be strongly modulated by structural reconstruction of the superlattice. Experiments confirmed the distinct nature of the moiré exciton peaks through response to doping and external magnetic field.
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In close collaboration with scanning tunneling spectroscopy, discovered a remarkable 3D buckling of the WSe2/WS2 superlattice. Identified structural reconstruction driven spatially-modulated flat electronic bands.
Education
2014-2019
Indian Institute Of Science, Bangalore
Ph.D in theoretical condensed matter physics.
Thesis title: "Taming Electrons in 2D Materials: Influence of Substrates, Defects and Moiré Superlattices”.
Thesis adviser: Prof. Manish Jain
Kumari L A Meera Memorial Medal for best PhD thesis
2012-2014
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Master of Science in Physics