Students walking along Ho Plaza
Two students walking on Engineering Quad towards Duffield
Woman taking a photo of a mumified bird
Duffield Hall at sunset.
Two students working on a autonomous plane

Huili Grace Xing

William L. Quackenbush Professor of Engineering
Associate Dean on Research and Graduate Studies
Electrical and Computer Engineering

Biography

Huili (Grace) Xing is the William L. Quackenbush Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University where she holds a joint appointment in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Xing was appointed to a two-year term as Associate Dean on Research and Graduate Studies for the College of Engineering in January 2020.

Xing received a Bachelor Degree in Physics from Peking University. After that, she pursued a Master Degree in Material Science and Engineering at Lehigh University. Wanting to work with devices that use wonderful material properties, she went to the University of California at Santa Barbara for her Ph.D. and eventually earned a degree in Electrical Engineering. From 2004 to 2014 she was a faculty member at the University of Notre Dame. Xing joined Cornell in 2015.

Research Interests

Xing’s research work can be loosely categorized into 4 areas, supported by DoD, NSF, SRC, DoE, etc.

  1. III-V Nitride materials and devices. Example projects include AlN/GaN ultrascaled high electron/hole mobility transistors for high-speed high-power applications, fundamental science of polarization doping in polar semiconductors, applications of polar semiconductors in electronics and in photonics including UV optoelectronics, non-linear optical materials, piezoelectric properties and RF filters, GaN power diodes and transistors, resonant tunneling diodes, negative differential resistance and plasma based THz sources, wafer fused enabled hybrid structures, and BN.
  2. Oxide materials and devices. Example projects include epitaxy, physics and applications of Ga2O3, Al2O3 and related materials, high-performing electronics based on complex oxide semiconductors.
  3. Low-dimensional materials and quantum materials. Ongoing projects include epitaxy and properties of hBN, epitaxial superconductors integrated on the III-V nitrides platform and related science and technologies. Past projects include nanowires and devices (InGaN and II-VIs), 2D crystal materials and devices including van der Waals epitaxy, carrier electrostatics and transport, optoelectronic responses, p-n junctions and heterostructures, field modulation and tunneling, metamaterials and THz applications, graphene physics and devices.
  4. Logic and memory materials and devices. Ongoing projects include conceptualizing and developing non-volatile memories with high endurance for processing-in-memory (PIM) such as spin-orbit-torque field-effect transistor (SOTFET) and ion-based memories. Past projects include steep slope transistors for high-efficiency logic and RF electronics, especially tunnel FETs. We pioneered design, fabrication and characterization of III-V TFETs, later 2D-crystal based steep slope transistors: the Thin-TFETs.

Selected Publications

  • Reet Chaudhuri, Samuel James Bader, Zhen Chen, David A. Muller, Huili Grace Xing and Debdeep Jena. “A Polarization-induced 2D hole gas in undoped gallium nitride quantum wells.” 2019. Science. Vol. 365, Issue 6460, pp. 1454-1457. DOI: 10.1126/science.aau8623.
  • Wenshen Li, Kazuki Nomoto, Zongyang Hu, Riena Jinno, Zexuan Zhang, Thieu Quang Tu, Kohei Sasaki, Akito Kuramata, Debdeep Jena and Huili Grace Xing. “2.44 kV Ga2O3 vertical trench Schottky barrier diodes with very low reverse leakage current.” 2018. IEEE International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM). Paper 8.5, pp.193-196. DOI: 10.1109/IEDM.2018.861469.
  • Rusen Yan, Guru Khalsa, Suresh Vishwanath, Yimo Han, John Wright, Scott Katzer, Neeraj Nepal, Brian P. Downey, David A. Muller, Huili Grace Xing, David J. Meyer and Debdeep Jena. 2018. “GaN/NbN epitaxial semiconductor/superconductor heterostructures.” Nature 555, 183 (2018) doi:10.1038/nature25768.
  • Jena, D., K. Banerjee, Huili Xing.  2014. “Intimate Contacts.”  Nature Materials.
  • Sensale-Rodriguez, Berardi, Rusen Yan, Michelle Kelly, Tian Fang, Kristof Tahy, Wan Sik Hwang, Debdeep Jena, Lei Liu, Huili Xing.  2012.”Broadband graphene THz modulators enabled by intraband transitions.”  Nature Communications; Featured by NSF at LiveScience 3(780)
  • Simon, John, Vladimir Protasenko, Chuanxin Lian, Huili Xing, Debdeep Jena.  2010. “Polarization-induced hole doping in wide-band-gap uniaxial semiconductor heterostructures.”  Science 327 (60).

Selected Awards and Honors

  • IEEE Fellow 2022
  • Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow 2021
  • American Physical Society Fellow 2019
  • William L. Quackenbush Professorship 2018
  • Young Scientist Award (International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors (ISCS)) 2014
  • Featured Notre Dame Faculty at UND-BYU football game 2012
  • CAREER Award (National Science Foundation) 2009
  • Young Investigator Program Award (Air Force Office of Scientific Research) 2008

Education

  • B.S. (Physics), Peking University, 1996
  • M.S. (Material Science), Lehigh University, 1998
  • Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering), University of California, 2003
  • Postdoc (Electrical Engineering), University of California, 2003

Websites