Adina Luican-Mayer, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Chicago

 

2025 Experimental Physics Investigator

Adina Luican-Mayer, Ph.D.
 

Research Description

Adina Luican-Mayer explores moiré ferroelectricity — a novel mechanism for creating ferroelectric structures by twisting non-polar, atomically thin layers. Her team constructs precisely aligned twisted heterostructures and investigates their ferroelectric behavior with scanning probe microscopy under external stimuli such as electric fields and temperature variations. She also designs local gate architectures to manipulate polarization, enabling the development of miniaturized memory devices and tunable ferroelectric responses. By combining moiré ferroelectrics with magnetic and superconducting layers, Luican-Mayer aims to uncover emergent phenomena in atomically thin multiferroic systems.

Research Impact

Professor Luican-Mayer is developing a new platform for ferroelectricity by uncovering the physics of moiré-induced polarization in atomically thin materials. Her work deepens our understanding of phase transitions in low-dimensional systems, while revealing how moiré ferroelectricity interacts with other physical orders to produce emergent phenomena, insights that are poised to open fresh directions in condensed matter physics. On the applied side, the ability to locally control polarization and engineer multiferroic heterostructures may enable ultra-compact, energy-efficient memory and switching devices for next-generation electronics.

 
 

related links

Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative Science University of Illinois Chicago, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Back

Education

Ph.D., Rutgers University
B.S., International University Bremen

Affiliated Investigators