New Postdoc

We warmly welcome postdoctoral researcher Dr. Le Wei. Dr. Wei received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University under the supervision of Prof. Meng Lu and Prof. Liang Dong. His research focuses on photonic devices and micro/nanofabrication, with experience in semiconductor processing and optical instrumentation. Dr. Wei will lead our efforts in miniaturized chiroptics and integrated biosensing.

Layered Perovskite Room-Temperature Nanolasers

Practical room-temperature (RT) operation of nanowire lasers requires efficient gain materials. Our recent JACS, provided an answer through meticulous crystallization control of phase-pure quasi-2D tin-iodide perovskite nanowires. These nanowires support color-tunable NIR, RT optically pumped lasing, with thresholds as low as 75.8 μJ/cm², cavity quality factors exceeding 3000, and negligible degradation over more than one million pulses. This work opens the door to using layered perovskite nanowires as a promising platform for nanoscale electronics and miniaturized photonic devices. Thanks to all the collaborators!
Read More: Miniaturized Layered Perovskite Lasers.

Microscope Installation

We’re welcoming Russ and Charles from Hunt Optics & Imaging for the installation of our brand-new Olympus IX85 microscope.

Ionic Liquid x Perovskite Solar Cell

Led by Dr. Wenzhan Xu, our paper using ionic liquids to enhance the stability of perovskite solar cells has been published in Nature Energy. A new ionic liquid MEM-MIM-Cl was used to regulate perovskite growth and stabilize buried interfaces. Solar cells incorporating MEM-MIM-Cl achieved a power conversion efficiency of 25.9% and retained 90% initial performance after 1,500 hrs' 1-sun illumination and 90°C thermal stress - surpassing prior benchmarks under milder ageing conditions. Many thanks to all the collaborators!
Read More: Templated Crystallization in Perovskite Optoelectronics.

The first cohort

We warmly welcome Wai Loon Chooi and Yue Wang as the first Ph.D. students in the lab! Wish you all the best in your future scientific discovery and innovation.

AIChE 2025

Another great year with Area 8E - Electronic and Photonic Materials at the 2025 AIChE Conference - fantastic to reconnect and meet new faces!

First Molecule

Rotation student Ichchha has successfully synthesized our first molecule in the lab. Image showing Ichchha in front of her first reaction. Congratulation!

Prof. Jinsang Kim's Professorship Ceremony

Wenhao's Ph.D. advisor, Prof. Jinsang Kim, has been named the Raoul Kopelman Collegiate Professor at the University of Michigan. Today marks his official professorship ceremony. Here are the news, recording of the ceremony, and photo gallery. CONGRATS to the best mentor and the most complete person!

(p.c. Michigan MSE - Kim group @ceremony)

Miniaturized Layered Perovskite Lasers

Following the submission of two new papers on lead-free room temperature layered perovskite nanolasers, we invite you to read our executive summary on this breakthrough technology here.

Optics Lab Kicked Off

We inherited a laser table thanks to the generous support of the Department of Chemistry.

W. Shao Laboratory was founded

Wenhao moved to UGA Chemistry. The group will explore purely organic and organic–inorganic hybrid materials, with an initial emphasis on their photonic, electronic, and quantum applications.