zhou lab
Overview
Our research is driven by a desire to understand the fundamental principles governing nanoscale phenomena, and to apply this knowledge to solve real-world problems. Through fundamental innovations in bio-inspired engineering, nanomechanics, nanofabrication, and system-level integration, we create new paradigms of nanodevices and tools to measure what was previously unmeasurable. Our research advances precision sensing, control, and imaging, and addresses societal challenges in health, information, and security.
Nanomechanics & Nanoengineered Materials
Miniaturization has long been a central trend in engineering, with mechanical devices now routinely reaching micro- and nanometer length scales. At the macroscale, the mechanical behavior of materials is well described by classical elasticity theory. However, as structures become thinner, smaller, and more compliant, geometric deformation, nonlinearity, and thermomechanical fluctuations are strongly amplified, leading to the emergence of a new mechanical regime that deviates from conventional elastic theory. To fundamentally guide the design and understanding of micro- and nanodevices, our research investigates emerging mechanical phenomena that inevitably arise as structures are miniaturized. By translating newly discovered behaviors into general design concepts, we also enable new pathways for creating nanoengineered materials and systems with unusual and tailorable properties (PNAS 2025).
Non-Hookean nanometer-thick beams
Vector Sound Sensing
Traditional sound detection techniques rely on scalar pressure-based sensors, such as microphones, hydrophones, and infrasound and ultrasound transducers. However, these technologies face limitations due to the inherent physics involved, making it challenging to efficiently localize sound, isolate signals, and reject background noise. In our pursuit to overcome these limitations, we made a biological discovery: the orb-weaving spider possesses an extraordinary hearing mechanism that utilizes its web as an outsourced auditory sensor (PNAS 2022). Inspired by this natural phenomenon, we invented the bio-inspired flow microphone, which enables vector-based sound detection by sensing acoustic particle velocity through flow-sensitive structures (PNAS 2017). Leveraging these bio-inspired strategies, we are advancing applications in precision hearing screening, fully implantable hearing prostheses, high-resolution biomedical imaging, and fluid dynamics measurement.
Bioinspired flow microphone
(Click to see the Soundskrit video)
Micro/Nanosystems & Instrumentation
We design, fabricate, and characterize integrated micro/nano opto-electro-mechanical systems to explore new measurement regimes for precision sensing, control, and imaging. One example is our development of a new class of X-ray optics based on ultrafast MEMS. This technology allows us to reduce the width of sub-nm-wavelength hard X-ray pulses from hundreds of picoseconds to picoseconds, enabling the investigation of structural dynamics in matter beyond the limits of synchrotron sources (arXiv 2022). We are also pushing the boundaries of mechanical resonators, enabling access to new regimes of sensitivity and dynamical response in devices that underpin essential and everyday technologies (Nano Lett. 2020).
Ultrafast X-ray optics on-chip
We actively utilize the following on-campus and external facilities:
