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- The Kavli ENSI brings together 23 world-class scientists from a diverse set of backgrounds with a combined interest and focus on learning the fundamentals of how energy flows and can be controlled on the nanoscale, where the rules of quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics teach us that entirely new ways of thinking are possible. The institute has developed rapidly to become a vibrant hub of engagement on these issues across the Berkeley campus and the Berkeley Lab.
  
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- Strong Partnerships for the Future: Kavli ENSI has implemented numerous programs to increase interdisciplinary collaborations.
  
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- ‎The Kavli Institute scholars engage the energy nanosciences community in regular forums that contribute to the intellectual agenda of the institute. To this end, we have created several venues and events that will increase interdisciplinary collaborations.
  
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Yi-Fan Zhao

2023-2025 Heising-Simons Junior Fellow

Faculty Advisor: Professor Michael Crommie

yzz205@berkeley.edu

Yi-Fan Zhao is an experimental physicist. Before joining Kavli ENSI, he received his Ph.D. in physics from the Pennsylvania State University. His research has mainly focused on molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth and electrical transport measurement of topological material films/heterostructures, especially quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulators.

At ENSI, Yi-Fan will join Prof. Crommie’s group and use scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/S) to explore fundamental physics in numerous composite quantum material systems. He is especially interested in examining Majorana physics in the QAH/superconductor hybrid heterostructure, in which the chiral Majorana mode has been proposed to emerge when a QAH insulator is coupled to an s-wave superconductor. The study of the chiral Majorana mode may provide a viable route to realize topological quantum computing. In addition, Yi-Fan is also interested in exploring new QAH systems with higher critical temperatures; and investigating novel quantum phase transitions in MX2-based materials (M=Mo, W; X=Se, Te).