Lin Zhou
Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
About
Lin Zhou is an associate professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Virginia. She specializes in advanced electron microscopy and spectroscopy to probe the structure and dynamics of materials. Before joining UVA, she was an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Iowa State University and a staff scientist at Ames National Laboratory. At Ames, she served as group leader and science coordinator of the Sensitive Instrument Facility, overseeing advanced electron-beam characterization instruments and research. She also led materials research on two- and three-dimensional quantum devices within the SQMS Center’s Quantum Technology Thrust.
Dr. Zhou earned her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Arizona State University in 2006, advised by Regents’ Professor David J. Smith and Professor Martha R. McCartney, after completing a B.E. in Materials Science and Engineering at Central South University (China) in 2001.
Education
Ph.D., Arizona State University, 2006
B.E., Central South University, 2001
Research Interests
Advanced in-situ/ex-situ Electron Microscopy and Spectroscopy
Develop and apply aberration-corrected TEM/STEM, EELS/EFTEM, Lorentz microscopy, and electron holography, to resolve structure–property–performance links at the atomic scale.
Materials for Quantum Information Science
Identify materials-related decoherence in qubits (interfaces/oxides, TLS, impurities).
Phases & Phase Transitions in Ferroic Materials
Map lattice–charge–spin coupling, domain topology, and transition pathways under external stimuli, incl. bias, heating, cryo, and magnetic field.
Selected Publications
Topological Defect Mediated Helical Phase Reorientation by Uniaxial Stress, Physical Review Letters, 134 (13), (2025) 136704.
TH Kim, H Zhao, BA Jensen, L Ke, L Zhou
Oscillating Grain Boundaries and Their Effects on Grain Growth: Observations in Skyrmion Bicrystals, Acta Materialia, 290, (2025) 120965.
X Fang, V Viteri-Pflucker, AH King, J Wang, J Yan, L Ke, L Zhou
Correlating aluminum layer deposition rates, Josephson junction microstructure, and superconducting qubits’ performance, Acta Materialia, 284, (2025) 120631.
Jin-Su Oh, Cameron J Kopas, Hilal Cansizoglu, Joshua Y Mutus, Kameshwar Yadavalli, Tae-Hoon Kim, Matt Kramer, Alexander H King, Lin Zhou
Atomic-Scale Characterization of Dilute Dopants in Topological Insulators via STEM–EDS Using Registration and Cell Averaging Techniques, Microscopy and Microanalysis, 00, (2024),1–10.
Min-Chul Kang, Farhan Islam, Jiaqiang Yan, David Vaknin, Robert J. McQueeney, Ping Lu, and Lin Zhou
Structure and Formation Mechanisms in Tantalum and Niobium Oxides in Superconducting Quantum Circuits, ACS Nano, 18 (2024) 19732.
Jin-Su Oh, Rahim Zaman, Akshay A. Murthy, Mustafa Bal, Francesco Crisa, Shaojiang Zhu, Carlos G. Torres-Castendo, Cameron J. Kopas, Joshua Y. Mutus, Dapeng Jing, John Zasadzinski, Anna Grassellino, Alex Romanenko, Mark C. Hersam, ..., Lin Zhou
Exploring the Relationship between Deposition Method, Microstructure, and Performance of Nb/Si-based Superconducting Coplanar Waveguide Resonators, Acta Materialia, 276, (2024) 120153.
Jin-Su Oh, Cameron J Kopas, Jayss Marshall, Xiaotian Fang, Kamal R Joshi, Amlan Datta, Sunil Ghimire, Joong-Mok Park, Richard Kim, Daniel Setiawan, Ella Lachman, Joshua Y Mutus, Akshay A Murthy, Anna Grassellino, Alex Romanenko, ..., Lin Zhou
In-situ transmission electron microscopy investigation on surface oxides thermal stability of niobium, Applied Surface Science, (2023), 157297.
Jin-Su Oh, Xiaotian Fang, Tae-Hoon Kim, Matt Lynn, Matt Kramer, Mehdi Zarea, James A. Sauls, A. Romanenko, S. Posen, A. Grassellino, Cameron J. Kopas, Mark Field, Jayss Marshall, Hilal Cansizoglu, Joshua Y. Mutus, Matthew Reagor, and Lin Zhou
Understanding mechanism of performance improvement in nitrogen-doped niobium superconducting radio frequency cavity, Materials Research Letters, 11, (2022) 108.
Xiaotian Fang, Jin-Su Oh, Matt Kramer, A Romanenko, A Grassellino, John Zasadzinski, Lin Zhou
Kinetics of Magnetic Skyrmion Crystal Formation from the Conical Phase, Nano Letters, 21 (2021) 5547.
Tae-Hoon Kim, Haijun Zhao, Phuong-Vu Ong, Brandt A. Jensen, Baozhi Cui, Alexander H. King, Liqin Ke, Lin Zhou
Mechanisms of Skyrmion and Skyrmion Crystal Formation from the Conical Phase, Nano Letters, 20 (2020) 4731.
Tae-Hoon Kim, Haijun Zhao, Ben Xu, Brandt A. Jensen, Alexander H. King, Matthew J. Kramer, Liqin Ke, Lin Zhou
Uncompensated Polarization in Incommensurate Modulations of Perovskite Antiferroelectrics, Physical Review Letters, 123 (2019) 217602.
Tao Ma, Zhongming Fan, Bin Xu, Tae-Hoon Kim, Laurent Bellaiche, Ping Lu, Matthew J. Kramer, Xiaoli Tan, and Lin Zhou
In-situ TEM analysis of the phase transformation mechanism of a Cu-Al-Ni shape memory alloy, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 808 (2019) 151743.
Tae-Hoon Kim, Gaoyuan Ouyang, Jonathan D. Poplawsky, Matthew J. Kramer, Jun Cui, Lin Zhou
Atomically Resolved Domain Boundary Structure in PbZrO3-Based Antiferroelectric Ceramics, Applied Physics Letter, 115 (12), (2019), 122902.
Tao Ma, Zhongming Fan, Xiaoli Tan, and Lin Zhou
Toward Phase and Catalysis Control: Tracking the Formation of Intermetallic Nanoparticles at Atomic Scale, CHEM, 5 (2019) 1235.
Tao Ma, Shuai Wang, Minda Chen, Lin-Lin Wang, Duane D. Johnson, Matthew J. Kramer, Wenyu Huang, Lin Zhou
Relaxation dynamics of zero-field skyrmions over a wide temperature range, Nano Letters, 18 (2018) 7777.
Licong Peng, Ying Zhang, Liqin Ke, Tea-Hoon Kim, Qiang Zheng, Jiaqiang Yan, X.-G. Zhang, Yang Gao, Shouguo Wang, Jianwang Cai, Baogen Shen, Robert J. McQueeney, Adam Kaminski, Matthew J. Kramer, Lin Zhou
An Abnormal Meta-stable Nanoscale Eutectic Reaction Revealed by in-situ Observations, Acta Materialia, 164 (2019) 697.
Lin Zhou, Fanqiang Meng, Shihuai Zhou, Kewei Sun, TaeHoon Kim, Ryan Ott, Ralph Napolitano, Matthew J. Kramer
On spinodal decomposition in alnico - a transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography study, Acta Materialia, 153 (2018) 15.
Lin Zhou, Wei Guo, J. D. Poplawsky , Liqin Ke, Wei Tang, I. E. Anderson, M. J. Kramer
Effect of heat-treatment conditions on phase separation in alnico alloy, Acta Materialia, 133 (2017) 73.
Lin Zhou, Wei Tang, Liqin Ke, Wei Guo, J. D. Poplawsky, I. E. Anderson, R.W. McCallum, Caizhuang Wang, and M. J. Kramer
Architecture and Magnetism of Alnico, Acta Materialia, 74 (2014) 224.
Lin Zhou, M. K. Miller, Ping Lu, Liqin Ke, R. Skomski, M. McCartney, D. Smith, H. Dillon, Q. Xing, A. Palasyuk, S. Constantinides, R.W. McCallum, I. E. Anderson, V. Antropov, and M. J. Kramer
Measurement and effects of polarization fields on one-monolayer-thick InN/GaN multiple quantum wells, Phys. Rev. B., 88 (2013) 125310.
Lin Zhou, Toshihiro Aoki, E. Dimakis, T. Moustakas, D. J. Smith and M. M. MacCartney
Measurement of electric field across individual wurtzite GaN quantum dots using electron holography, Appl. Phys. Lett. 99 (2011) 101905.
Lin Zhou, David J. Smith, Martha R. McCartney, Tao Xu, Theodore D. Moustakas
Ti/Al/Ni/Au Ohmic contacts for AlInN/AlN/GaN-based heterojunction field-effect transistors, J. Appl. Phys., 107 (2010) 014508.
Lin Zhou, J. H. Leach, X. Ni, H. Morkoc, D. J. Smith
Observation of dodecagon-shape V-defects in GaN/AlInN multiple quantum wells, Appl. Phys. Lett. 97 (2010) 161902.
Lin Zhou, David J. Smith, Martha. R. McCartney, Anas Mouti, E. Feltin, J. F. Carlin, N. Grandjean
Awards
Exceptional Performance Award, The Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center, 2022.
Ames Laboratory Inventor Incentive Award, 2017, 2015.