Alexander A.

Balandin (Russian: Александр Баландин or Александр Алексеевич

Баландин) is an electrical engineer, solid-state physicist and materials scientist best
known for an experimental discovery of unique thermal properties of graphene and
their theoretical explanation; studies of phonons in nanostructures and low-
dimensional materials, which led to the development of the field of phonon
engineering; investigation of low-frequency electronic noise in materials and
devices; and demonstration of the first charge-density-wave devices operating at
room temperature.

Academic career[edit]
Alexander A. Balandin received his BS and MS degrees Summa Cum Laude in
Applied Mathematics and Applied Physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and
Technology (MIPT), Russia. He received his second MS degree and PhD degree in
Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, USA. After completion of
his postdoctoral studies at the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University
of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), he joined the University of California,
Riverside (UCR) as a faculty member. He is presently a Distinguished Professor of
Electrical and Computer Engineering and the University of California Presidential
Chair Professor of Materials Science. He serves as a Director of the UCR's Phonon
Optimized Engineered Materials (POEM) Center, a Director of the Nanofabrication
Facility (NanoFab), and a Founding Chair of the campus-wide Materials Science and
Engineering (MS&E) Program. Professor Balandin is a Deputy Editor-in-Chief
for Applied Physics Letters (APL).

Research[edit]
Professor Balandin's research expertise covers a wide range
of nanotechnology, materials science, electronics, phononics and spintronics fields
with particular focus on low-dimensional materials and devices. He conducts both
experimental and theoretical research. He is recognized as a pioneer of
the graphene thermal field and one of the pioneers of the phononics field. His
research interests include charge density wave effects in low-dimensional materials
and their device applications, electronic noise in materials and devices, Brillouin –
Mandelstam and Raman spectroscopy of various materials, practical applications
of graphene in thermal management and energy conversion. He is also active in the
areas of emerging devices, spintronics, and alternative computational paradigms.
Professor Balandin was among the pioneers of the field
of phononics and phonon engineering. In 1998, Balandin published an influential
paper on the effects of phonon spatial confinement on thermal conductivity of
nanostructures, where the term “phonon engineering” appeared for the first time in a
journal publication.[3] In this work, he proposed theoretically a new physical
mechanism for reduction of thermal conductivity due to the changes in the
phonon group velocity and density of states induced by spatial confinement. The
theoretically predicted changes in the acoustic phonon spectrum in
individual nanostructures were later confirmed experimentally.[4][5] Phonon
engineering has applications in electronics, thermal management, and
thermoelectric energy conversion.[6]
In 2008, Professor Balandin conducted pioneering research of thermal
conductivity of graphene.[7] In order to perform the first measurement of thermal
properties of graphene, Balandin invented a new optothermal experiment technique
based on Raman spectroscopy.[8] He and his coworkers explained theoretically why
the intrinsic thermal conductivity of graphene can be higher than that of
bulk graphite, and demonstrated experimentally the evolution of heat conduction
when the system dimensionality changes from 2D (graphene) to 3D (graphite).[9]
[10]
 The Balandin optothermal technique for measuring the thermal conductivity was
adopted by many laboratories worldwide, and extended, with various modifications
and improvements, to a range of other 2D materials. Balandin's contributions to
graphene field go beyond graphene thermal properties and thermal
management applications. His research group conducted detailed studies of low-
frequency electronic noise in graphene devices;[11] demonstrated graphene selective
sensors, which do not rely on surface functionalization;[12] and graphene logic
gates and circuits, which do not require electronic band-gap in graphene.[13]
Professor Balandin made a number of important contributions to the field of low-
frequency electronic noise, also known as 1/f noise. His early contributions to the 1/f
noise field included investigation of noise sources in GaN materials and devices,
which led to substantial reduction in the noise level in such type of devices made of
wide band-gap semiconductors.[14] In 2008, he started investigation of electronic
noise in graphene and other 2D materials. The main results of his research included
understanding the mechanism of the 1/f noise in graphene, which is different from
that in conventional semiconductors or metals; the use of few-layer graphene to
address the century old problem of surface vs. volume noise origin;[15] understanding
unusual effects of irradiation on noise in graphene, which revealed a possibility of
noise reduction in graphene after irradiation.[16] He successfully used noise
measurements as spectroscopy for better understanding of the specifics of electron
transport in graphene and other low-dimensional (1D and 2D) materials.
Professor Balandin's work helped in a rebirth of the charge density wave (CDW)
research field. The early work on CDW effects was performed with bulk samples,
which have quasi-1D crystal structures of strongly-bound 1D atomic chains that are
weakly bound together by van der Waals forces. The rebirth of the CDW field has
been associated, from one side, with the interest in layered quasi-2D van der Waals
materials and, from another side, with the realization that some of these materials
reveal CDW effects at room temperature and above. Balandin group demonstrated
the first CDW device operating at room temperature.[17] Balandin and co-workers used
original low-frequency noise spectroscopy to monitor phase transitions in 2D
CDW quantum materials,[18] demonstrated the extreme radiation hardness of CDW
devices [19][20] and proposed a number of transistor-less logic circuits implemented
with CDW devices.[21][22]

Honors and awards[edit]

Balandin received the following honors and awards:

 The Brillouin Medal – International Phononics Society (IPS), 2019 “For

discovery of unique phonon properties of graphene, and contributions to
the development of graphene thermal management applications.”
 Clarivate Analytics and Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher, since
2015
 Fellow of MRS – The Materials Research Society, 2014
 The MRS Medal – The Materials Research Society, 2013 “For discovery of
the extraordinary high intrinsic thermal conductivity of graphene,
development of an original optothermal measurement technique for
investigation of thermal properties of graphene, and theoretical
explanation of the unique features of the phonon transport in graphene”
 Fellow of IEEE – The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering,
2013
 Fellow of APS – The American Physical Society, 2012
 The Pioneer of Nanotechnology Award – IEEE, 2011 “For pioneering
contributions to nanoscale phonon transport with applications in
nanodevices, graphene devices, thermoelectric and thermal management
of advanced electronics.”
  Fellow of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, 2011
 Fellow of OSA - The Optical Society of America, 2011
 Fellow of AAAS - The American Association for Advancement of Science,
2007
 Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award, Arlington,
USA, 2002
 National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty CAREER Award, 2001
 Civil Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) Award, Arlington,
USA, 1999
 Merrill Lynch Innovative Engineering Research Award, WTC, New York,
USA, 1998 “For practically important engineering dissertation research”

Research Group[edit]

Dr. Balandin's Group logo

Balandin group's expertise covers a broad range of topics from solid-state
physics to experimental investigation of advanced materials and devices with
applications in electronics and energy conversion. The synergy among different
research directions is in the focus on spatial confinement induced effects in
advanced materials and on phonons. The main areas of expertise include: Raman
and Brillouin – Mandelstam light scattering spectroscopy; nanofabrication and
testing of electronic devices with 2D and 1D materials; low-frequency electronic
noise spectroscopy; thermal characterization of materials.

References[edit]
1. ^ https://balandingroup.ucr.edu/resources/text/2019%20Brillouin
%20Publication.pdf
2. ^ https://mrs.org/careers-advancement/awards/fall-awards/mrs-medal
3. ^ A. Balandin and K. L. Wang, “Significant decrease of the lattice thermal
conductivity due to phonon confinement in a free-standing semiconductor
quantum well,” Phys. Rev. B, vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 1544–1549, Jul. 1998.
4. ^ A. A. Balandin, “Phonon engineering in graphene and van der Waals
materials,” MRS Bull., vol. 39, no. 9, pp. 817–823, 2014.
5. ^ F. Kargar, B. Debnath, J.-P. Kakko, A. Säynätjoki, H. Lipsanen, D. L. Nika, R.
K. Lake, and A. A. Balandin, “Direct observation of confined acoustic phonon
polarization branches in free-standing semiconductor nanowires,” Nature
Commun., vol. 7, p. 13400, Nov. 2016.
6. ^ A. A. Balandin, “Phononics of graphene and related materials,” ACS Nano,
vol. 14, pp. 5170-5178, 2020.
 7. ^ A. A. Balandin, S. Ghosh, W. Bao, I. Calizo, D. Teweldebrhan, F. Miao, and C.
N. Lau, “Superior thermal conductivity of single-layer graphene,” Nano Lett.,
vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 902–907, Mar. 2008.
8. ^ A. A. Balandin, “Thermal properties of graphene and nanostructured carbon
materials,” Nat. Mater., vol. 10, no. 8, pp. 569–581, 2011.
9. ^ S. Ghosh, W. Bao, D. L. Nika, S. Subrina, E. P. Pokatilov, C. N. Lau, and A. A.
Balandin, “Dimensional crossover of thermal transport in few-layer
graphene,” Nat. Mater., vol. 9, no. 7, pp. 555–558, 2010.
10. ^ D. L. Nika and A. A. Balandin, “Phonons and thermal transport in graphene
and graphene-based materials,” Reports Prog. Phys., vol. 80, no. 3, p. 36502,
Mar. 2017.
11. ^ A. A. Balandin, “Low-frequency 1/f noise in graphene devices,” Nat Nano,
vol. 8, no. 8, pp. 549–555, Aug. 2013.
12. ^ S. Rumyantsev, G. Liu, M. S. Shur, R. A. Potyrailo, and A. A. Balandin,
“Selective gas sensing with a single pristine graphene transistor,” Nano
Lett., vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 2294–2298, May 2012.
13. ^ G. Liu, S. Ahsan, A. G. Khitun, R. K. Lake, and A. A. Balandin, “Graphene-
based non-Boolean logic circuits,” J. Appl. Phys., vol. 114, no. 15, p. 154310,
Oct. 2013.
14. ^ A. Balandin, S. V. Morozov, S. Cai, R. Li, K. L. Wang, G. Wijeratne, C. R.
Viswanathan, “Low flicker-noise GaN/AlGaN heterostructure field-effect
transistors for microwave communications,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory
Tech., vol. 47, no. 8, pp. 1413–1417, 1999.
15. ^ G. Liu, S. Rumyantsev, M. S. Shur, and A. A. Balandin, “Origin of 1/f noise in
graphene multilayers: surface vs. volume,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 102, no. 9,
p. 93111, Mar. 2013.
16. ^ M. Zahid Hossain, S. Rumyantsev, M. S. Shur, and A. A. Balandin,
“Reduction of 1/f noise in graphene after electron-beam irradiation,” Appl.
Phys. Lett., vol. 102, no. 15, p. 153512, Apr. 2013.
17. ^ G. Liu, B. Debnath, T. R. Pope, T. T. Salguero, R. K. Lake, and A. A.
Balandin, “A charge-density-wave oscillator based on an integrated tantalum
disulfide–boron nitride–graphene device operating at room temperature,”
Nature Nano, vol. 11, no. 10, pp. 845–850, Oct. 2016.
18. ^ G. Liu, S. Rumyantsev, M. A. Bloodgood, T. T. Salguero, and A. A. Balandin,
"Low-frequency current fluctuations and sliding of the charge density waves
in two-dimensional materials," Nano Letters, vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 3630–3636,
2018.
19. ^ G. Liu, E. X. Zhang, C. Liang, M. Bloodgood, T. Salguero, D. Fleetwood, A. A.
Balandin, “Total-ionizing-dose effects on threshold switching in 1T-TaS2
charge density wave devices,” IEEE Electron Device Lett., vol. 38, no. 12, pp.
1724–1727, Dec. 2017.
20. ^ A. K. Geremew, F. Kargar, E. X. Zhang, S. E. Zhao, E. Aytan, M. A.
Bloodgood, T. T. Salguero, S. Rumyantsev, A. Fedoseyev, D. M. Fleetwood
and A. A. Balandin, “Proton-irradiation-immune electronics implemented with
two-dimensional charge-density-wave devices,” Nanoscale, vol. 11, no. 17,
pp. 8380–8386, 2019.
21. ^ A. Khitun, G. Liu, and A. A. Balandin, “Two-dimensional oscillatory neural
network based on room-temperature charge-density-wave devices,” IEEE
Trans. Nanotechnol., vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 860–867, Sep. 2017.
22. ^ A. G. Khitun, A. K. Geremew, and A. A. Balandin, “Transistor-less logic
circuits implemented with 2-D charge density wave devices,” IEEE Electron
Device Lett., vol. 39, no. 9, pp. 1449–1452, 2018.

External links[edit]
  Alexander A. Balandin publications indexed by Google Scholar
 Balandin Group at UC Riverside
 Balandin CV at UC Riverside

Authority control: Scientific databases   DBLP (computer science)

Categories: 
 20th-century births
 Living people
 American electrical engineers
 Russian electrical engineers
 UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni
 University of Notre Dame alumni
 University of California, Riverside faculty
 Fellow Members of the IEEE
 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
 Fellows of the American Physical Society
 Fellows of SPIE
 Scientists from California
 Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology alumni