Alexander Balandin

Faculty Information

Research and Interests

Professor Balandin’s research interests include advanced materials for applications in electronics and energy conversion; quantum, strongly correlated, and topological materials; Raman and Brillouin-Mandelstam spectroscopy; thermal properties of materials and thermal management; electronic noise in materials and devices; nanoscale phonon engineering and phonon transport; electromagnetics; emerging electronic devices; quantum science and technologies.

Notable Publications and Books

J. O. Brown, T. Guo, F. Pasqualetti, and A. A. Balandin, “Charge-density-wave quantum oscillator networks for solving combinatorial optimization problems,” Phys. Rev. Appl., 24, 024040 (2025).
J. Teeter, N. Y. Kim, T. Debnath, N. Sesing, T. Geremew, D. Wright, M. Chi, A. Z. Stieg, J. Miao, R. K. Lake, T. T. Salguero, and A. A. Balandin, “Achieving the 1D atomic chain limit in Van der Waals crystals,” Adv. Mater, 2409898 (2024);
Z. Barani, T. Geremew, M. Stokey, N. Sesing, M. Taheri, M. J. Hilfiker, F. Kargar, M. Schubert, T. T. Salguero, and A. A. Balandin, “Quantum composites with charge-density-wave fillers", Adv. Mater., 2209708 (2023)
A. A. Balandin, F. Kargar, T. T. Salguero, and R. Lake, “One-dimensional van der Waals quantum materials", Mater. Today, 55, 74 (2022)
M. Taheri, J. Brown, A. Rehman, N. Sesing, F. Kargar, T. T. Salguero, S. Rumyantsev, and A. A. Balandin, "Electrical Gating of the Charge-Density-Wave Phases in Two-Dimensional h-BN/1T-TaS2 Devices", ACS Nano, 16, 11, 18968 (2022)
F. Kargar and A. A. Balandin, “Advances in Brillouin–Mandelstam light-scattering spectroscopy", Nature Photonics, 33, 720 (2021)
Z. Barani, F. Kargar, Y. Ghafouri, S. Ghosh, K. Godziszewski, S. Baraghani, Y. Yashchyshyn, G. Cywiński, S. Rumyantsev, T. T. Salguero, and A. A. Balandin, “Electrically insulating flexible films with quasi-1D van der Waals fillers as efficient electromagnetic shields in the GHz and sub-THz frequency bands", Adv. Mater., 33, 2007286 (2021)
S. Rumyantsev, M. Balinskiy, F. Kargar, A. Khitun, and A. A. Balandin, “The discrete noise of magnons,” Appl. Phys. Lett., 114, 090601 (2019)
G. Liu, E. X. Zhang, C. Liang, M. Bloodgood, T. Salguero, D. Fleetwood, A. A. Balandin, “Total-ionizing-dose effects on threshold switching in 1T-TaS2 charge density wave devices,” IEEE Electron. Device Lett., 38, 1724 (2017)
G. Liu, B. Debnath, T. R. Pope, T. T. Salguero, R. K. Lake, and A. A. Balandin, “A charge-density-wave oscillator based on an integrated tantalum disulfide–boron nitride–graphene device operating at room temperature,” Nature Nano, 11, 845 (2016)
F. Kargar, B. Debnath, J.-P. Kakko, A. Säynätjoki, H. Lipsanen, D. L. Nika, R. K. Lake, and A. A. Balandin, “Direct observation of confined acoustic phonon polarization branches in free-standing semiconductor nanowires,” Nature Com., 7, 13400 (2016)
A. A. Balandin, “Low-frequency 1/f noise in graphene devices,” Nature Nano, 8, 549 (2013)
Z. Yan, G. Liu, J. M. Khan, and A. A. Balandin, “Graphene quilts for thermal management of high-power GaN transistors,” Nature Com., 3, 827 (2012)
S. Rumyantsev, G. Liu, M. S. Shur, R. A. Potyrailo, and A. A. Balandin, “Selective gas sensing with a single pristine graphene transistor,” Nano Lett., 12, 2294 (2012)
A. A. Balandin, “Thermal properties of graphene and nanostructured carbon materials,” Nature Mater., 10, 569 (2011)
S. Ghosh, W. Bao, D. L. Nika, S. Subrina, E. P. Pokatilov, C. N. Lau, and A. A. Balandin, “Dimensional crossover of thermal transport in few-layer graphene,” Nature Mater., 9, 555 (2010)
A. A. Balandin, S. Ghosh, W. Bao, I. Calizo, D. Teweldebrhan, F. Miao, and C. N. Lau, “Superior thermal conductivity of single-layer graphene,” Nano Lett., 8, 902 (2008)

In the News

Semiconductor Manufacturers Feel the Heat | Communications of the ACM, February 2026
Researchers Discover How to Dampen Electronic Noise in Materials with Potential for Quantum Technologies | UCLA Newsroom, February 2026
Alexander Balandin, a distinguished professor of materials science and engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has been named to hold the Fang Lu Endowed Chair in Engineering (2025): https://samueli.ucla.edu/distinguished-professor-alexander-balandin-appointed-to-fang-lu-endowed-chair-in-engineering/
Charge-density-wave coupled-oscillators solve complex optimization problems (2025): https://balandin-group.ucla.edu/charge-density-wave-coupled-oscillators-solve-complex-optimization-problems/
NSF-funded Brillouin – Mandelstam Light Scattering Spectroscopy (BMS) Facility, built by Alexander Balandin’s group, enters operation at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA (2024): https://balandin-group.ucla.edu/new-nsf-funded-advanced-spectroscope-enters-operation-at-ucla/
UCLA engineering welcomes new faculty members https://samueli.ucla.edu/ucla-engineering-welcomes-two-new-faculty-members/ (2023)
Balandin’s group creates “quantum composites” for various electrical and optical innovations https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2023/04/18/ucr-team-creates-quantum-composites-various-electrical-and-optical-innovations (2023)
Alexander Balandin’s Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship will help advance quantum materials for electronics and energy conversion https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2021/05/07/3-million-award-create-new-field-research-one-dimensional-quantum-materials (2021)
Polymer film protects from electromagnetic radiation, signal interference https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2021/02/22/polymer-film-protects-electromagnetic-radiation-signal-interference (2021)
Magnonic devices can replace electronics without much noise https://phys.org/news/2019-03-magnonic-devices-electronics-noise.html (2019)
One-dimensional material packs a powerful punch for next generation electronics https://phys.org/news/2018-05-one-dimensional-material-powerful-electronics.html

Education

Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame (1996)
M.S. in Applied Physics, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (1991)

Awards and Recognition

Fang Lu Endowed Chair in Engineering (2025)
The Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow (2021)
The Brillouin Medal from the International Phononics Society (2019)
Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher (2015)
Fellow of The Materials Research Society (2014)
The MRS Medal from The Materials Research Society (2013)
Fellow of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (2013)
Fellow of The American Physical Society (2012)
The Pioneer of Nanotechnology Award from IEEE (2011)
Fellow of The International Society for Optical Engineering (2011)
Fellow of The Optical Society of America (2011)
Semiconductor Research Corporation Inventor Award (2009, 2010)
Fellow of The American Association for the Advancement of Science (2007)
Visiting Fellow, Pembroke College, University of Cambridge (2005)
ONR Young Investigator Award (2002)
NSF Faculty CAREER Award (2001)
The University of California Regents Faculty Award (2000)
US Civil Research and Development Foundation Award (1999)
Merrill Lynch Innovative Engineering Research Award, New York (1998)
Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, University of Notre Dame (1996)
Eta Kappa Nu Engineering Honor Society, Notre Dame (1994)