Judy Cha | Cornell Engineering

Biography

Judy J. Cha is a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Cornell University. She received her Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell University in 2009, working in Prof. David A. Muller’s lab. She did her post-doctoral research in Prof. Yi Cui’s group in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. In 2013, she joined the faculty at Yale University in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science, where she spent 9 years before joining the faculty at Cornell in 2022. Research in her lab focuses on synthesis and transport properties of topological and 2D nanomaterials and their phase transformations in order to understand the structure-electronic property relationships of these quantum nanomaterials.

Research Interests

My group focuses on studying novel electronic properties and phase transformations of nanoscale materials for device and energy applications. We have three research thrusts: A) nanowires of topological materials for potential quantum computing and low-resistance interconnects, B) two-dimensional (2D) materials for energy and electronic applications, and C) nanoscale effects on the phase transitions of our topological and 2D nanomaterials. My group’s tool box includes 1) various growth methods to synthesize nanomaterials, 2) low-temperature magneto-transport measurements of nanodevices to probe the electronic properties, and 3) in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to directly observe nanoscale phase transformations.

Advanced Materials
Energy Systems
Materials Synthesis and Processing
Nanotechnology
Semiconductor Physics and Devices

Teaching Interests

Thermodynamics
Introduction to Nanomaterials
Electronic, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of Materials

Select Publications

“Shrinking interconnects beyond copper,” Science 390, 572-573 (2025)
“Future interconnect materials for highly integrated semiconductor devices,” Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering 2, 835-845 (2025)
“Real-space visualization of a defect-mediated charge density wave transition,” PNAS 121, e2402129121 (2024)
“In operando cryo-STEM of pulse-induced charge density wave switching in TaS2,” Nature Commun. 14:8202 (2023)
“Topological metal MoP nanowire for interconnect,” Adv. Mater. 35, 2208965 (2023)

Judy J. Cha's Google Scholar

Select Awards and Honors

Fellow, American Physical Society (APS) 2024
Young Faculty Award, Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) 2021
EPiQS Materials Synthesis Investigator Award, Moore Foundation 2019
CAREER Award, National Science Foundation (NSF) 2018
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Azrieli Global Scholar for Quantum Materials 2017
Moore Foundation EPiQS Materials Synthesis Investigator Award 2019
NSF CAREER Award, National Science Foundation 2018
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Azrieli Global Scholar for Quantum Materials 2017
Yale Arthur Greer Memorial Prize 2016
IBM Faculty Award 2014