Jian-Min Zuo

For More Information

• Zuo research group page

Professional Highlights

• Jian-Min Zuo received his Ph.D. in Physics from Arizona State University in 1989. He then took a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the National Science Foundation center for high resolution electron microscopy and the Physics department at ASU. During this time he co-authored a book on electron microdiffraction with John Spence. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Illinois, he was a research scientist in Physics at ASU and a visiting scientist to a number of universities and institutes in Germany, Japan and Norway. His research during this period focused on the development of quantitative electron diffraction techniques and study of crystal electron density and bonding. At Illinois, Prof. Zuo has developed research programs focused on structure and property relationships in a range of materials, including metal nanoparticles, semiconductors, electroceramics, oxide interfaces, and nanotubes. He also has developed an ultrafast electron diffraction facility and atomic resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy using the aberration corrected electron microscope at the Center for Microanalysis of Materials. He has published more than 140 papers in scientific journals and several invited book chapters on electron diffraction and diffractive imaging. His honors include the JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) postdoctoral fellowship, outstanding young oversea researcher award from National Science Foundation of China, and Chair of Excellence of French Nanoscience Foundation. Zuo is the recipient of the 2001 Burton Award of the Microscopy Society of America.

Research Statement

My research goal as a materials scientist and engineer is to discover new physics and chemistry in functional solids. More specifically, I am interested in the structure of functional materials, especially their atomic arrangements and bonding. My interest in structure was developed largely based on its fundamental role in materials and their functions; whether the function served is structural, electrical, magnetic, thermal, and optical or a combination of these, properties of materials ultimately relate to their structure. Here at University of Illinois, we are developing new electron-beam techniques for the determination of complex structures. I, also with my research group, am applying these techniques to discover structure-property relationships in a number of materials, including supported nanoparticles and nanocrystals with applications in energy production and environmental protection, complex oxides and semiconductor thin films.

Graduate Research Opportunities

Looking for outstanding student(s) interested in characterization of semiconductor devices and defects.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

1) Motivated students interested in materials characterization.

2) Machine learning in electron microscopy.

Books Authored or Co-Authored (Original Editions)

• J.M. Zuo and J.C.H. Spence, "Advanced transmission electron microscopy, imaging and diffraction in nanoscience", springer, 2017
• Spence, J.C.H. and J. M. Zuo, “Electron microdiffraction”, Plenum, New York (1991).

Selected Articles in Journals

• X. F. Zhai, C. S. Mohapatra, A. B. Shah, J. M. Zuo, and J. N. Eckstein, "New Optical Absorption Bands in Atomic-Layer Superlattices", Advanced Materials 22 (10), 1136-1139 (2010).
• A. B. Shah, Q. M. Ramasse, X. F. Zhai, J. G. Wen, S. J. May, I. Petrov, A. Bhattacharya, P. Abbamonte, J. N. Eckstein, and J. M. Zuo, "Probing Interfacial Electronic Structures in Atomic Layer LaMnO3 and SrTiO3 Superlattices", Advanced Materials 22 (10), 1156-+ (2010).
• H. Park and J.M. Zuo, "Comment on "Structural Preablation Dynamics of Graphite Observed by Ultrafast Electron Crystallography," Physical Review Letters, 105(5) 059603 (2010).
• B. Jiang, J.M. Zuo, D. Holec, C.J. Humphreys, M. Spackman and J.C.H. Spence, "Combined structure-factor phase measurement and theoretical calculations for mapping of chemical bonds in GaN," Acta Crystallographica Section A, 66(4) 446-450 (2010).
• S. Kim, J.M. Zuo and S. Kang, "Effect of WC or NbC addition on lattice parameter of surrounding structure in Ti(C0.7N0.3)-Ni cermets investigated by TEM/CBED," Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 30(10) 2131-2138 (2010).
• Y.K. Che, X.M. Yang, Z.X. Zhang, J.M. Zuo, J.S. Moore and L. Zang, "Ambient photodoping of p-type organic nanofibers: highly efficient photoswitching and electrical vapor sensing of amines," Chemical Communications, 46(23) 4127-4129 (2010).
• B.M. Venkatesan, A.B. Shah, J.M. Zuo and R. Bashir, "DNA Sensing Using Nanocrystalline Surface-Enhanced Al2O3 Nanopore Sensors," Advanced Functional Materials, 20(8) 1266-1275 (2010).
• T. Kim, G. Kim, W.I. Choi, Y.K. Kwon and J.M. Zuo, "Electrical transport in small bundles of single-walled carbon nanotubes: Intertube interaction and effects of tube deformation," Applied Physics Letters, 96(17) 173107 (2010).
• Jiong Zhang, Jianliang Xiao, Xianhong Meng, Carolyn Monroe,Yonggang Huang, Jian-Min Zuo, “Free Folding of Suspended Graphene Sheets by Random Mechanical Stimulation”, Physical Review Letters, 104(16) 166805 (2010).
• Winston Chern, Keng Hsu, Ik Su Chun, Bruno P. de Azeredo, Numair Ahmed, Kyou-Hyun Kim, Jian-min Zuo, Nick Fang, Placid Ferreira and Xiuling Li, “Non-lithographic Patterning and Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching for Manufacturing of Tunable Light-Emitting Silicon Nanowire Arrays”, Nano Letters, 10(5) 1582-1588 (2010).
• H. McDaniel, J. M. Zuo and M. Shim, "Anisotropic Strain-Induced Curvature in Type-II CdSe/CdTe Nanorod Heterostructures," Journal of the American Chemical Society 132 (10), 3286-3287 (2010).
• S. Sivaramakrishnan, A. P. Tedjasaputra, K. Sato et al., "Structural evolution, epitaxy, and sublimation of silver nanoclusters on TiO2 (110)," Journal of Applied Physics 107 (5), 053505 (2010).
• J. Zhang and J. M. Zuo, "Structure and diameter-dependent bond lengths of a multi-walled carbon nanotube revealed by electron diffraction," Carbon 47 (15), 3515-3528 (2009).
• J. Tao, D. Niebieskikwiat, M. Varela, W. Luo, M. A. Schofield, Y. Zhu, M. B. Salamon, J. M. Zuo, S. T. Pantelides and S. J. Pennycook, "Direct Imaging of Nanoscale Phase Separation in La0.55Ca0.45MnO3: Relationship to Colossal Magnetoresistance," Physical Review Letters 103 (9) (2009).
• S. I. Sanchez, M. W. Small, J. M. Zuo, and R. G. Nuzzo, "Structural characterization of Pt-Pd and Pd-Pt core-shell nanoclusters at atomic resolution," Journal of the American Chemical Society 131 (24), 8683-8689 (2009).
• Park, H. and J.M. Zuo, “Direct measurement of transient electric fields induced by ultrafast pulsed laser irradiation of silicon,” Applied Physics Letters, 94 (25), 251103 (2009).
• Sato, K., J.G. Wen and J.M. Zuo “Intermetallic ordering and structure in Fe-Pd alloy nanoparticles,” Journal of Applied Physics 105, 093509 (2009).
• W.J. Huang, J.M. Zuo*, B. Jiang, K.W. Kwon and Moonsub Shim, “Sub- Å resolution diffractive imaging of single nanocrystals”, Nature Physics 5,129-133 (2009).

Research Honors

• Outstanding Overseas Young Scientist Collaboration Award, China National Science Foundation (2007)
• CAREER Award, Division of Materials Research, National Science Foundation (2005)
• Burton Award, Microscopy Society of America (2001)
• JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship, Japan Society for Promotion of Science, Japan (1997)
• KC Wang Scholarship, Beijing, China (1996)
• Japanese government research awards for foreign specialists, administered by science and technology agency, Japan (1993)
• Presidential Scholar, Microscopy Society of America (1989)