Guo-meng (Peter) Zhao Associate Professor California State University, Los Angeles Ph.D. 1997, University of Zurich Office: PS 420 Telephone: (323) 343-2139     Specialization: Experimental condensed matter physics

Education

 

7/97                 Ph.D. in Physics, Physics Department, University of Zurich with K. A. Muller (Nobel Laureate, 1987)

12/90               M. A. in Physics, Physics Department, University of Southern California

9/85-7/88         Ph. D. Candidate, Physics Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences

7/85                 B.S. in Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

 

Professional Experience

 

9/08                Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, California State University, Los Angeles                   

9/02-8/08        Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, California State University, Los Angeles

5/01-8/02        Research Associate Professor, Physics Department/TcSUH, University of Houston

7/97-5/01        Faculty Research Associate, Physics Department, University of Zurich

12/97-6/98      Research Associate, Center for Superconductivity Research, Physics Department,

                        University of Maryland

 

Scholarly Highlights

• 79 publications (including 2 Nature, 6 Physical Review Letters, 34 Physical Review B, 1 Journal of Applied Physics, and 7 Book Chapters) and 11 submitted/unpublished papers

• About 2000 citations including about 500 citations to the 96 Nature paper

• Invited speaker in 14 international conferences including an invited speaker in the APS March Meeting

• 26 colloquia/seminars in the academic and research institutions including the Stanford University, the Brown University, USC, and UCLA

• First observation of a giant oxygen-isotope shift of the Curie-temperature in doped manganites

• First observation of a large oxygen-isotope effect on the effective supercarrier mass in superconducting cuprates, demonstrating polaronic nature of supercarriers

• First observations of many unconventional isotope effects in perovskite oxides, demonstrating very strong electron-phonon interactions and the existence of polaronic carriers in these materials

• Identification of the gap (pairing) symmetry in the bulk of  high-temperature superconductors, which is extended s-wave (s+g wave) with eight line nodes

• Identification of bosonic modes mediating electron pairing for high-temperature superconductors, showing compelling evidence for predominantly phonon-mediated pairing mechanism

• Uncovering the secret of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates and bismuthates: Cooper pairing of polaronic charge carriers

• Discovery of ultrahigh temperature superconductivity in carbon nanotubes

 

Professional Activities

• Session Chair in 1999 APS March Meeting

• Session Chair in the 32nd Condensed Matter Theory Workshop, 2008

• Referee for Physical Review B, Physical Review Letters, Journal of Applied Physics, Physics Letters, and several other highly reputable journals

• Editorial Advisory Board Member to Open Condensed Matter Physics Journal, Open Condensed Matter Physics Reviews, and Open Condensed Matter Physics Letters

 

Honors and Awards

• Recipient of the most outstanding Ph.D. dissertation award, University of Zurich, Switzerland, 1997
• Recipient of the most outstanding undergraduate student award, Zhejiang University, China, 1983
• Cottrell college science award from Research Corporation (2004 and 2005)

 

Research Interests

 

My research interests include studying novel materials exhibiting extraordinary superconducting, magnetoresistive, ferroelectric, optical, and magnetic properties. These novel materials include high-temperature superconducting cuprates, colossal magnetoresistive manganites, ferroelectric and photorefractive barium titanates, and quasi-one-dimensional carbon nanotubes. I am particularly interested in unconventional oxygen-isotope effects on electrical, magnetic, and thermal properties of the provskite oxides to clarify the roles of electron-phonon interactions in the microscopic origins of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates, the colossal magneteoresistance in manganites, and the unusual photorefractive effect in barium titanates. I am also interested in theoretical studies of the pairing interactions and gap symmetry in cuprates to provide essential constraints on the microscopic theory of high-temperature superconductivity. My current experimental research focuses on novel magnetic properties of carbon nanotubes up to 1200 K to search for ultra-high temperature superconductivity.