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NC State Physicist Receives DOE Early Career Award

Dali Sun

Dali Sun, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics at NC State, has received a 2020 Early Career Research award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). These awards support the development of individual research programs of outstanding scientists early in their careers and stimulate research careers in the disciplines supported by the DOE’s Office of Science.

The five-year award will support Sun’s research project entitled “Elucidating Chirality-Induced Magnetism and Magnetoelectric Functionalities in Layered Chiral Hybrid Metal Halide Perovskites.” Sun’s research will study chiral-based hybrid materials under multiple external stimuli, work that could lead to breakthroughs in the generation and manipulation of spin information using solution-processed, flexible hybrid materials without the need for magnetic elements. This ability to generate and manipulate spin information is essential in spintronics, which utilizes the electron’s spin degree of freedom instead of its charge to transfer and process information.

The project ultimately aims to develop two ultrasensitive methods for detecting magnetism and magnetoelectric functionality in hybrid metal halide material.

Sun received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing in 2009 and did postdoctoral research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 2009 to 2011 and at the University of Utah from 2012 to 2014.

This post was originally published in College of Sciences News.