Personnel

Section Contents
Deyu Li

Deyu Li

Professor of Mechanical Engineering
333 Olin Hall
615-343-4102
Email
Website

Overview

Dr. Li’s group studies nanoscale energy and mass transport phenomena to achieve both fundamental understandings and practical engineering applications. We experimentally measure energy transport through individual nanostructures and their contacts via electrons, phonons, and polaritons. We have made highly novel and intriguing discoveries such as surface phonon polariton-mediated heat conduction along SiC nanowires, superdiffusive transport of one-dimensional phonons, and non-intrinsic ballistic contact thermal resistance between carbon nanotubes, etc. In terms of mass transport, we construct microfluidic platforms to probe the electrophysiological activities of central nervous system neurons in controlled microenvironments with unique techniques such as scanning photocurrent microscopy.

Awards

-Fellow, American Society for Mechanical Engineers, 2017
-Vanderbilt Chancellor’s Award for Research, 2013
-NSF Career Award, 2007
-Guo Moruo Scholarship, 1992

Selected Publications

Remarkable heat conduction mediated by non-equilibrium phonon polaritons. Pan Z, Lu G, Li X, McBride JR, Juneja R, Long M, Lindsay L, Caldwell JD, Li D, Nature, 623, 307-312, (2023) View Abstract

Observation of Superdiffusive Phonon Transport in Aligned Atomic Chains. Yang L, Tao Y, Zhu Y, Akter M, Wang K, Pan Z, Zhao Y, Zhang Q, Xu Y-Q, Chen R, Xu TT, Chen Y, Mao Z, Li D, Nature Nanotechnology, 16, 764-768, (2021) View Abstract

Ultrasensitive Graphene Optoelectronic Probes for Recording Electrical Activities of Individual Synapses. Wang R, Shi M, Brewer B, Yang L, Zhang Y, Webb DJ, Li D, Xu Y-Q , Nano Letters, 18, 5702-5708, (2018) View Abstract

Phonon Transport through Point Contacts between Graphitic Nanomaterials. Yang JK, Shen M, Yang Y, Evans WJ, Wei ZY, Chen WY, Zinn AA, Chen YF, Prasher R, Xu TT, Keblinski P, Li DY, Physical Review Letters, 112, 205901, (2014) View Abstract

Enhanced and switchable nanoscale thermal conduction due to van der Waals interfaces. Yang JK, Yang Y, Waltermire SW, Wu XX, Zhang HT, Gutu T, Jiang YF, Chen YF, Zinn AA, Prasher R, Xu TT, Li DY, Nature Nanotechnology, 7, 91-95, (2012) View Abstract

Education

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of California, 2002

M.E., Mechanical Engineering and Thermal Science, Tsinghua University, 1997

B.E., Engineering Thermophysics, University of Science and Technology, 1992