I grow thin films one atomic layer at a time and build the models that explain how they behave. PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering at Yale.
0100200300400500 nm
The color of a silicon wafer under a film of SiO2, computed from thin-film interference for thicknesses from 0 to 500 nm. Cleanrooms keep this chart on the wall for reading oxide thickness by eye. Drag along the strip, or use the arrow keys, to pick a thickness.
About
I am a PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering at Yale University, in Shu Hu’s Photocatalysis and Reaction Engineering Lab, which I joined in 2021. My work sits between semiconductor processing and electrochemistry. I develop protective and passivating coatings for III–V semiconductors such as InP and GaInP, do the nanofabrication that turns them into devices, and write the transport models that connect a recipe to a result.
Before Yale I studied chemical engineering at the Cooper Union and at Columbia University, where my research followed ion transport in membrane-coated electrocatalysts.
What I work on
Atomic layer deposition
Process development for TiO2, Al2O3 and GaN films and multilayer stacks, tuned for passivation and interface chemistry. I also run and maintain the group’s plasma ALD system.
Nanofabrication
Electron-beam and photolithography, reactive ion etching and PECVD for sub-100 nm III–V structures, checked with SEM/EDX, XPS, AFM and ellipsometry.
Modeling
COMSOL and ANSYS Fluent models of transport, reaction and plasma, used to plan experiments and to explain their results. One example is the coupled transport and pore-diffusion model in our paper on electrified polyethylene pyrolysis.
Solar fuels
Photoelectrochemistry and photocatalysis on coated semiconductors, from water splitting to turning dissolved carbon into fuels.
Publications
Enhanced Photocatalytic Charge Separation in Coating-Protected Porous Silicon Quantum Dot Films With Stability Approaching 100 HoursX. Ma, Z. Li, M. Amirifard, Q. Ennis, H. Su, J. Shang, W. Zhang, R. Yanagi, Y. Lee, U. Kortshagen, S. Hu*Advanced Functional Materials, e02774 (2026)
Selective Electrified Polyethylene Upcycling by Pore-Modulated PyrolysisJ. Yang†, Q. Dong†, C. Zhang†, W. Zhang†, …, S. Hu*, G. Beckham, L. Hu*Nature Chemical Engineering 2, 424–435 (2025). doi:10.1038/s44286-025-00248-0
Solar-Driven Selective Conversion of Millimolar Dissolved Carbon to Fuels with Molecular Flux GenerationB. Liu, Z. Qian, X. Shi, H. Su, W. Zhang, …, S. Hu*Nature Communications 16, 1558 (2025). doi:10.1038/s41467-025-56106-3
Models and Measurements Quantify Photon Recycling, Charge-Carrier Diffusion, and Photon Scattering Contributions to Photoluminescence in InP Nanowire ArraysD. Lustig, F. Chen, W. Zhang, O. Bird, J. Fajardo Jr., S. Ardo, S. Hu, A. Talin, R. Chandran*, J. Sambur*Journal of Physical Chemistry C 129, 8270–8283 (2025). doi:10.1021/acs.jpcc.5c01618
Photoemission Study of GaN Passivation Layers and Band Alignment at GaInP(100) HeterointerfacesS. Shekarabi, M. A. Z. Pour, H. Su, W. Zhang, C. He, K. D. Hanke, O. Romanyuk, A. Paszuk, W. Jaegermann, S. Hu*, T. Hannappel*ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 17(4), 7087–7097 (2025). doi:10.1021/acsami.4c17453
† equal contribution * corresponding author
Education
Yale UniversityPh.D. candidate, Chemical Engineering, 2021 to present
Columbia UniversityM.S., Chemical Engineering
The Cooper UnionB.Eng., Chemical Engineering
Outside the lab
I shoot film, from 35 mm up to 4×5 sheets, and some astrophotography when the sky allows. I also rock climb and ski.