Vidya Madhavan

For More Information

• Madhavan Research Group Web Site

Biography

Professor Madhavan received her bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering in 1991 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, and a master of technology degree in solid state materials in 1993 from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. She obtained her phD from Boston University in 2000. She held a postdoctoral appointment at the University of California, Berkeley from 1999 to 2002, before joining the physics faculty at Boston College in 2002. She joined the faculty at Illinois in 2014 as a full professor.

Research Statement

Professor Madhavan investigates fundamental problems in quantum materials where interactions between the spin, charge, and structural degrees of freedom lead to emergent phenomena. She uses the tools of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS), spin-polarized STM (SP-STM) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to unravel the mysteries of complex systems at the atomic scale. Her group carries out challenging, high-risk experiments, wherein the possibility of discovering new phenomena is high. Her team's recent work has focused on STM studies of complex oxides and monolayer films of topological materials and transition metal dichalcogenides.

Graduate Research Opportunities

We currently have openings in our group for motivated students. Please send me email if you are interested in learning more about our projects.

Research Interests

• Unconventional superconductors, topological superconductors, correlated oxides, topological crystalline insulators, transition metal dichalcogenides Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM), Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE)
• MBE growth of WTe2, Bi2Se3, SnTe, NbSe2, TiSe2, VSe2, BiSb, etc

Selected Articles in Journals

• I. Zeljkovic, Y. Okada, M. Serbyn, R. Sankar, D. Walkup, W. Zhou, J. Liu, G.Chang, Y.J. Wang, M. Zahid Hasan, F. Chou, H. Lin, A. Bansil, L. Fu, V. Madhavan. Dirac Mass Generation from Crystal Symmetry Breaking on the Surfaces of Topological Crystalline Insulators, Nat. Mater. 14, 318-324 (2015).
• I. Zeljkovic, K.L. Scipioni, D. Walkup, Y. Okada, W. Zhou, R. Sankar, G. Chang, Y.J. Wang, H. Lin, A. Bansil, F. Chou, Z. Wang, V. Madhavan. Nanoscale Determination of the Mass Enhancement Factor in the Lightly-Doped Bulk Insulator Lead Selenide, Nat. Commun. 6, 6559 (2015).
• I. Zeljkovic, D. Walkup, B. Assaf, K.L. Scipioni, R. Sankar, F. Chou, Vidya Madhavan. Strain Engineering Dirac Surface States in Heteroepitaxial Topological Crystalline Insulator Thin Films, Nat. Nanotech. 10, 849 - 853 (2015).
• Z. Wang, D. Walkup, P. Derry, T. Scaffidi, M. Rak, S. Vig, A. Kogar, I. Zeljkovic, A. Husain, L.H. Santos, Y. Wang, A. Damascelli, Y. Maeno, P. Abbamonte, E. Fradkin, V. Madhavan. Quasiparticle Interference and Strong Electron-Mode Coupling in the Quasi-One-Dimensional Bands of. Sr₂RuO₄, Nat. Phys. 13, 799-805 (2017).
• S. Yan, D. Iaia, E. Morosan, E. Fradkin, P. Abbamonte, V. Madhavan. Influence of domain walls in the incommensurate charge density wave state of Cu intercalated 1T-TiSe₂, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 106405 (2017).
• Z. Wang, Y. Okada, J. O Neal, W. Zhou, D. Walkup, C. Dhital, T. Hogan, P. Clancy, Y.-J. Kim, Y. F. Hu, L. Santos, S.D. Wilson, N. Trivedi, V. Madhavan. Disorder Induced Power-law Gaps in an Insulator-metal Mott Transition, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 115:44, 11198-11202 (2018).
• D. Iaia, G. Chang, T. R. Chang, J. Hu, Z. Mao, H. Lin, S. Yan, V. Madhavan. Searching for Topological Fermi Arcs Via Quasiparticle Interference on a Type-II Weyl Semimetal MoTe₂, npj Quantum Materials 3, 38 (2018).
• D. Walkup, B. Assaf, K.L. Scipioni, R. Sankar, F. Chou, G. Chang, H. Lin, I. Zeljkovic, V. Madhavan. Interplay of Orbital Effects and Nanoscale Strain in Topological Crystalline Insulators. Nat. Commun. 1550 (2018).
• I. Zeljkovic, Y. Okada, C.-Y. Huang, R. Sankar, D. Walkup, W. Zhou, M. Serbyn, F. Chou, W.-F. Tsai, H. Lin, A. Bansil, L. Fu, M. Zahid Hasan, V. Madhavan. Mapping the Unconventional Orbital Texture in Topological Crystalline Insulators. Nat. Phys.10, 572 - 577 (2014).
• C. Dhital, T. Hogan, W. Zhou, Xiang Chen, Zhensong Ren, Mani Pokharel, Yoshinori Okada,M. Heine, Wei Tian, Z. Yamani, C. Opeil, J.S. Helton, J.W. Lynn, Z. Wang, V. Madhavan, S.D. Wilson. Carrier Localization and Electronic Phase Separation in Doped Spin-orbit-driven Mott Phase in Sr₃(Ir_1-xRu_x)₂O₇, Nature Commun. 3377 (2014).
• Y. Okada, M. Serbyn, H. Lin, D. Walkup, W. Zhou, C. Dhital, M. Neupane, S. Xu, Y. Jui Wang, R. Sankar, F. Chou, A. Bansil, M. Zahid Hasan, S. D. Wilson, L. Fu, V. Madhavan, Observation of Dirac node formation and mass acquisition in a topological crystalline insulator, Science 341, 1496-1499 (2013).
• Y. Okada, D. Walkup, H. Lin, C. Dhital, T.-R. Chang, S. Khadka, W. Zhou, H.-T. Jeng, A. Bansil, Z. Wang, S. Wilson, V. Madhavan. Imaging the evolution of metallic states in a spin-orbit interaction driven correlated iridate, Nature Mater. 12, 707-713 (2013).
• Z. Wang, D. Walkup, Y. Maximenko, W. Zhou, T. Hogan, Z. Wang, S. D. Wilson, V. Madhavan. Doping Induced Mott collapse and Possible Density Wave Instabilities in (Sr_1-xLa_x)₃Ir₂O₇, npj Quantum Materials 4, 43:1-7 (2019).
• R. Sharma, S.D. Edkins, Z. Wang, A. Kostin, C. Sow, Y. Maeno, A.P. Mackenzie, J.C. Seamus Davis, and V. Madhavan. Momentum-resolved Superconducting Energy Gaps of Sr₂RuO₄ from quasiparticle Interference Imaging, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 117:10, 5222-5227 (2020).
• Z. Wang, J. O. Rodriguez, L. Jiao, S. Howard, M. Graham, G. D. Gu, T. Hughes, D. K. Morr, V. Madhavan. Evidence for Dispersing 1D Majorana Channels in an Iron-based Superconductor, Science 367, 104-108 (2020).
• K. Lee, J. Choe, D. Iaia, J. Li, J. Zhao, M. Shi, J. Ma, M. Yao, Z. Wang, C.-L. Huang, M.i Ochi, R. Arita, U. Chatterjee, E. Morosan, V. Madhavan, N. Trivedi. Metal-to-insulator transition in Pt-doped TiSe₂ driven by emergent network of narrow transport chanels, npj Quantum Mater. 6, 8 (2021).
• A. Aishwarya, Z. Cai, A. Raghavan, M. Romanelli, X. Wang, X. Li, G. D. Gu, M. Hirsbrunner, T. Hughes, F. Liu, L. Jiao, V. Madhavan. Spin-selective Tunneling from Nanowires of the Candidate Topological Kondo Insulator SmB₆, Science 377:6611, 1218-1222 (2022).
• A. Aishwarya, J. May-Mann, A. Raghavan, L. Nie, M. Romanelli, S. Ran, S. R. Saha, J. Paglione, N. P. Butch, E. Fradkin, V. Madhavan. Magnetic-Field Sensitive Charge Density Waves in the Superconductor UTe₂, Nature 618, 928-933 (2023).
• Y. Xing, S. Bae, E. Ritz, F. Yang, T. Birol, A. N. Capa Salinas, B. R. Ortiz, S. D. Wilson, Z. Wang, R. Fernandes, V. Madhavan. Optical Manipulation of the Charge-Density-Wave State in RbV₃Sb₅, Nature 631, 60-66 (2024).
• I. Å rut Rakić, M. J. Gilbert, P. Sarkar, A. Aishwarya, M. Polini, V. Madhavan, N. Mason. Interaction Effects and Non-Integer Pseudo-Landau Levels in Engineered Periodically Strained Graphene, Nano Lett. 25:1, 41-47 (2024).
• C. S. Kengle, D. Chaudhuri, X. Guo, T. A. Johnson, S. Bettler, W. Simeth, M. J. Krogstad, Z. Islam, S. Ran, S. R. Saha, J. Paglione, N. P. Butch, E. Fradkin, V. Madhavan, P. Abbamonte. Absence of a Bulk Signature of a Charge Density Wave in Hard X-Ray Measurements of UTe₂, Phys. Rev. B 110, 145101 (Editors’ Suggestion) (2024).
• E. Mueller, Y. Iguchi, F. Jerzembeck, J. O. Rodriguez, M. Romanelli, E. Abarca-Morales, A. Markou, N. Kikugawa, D. A. Sokolov, G. Oh, C. W. Hicks, A. P. Mackenzie, Y. Maeno, V. Madhavan, K. A. Moler. Superconducting Penetration Depth through a Van Hove Singularity: Sr₂RuO₄ under Uniaxial Stress, Phys. Rev. B Lett. 110, L100502 (Editors’ Suggestion) (2024).
• A. Raghavan, M. Romanelli, J. May-Mann, A. Aishwarya, L. Aggarwal, A. G. Singh, M. D. Bachmann, L. M. Schoop, E. Fradkin, I. R. Fisher, V. Madhavan. Atomic-Scale Visualization of a Cascade of Magnetic Orders in the Layered Antiferromagnet GdTe₃, npj Quantum Mater. 9, 47 (2024).
• Nina Bielinski, Rajas Chari, Julian May-Mann, Soyeun Kim, Jack Zwettler, Yujun Deng, Anuva Aishwarya, Subhajit Roychowdhury, Chandra Shekhar, Makoto Hashimoto, Donghui Lu, Jiaqiang Yan, Claudia Felser, Vidya Madhavan, Zhi-Xun Shen, Taylor L. Hughes, Fahad Mahmood. Revealing the Hidden Dirac Gap in a Topological Antiferromagnet Using Floquet-Bloch Manipulation, Nature Physics (accepted).
• A. Aishwarya, J. May-Mann, A. Almoalem, S. Ran, S. R. Saha J. Paglione, N. P. Butch, E. Fradkin, V. Madhavan. Melting of the charge density wave by generation of pairs of topological defects in UTe₂, Nat. Phys. 20, 964–969 (2024).
• I. Å rut Rakić, M. J. Gilbert, P. Sarkar, A. Aishwarya, M. Polini, V. Madhavan, N. Mason. Interaction Effects and Non-Integer Pseudo-Landau Levels in Engineered Periodically Strained Graphene, Nano Lett. 25:1, 41 - 478 (2025)
• N. Bielinski, R. Chari, J. May-Mann, S. Kim, J. Zwettler, Y. Deng, A. Aishwarya, S. Roychowdhury, C. Shekhar, M. Hashimoto, D. Lu, J. Yan, C. Felser, V. Madhavan, Z.-X. Shen, T. L. Hughes, F. Mahmood. Floquet–Bloch Manipulation of the Dirac Gap in a Topological Antiferromagnet, Nat. Phys. 21, 458-463(2025).

Honors

• NSF CAREER Award (2007)

Research Honors

• Canadian Institute For Advanced Research (CIFAR) Fellow (2021)
• Member-at-large, American Physical Society (APS), Division of Condensed Matter Physics (DCMP) (2020-2023)
• Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Experimental Investigator (2020)
• Fellow of the American Physical Society (elected) (2015)

Recent Courses Taught

• PHYS 211 - University Physics: Mechanics
• PHYS 212 - University Physics: Elec & Mag
• PHYS 485 - Atomic Phys & Quantum Theory
• PHYS 486 - Quantum Physics I
• PHYS 487 - Quantum Physics II
• PHYS 496 - Intro to Physics Research
• PHYS 560 - Condensed Matter Physics I
• PHYS 598 CMX - Special Topics in Physics