Eva Aw

Eva Aw is a PhD student at University College London (UCL), UK working on the synthesis and characterisation of low-dimensional materials using a range of techniques. The emergence of new 2D materials such as phosphorene nanoribbons (PNRs), discovered in her research group at UCL, is essential in laying the groundwork in harnessing their potential for next-generation nanoelectronics and energy solutions. These nanoribbons, known for their remarkable flexibility, high surface area and edge effects due to electron confinement, can lead to tunable semiconducting properties and recently discovered to exhibit magnetic edge states.

Eva is currently investigating the local electrical conductivity of these PNRs using conductive high-speed AFM, in collaboration with Bristol Nanodynamics Ltd. This HSAFM is an extremely powerful tool which not only enables rapid data acquisition of PNR on a large area for high accuracy sample statistics, but for the first time ever, they have experimentally observed simultaneous mapping of both topography and conductivity of these nanoribbons. 

Eva Aw

Recent AFM-related papers:

• Shutt R. R. C., Aw E. S. Y., Liu Q., Berry-Gair J., Lancaster H. J., Said S., Miller T. S., Corà F., Howard C. H. & Clancy A. J. (2024) Investigating the mechanism of phosphorene nanoribbon synthesis by discharging black phosphorus intercalation compounds Nanoscale 16, 1742-1750

• Zhang F. F., Aw E., Eaton A. G., Shutt R. R. C., Lim J., Kim J. H., Macdonald T. J., Reyes C. D. L., Ashoka A., Pandya R., Payton O. D., Picco L., Knapp C. E., Corà F., Rao A., Howard C. A., & Clancy A. J. (2023) Production of Magnetic Arsenic–Phosphorus Alloy Nanoribbons with Small Band Gaps and High Hole Conductivities J. Am. Chem. Soc. 145, 33, 18286–18295

Biography: Eva was born in London but grew up in Malaysia. She graduated with a degree in MSci Physics from University College London (UCL), UK. Her masters project focused on the deposition of high quality epitaxial thin films of a ferroelectric material, HZO. The crystal structures were studied primarily using the X-ray diffraction technique. She also used AFM to test their growth quality and surface roughness. Prior to that, she undertook a summer research project at Seoul National University working on 2DEG in transparent oxide semiconductor. She is currently undertaking a PhD with the CDT-ACM in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCL.

Twitter: @2DMaterialGirl

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eva-aw-286800106 

Webpage: https://www.cdt-acm.org/people/eva-aw/ 

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