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Dr. Nilanthy Balakrishnan

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Dr Balakrishnan is a Senior Lecturer in Physics at the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Keele University, UK. Her main areas of expertise are semiconductor physics, material science, and nanotechnology. ​Her research focuses on understanding the fundamental properties and applications of novel 2D materials. Her research is supported by several recent grants: a Royal Society Research grant to understand the feasibility of III-VI van der Waals layered materials for flexible and wearable devices, a British Council’s Researcher Links Climate Change Workshop Grant to grow metal chalcogenides for sodium ion battery’s anode, a Royal Society Short Industry Fellowship to study the surface and interface science of 2D materials using Kelvin probe microscopy, and the EPSRC ECR International Collaboration Grant to synthesis smart electrodes for energy storage devices.

Background

Dr Balakrishnan obtained her first degree (BSc Hons) in Physics from the University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka in 2008. Subsequently, she joined the Department of Physics, at the University of Jaffna as an assistant lecturer and then got promoted to lecturer in 2009. She came to the University of Nottingham, UK as an MSc by Research student in 2010 and continued her PhD with the same research group (Professor. Amalia Patane). She obtained her MSc by Research and PhD in Condensed Matter Physics in 2011 and 2015, respectively. Her PhD project focused on the fabrication of nanoscale current channels and nanoscale light emitting diodes (LEDs) that exploit the controlled diffusion, by a focused laser beam, of hydrogen atoms in dilute nitride III-N-V semiconductor compounds. She changed her research focus to 2D materials at end of her PhD in 2014. Following her PhD, Dr Balakrishnan gained 4.5 years of postdoctoral experience, which of 3 years at the University of Nottingham and 1.5 years at the University of Manchester. She joined Keele University in 2019 as a Lecturer in Physics and got promoted as a Senior Lecturer in 2024.

Selected Publications

  1. S. Xu, M. M Al Ezzi, N. Balakrishnan, A. Garcia-Ruiz, B. Tsim, C. Mullan, J. Barrier, N. Xin, B. A. Piot, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, A. Carvalho, A. Mishchenko, A. K. Geim, V. I. Fal'ko, S. Adam, A. H. Castro Neto, K. S. Novoselov, Y. Shi: Tunable van Hove singularities and correlated states in twisted monolayer–bilayer graphene. Nature Physics 17, 619-626 (2021). 

  2. N. Balakrishnan, E. D. Steer, E. F. Smith, Z. R. Kudrynskyi, Z. D. Kovalyuk, L. Eaves, A. Patanè, and P. H. Beton: Epitaxial growth of γ-InSe and α, β, and γ-In2Se3 on ε-GaSe. 2D Materials 5, 035026 (2018). 

  3. N. Balakrishnan, Z. R. Kudrynskyi, E. F. Smith, M. W. Fay, O. Makarovsky, Z. D. Kovalyuk, L. Eaves, P. H. Beton, and A. Patane`: Engineering p-n junctions and bandgap tuning of InSe nanolayers by controlled oxidation. 2D Materials 4, 025043 (2017). 

  4. N. Balakrishnan, C. R. Staddon, E. F. Smith, J. Stec, D. Gay, G. W. Mudd, O. Makarovsky, Z. R. Kudrynskyi, Z. D. Kovalyuk, L. Eaves, A. Patane`, and P. H. Beton: Quantum Confinement and photoresponsivity of β-In2Se3 nanolayers grown by physical vapour Transport. 2D Materials 3, 025030 (2016).

  5. N. Balakrishnan, Z. R. Kudrynskyi, M. W. Fay, G. W. Mudd, S. A. Svatek, O. Makarovsky, Z. D. Kovalyuk, L. Eaves, P. H. Beton, and A. Patanè: Room temperature electroluminescence from mechanically formed van der Waals III-VI homojunction and heterojunctions. Advanced Optical Materials 2, 1064 (2014). 

Video Presentations

  1. Materials World 2023, InSe-based van der Waals heterostructures for emerging technologies

  2. 2022 NanoScientific Forum Europe, Physics and Applications of Indium Selenide-based van der Waals Heterostructures 

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