On February 27, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) High Technology Research and Development Center (HTRDC) announced that the experimental proof of the 3D Quantum Hall effect by Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) Department of PhysicsAssociate Professor Zhang Liyuan‘s research group was one of the 2019 China’s top ten advances in science and technology.

The judging panel described this finding as an important puzzle to complement the quantum Hall effect family.

The research group observed the clear evidence of the 3D quantum Hall effect in millimeter-scale zirconium telluride (ZrTe5) bulk single-crystal materials for the first time. They pointed out that the charge density wave generated by the interaction under the magnetic field may induce the outcome.

On May 9, Nature published a paper titled “Three-dimensional quantum Hall effect and metal-insulator transition in ZrTe5.” SUSTech Associate Professor Zhang Liyuan from the Department of Physics worked with the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) Professor Qiao Zhenhua and Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD) Associate Professor Shengyuan Yang to complete the article.

Scholars from Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Brookhaven National Laboratory, Florida State University (FSU), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) all contributed to this outcome.

Associate Professor Zhang Liyuan has been with SUSTech since 2014. Zhang Liyuan’s main research interests are in experimental quantum transport in condensed matter physics. He has published more than 30 papers in high-impact journals such as Nature, Nature Physics, Physical Review Letters, Advanced Materials, and Nano Letters.

The program has now been running for fifteen years with the broad aim of promoting the major scientific progress of fundamental research within China, encouraging enthusiasm for scientific endeavors and expanding science communication across the country. Associate Professor Zhang Liyuan went through several harrowing rounds of nominations organized by editorial departments of Chinese journals, before over 2600 academicians, experts, and scholars from a variety of disciplines selected from a shortlist of thirty items.

This achievement has continued to reverberate around Chinese science circles, with the Chinese Academies of Science and Engineering announcing it as one of the ten most important steps forward in Chinese science and technology in 2019 on January 11, 2020.

Paper link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1180-9

CCTV report: http://news.cctv.com/2020/02/27/ARTIcYbxhN5WwY6Eb4ayZU7l200227.shtml

Related news: 

https://newshub.sustech.edu.cn/html/201905/13463.html

https://newshub.sustech.edu.cn/html/202001/23178.html