Science of SLAC | Molecular Bling: The Surprising Properties of Small Diamonds

The extreme hardness, excellent thermal conductivity and unique electronic properties of diamonds make them important materials for basic research and technical applications in high-precision machining, micro-scale mechanical systems and quantum computing. However, potential applications are hindered by difficulties in obtaining particles of diamonds small enough and pure enough to study. In this lecture, Yan will describe the discovery, fundamental studies and applications of an exciting new form of molecular-scale diamond particles called diamondoids.

Yan is a joint postdoctoral researcher at Stanford and SLAC and part of a team of scientists, led by Nick Melosh, Z-X Shen and Jeremy Dahl, which is studying diamondoids at the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences (SIMES). Yan received his PhD from Harvard University in 2011. His research focuses on the synthesis and electronic properties of low-dimensional materials. He is the author of 20 peer-reviewed papers and patents.