Tongcang Li

NOTE: E-mail addresses end with @purdue.edu

Professor of Physics and Astronomy

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Group:

Faculty

Office:

PHYS 52
PHYS 91 Lab

Phone:

(765) 496-0072
(765) 494-3020

E-mail:

tcli

Website:

[Homepage]

Lab Homepage

Curriculum Vitae (PDF, 2023)

Education

• 2011: Ph.D. in Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, USA.

Employment

• 2023 - : Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University.
• 2023 - : Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University.
• 2020 - 2023: Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University.
• 2020 - 2023: Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University.
• 2014 - 2020: Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University.
• 2014 - 2020: Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University.
• 2011 - 2014: Affiliate, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
• 2011 - 2014: Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.

Other Experiences

• Associate Editor, Photonics Research, 2022 - present.
• Editorial Board Member, Photonics, 2022
• Guest Editor, Focus issue "Focus on Quantum Emitters and Spin Defects," Materials for Quantum Technology (IOP Publishing), 2021-2022
• Guest Editor, Special issue “Optomechanics: Science and Applications”, Photonics, 2021
• Reviewer for Science, Nature Physics, Nature Photonics, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, PNAS, Physical Review Letters, Nano Letters, Physical Review A, Laser & Photonics Reviews, New Journal of Physics, Optics Express, Nanotechnology, etc.
• Reviewer for National Science Foundation, European Research Council, German Research Foundation, French National Research Agency, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, etc.

Research Interests

Solid-state spin qubits, quantum sensing, levitated optomechanics, Casimir effects, quantum optics, quantum information, etc.

Selected Awards and Honors

• Bravo Plus Award, Purdue University, 2024
• Seed for Success Award, Purdue University, 2018, 2019, 2024
• Moore Foundation Experimental Physics Investigator, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, 2023
• University Faculty Scholar, Purdue University, 2023
• 30 breakthroughs in "Optics in 2022", Optics & Photonics News, Optica, 2022
• Award for Outstanding Advising, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, 2020 
• Finalist for the Moore Inventor Fellows Award, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, 2019
• APS Physics "Highlights of the Year" of 2018, American Physical Society, 2018
• NSF CAREER Award, U.S. National Science Foundation, 2016
• Springer Theses Prize, Springer Science + Business Media, 2012
• Jean Bennett Memorial Student Travel Grant, Optical Society of America Foundation, 2010
  (Only one student is awarded this grant per year.)

Book

• Tongcang Li, Fundamental Tests of Physics with Optically Trapped Microspheres (Springer Theses) (Springer, New York, 2013)

Selected Journal Publications

1. Xingyu Gao, Sumukh Vaidya, Saakshi Dikshit, Peng Ju, Kunhong Shen, Yuanbin Jin, Shixiong Zhang, Tongcang Li. "Nanotube spin defects for omnidirectional magnetic field sensing." Nature Communications, 15, 7697 (2024).
2. Yuanbin Jin, Kunhong Shen, Peng Ju, Xingyu Gao, Chong Zu, Alejandro J. Grine, Tongcang Li. "Quantum control and Berry phase of electron spins in rotating levitated diamonds in high vacuum."  Nature Communications, 15, 5063 (2024).
3. Ruotian Gong, Xinyi Du, Eli Janzen, Vincent Liu, Zhongyuan Liu, Guanghui He, Bingtian Ye, Tongcang Li, Norman Y Yao, James H Edgar, Erik A Henriksen, Chong Zu. "Isotope engineering for spin defects in van der Waals materials." Nature Communications 15, 104 (2024). 
4. Peng Ju, Yuanbin Jin, Kunhong Shen, Yao Duan, Zhujing Xu, Xingyu Gao, Xinjie Ni, Tongcang Li. "Near-field GHz rotation and sensing with an optically levitated nanodumbbell." Nano Letters 23, 10157 (2023).
5. Ruotian Gong, Guanghui He, Xingyu Gao, Peng Ju, Zhongyuan Liu, Bingtian Ye, Erik A. Henriksen, Tongcang Li, Chong Zu. "Coherent dynamics of strongly interacting electronic spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride." Nature Communications 14, 3299 (2023). 
6. Zhujing Xu, Peng Ju, Xingyu Gao, Kunhong Shen, Zubin Jacob, Tongcang Li. "Observation and control of Casimir effects in a sphere-plate-sphere system." Nature Communications 13, 6148 (2022). 
7. Xingyu Gao, Sumukh Vaidya, Kejun Li, Peng Ju, Boyang Jiang, Zhujing Xu, Andres E. Llacsahuanga Allcca, Kunhong Shen, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, Sunil A. Bhave, Yong P. Chen, Yuan Ping, Tongcang Li. "Nuclear spin polarization and control in hexagonal boron nitride." Nature Materials 21, 1024 (2022). 
8. Nikhil Mathur, Arunabh Mukherjee, Xingyu Gao, Jialun Luo, Brendan A. McCullian, Tongcang Li, A. Nick Vamivakas, Gregory D. Fuchs. "Excited-state spin-resonance spectroscopy of V_B^- defect centers in hexagonal boron nitride," Nature Communications, 13, 3233 (2022) 
9. Zhujing Xu, Xingyu Gao, Jaehoon Bang, Zubin Jacob, and Tongcang Li. "Non-reciprocal energy transfer through the Casimir effect," Nature Nanotechnology 17, 148 (2022).
10. Kunhong Shen, Yao Duan, Peng Ju, Zhujing Xu, Xi Chen, Lidan Zhang, Jonghoon Ahn, Xingjie Ni, Tongcang Li. "On-chip optical levitation with a metalens in vacuum," Optica, 8, 1359 (2021)
11. Xingyu Gao, Boyang Jiang, Andres E. Llacsahuanga Allcca, Kunhong Shen, Mohammad A. Sadi, Abhishek B. Solanki, Peng Ju, Zhujing Xu, Pramey Upadhyaya, Yong P. Chen, Sunil A. Bhave, Tongcang Li. "High-contrast plasmonic-enhanced shallow spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride for quantum sensing," Nano Letters 21, 7708 (2021)
12. Jonghoon Ahn, Zhujing Xu, Jaehoon Bang, Peng Ju, Xingyu Gao, Tongcang Li. "Ultrasensitive torque detection with an optically levitated nanorotor". Nature Nanotechnology 15, 89 (2020) 
13. Jonghoon Ahn, Zhujing Xu, Jaehoon Bang, Yu-Hao Deng, Thai M. Hoang, Qinkai Han, Ren-Min Ma, Tongcang Li. "Optically Levitated Nanodumbbell Torsion Balance and GHz Nanomechanical Rotor", Phys. Rev. Lett., 121, 033603  (2018) (APS Physics "Highlights of the Year" of 2018. widely reported by APS website Physics, Nature magazine, NBC News, Fox News, Yahoo! News, and many other major media)
14. Thai M. Hoang, Rui Pan, Jonghoon Ahn, Jaehoon Bang, H. T. Quan, Tongcang Li. "Experimental test of the differential fluctuation theorem and a generalized Jarzynski equality for arbitrary initial states", Phys. Rev. Lett., 120, 080602 (2018) (Featured in APS website Physics; PRL Editors' Suggestion)
15. Hao-Kun Li, Erik Urban, Crystal Noel, Alexander Chuang, Yang Xia, Anthony Ransford, Boerge Hemmerling, Yuan Wang, Tongcang Li, Hartmut Häffner, and Xiang Zhang. "Realization of Translational Symmetry in Trapped Cold Ion Rings", Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 053001 (2017).   (PRL Editors' Suggestion)  
16. Thai M. Hoang, Yue Ma, Jonghoon Ahn, Jaehoon Bang, F. Robicheaux, Zhang-Qi Yin, Tongcang Li. "Torsional optomechanics of a levitated nonspherical nanoparticle", Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 123604 (2016) (Featured in Physics; PRL Editors' Suggestion)  
17. Thai M. Hoang, Jonghoon Ahn, Jaehoon Bang, Tongcang Li. "Electron spin control of optically levitated nanodiamonds in vacuum", Nature Communications 7, 12550 (2016)