Professor Balandin's research expertise covers a wide range of
nanotechnology,
materials science,
electronics,
phononics and
spintronics fields with particular focus on low-dimensional materials and devices. He conducts both experimental and theoretical research. He is recognized as a pioneer of the
graphene thermal field and one of the pioneers of the
phononics field. His research interests include
charge density wave effects in low-dimensional materials and their device applications,
electronic noise in materials and devices, Brillouin – Mandelstam and
Raman spectroscopy of various materials, practical applications of
graphene in thermal management and energy conversion. He is also active in the areas of emerging devices and alternative computational paradigms. Professor Balandin was among the pioneers of the field of
phononics and
phonon engineering. In 1998, Balandin published an influential paper on the effects of phonon spatial confinement on thermal conductivity of nanostructures, where the term “phonon engineering” appeared for the first time in a journal publication. In this work, he proposed theoretically a new physical mechanism for reduction of
thermal conductivity due to the changes in the phonon
group velocity and
density of states induced by spatial confinement. The theoretically predicted changes in the acoustic phonon spectrum in individual
nanostructures were later confirmed experimentally. Phonon engineering has applications in electronics, thermal management, and thermoelectric energy conversion. In 2008, Professor Balandin conducted pioneering research of
thermal conductivity of graphene. In order to perform the first measurement of thermal properties of graphene, Balandin invented a new optothermal experiment technique based on
Raman spectroscopy. He and his coworkers explained theoretically why the intrinsic thermal conductivity of graphene can be higher than that of bulk
graphite, and demonstrated experimentally the evolution of heat conduction when the system dimensionality changes from 2D (graphene) to 3D (graphite). The Balandin optothermal technique for measuring the thermal conductivity was adopted by many laboratories worldwide, and extended, with various modifications and improvements, to a range of other
2D materials. Balandin's contributions to graphene field go beyond graphene thermal properties and
thermal management applications. His research group conducted detailed studies of low-frequency
electronic noise in graphene devices; demonstrated graphene selective sensors, which do not rely on surface functionalization; and graphene
logic gates and
circuits, which do not require electronic
band-gap in graphene. Professor Balandin made a number of important contributions to the field of low-frequency
electronic noise, also known as
1/f noise. His early work in the 1/f noise field included investigation of
noise sources in
GaN materials and devices, which led to a substantial reduction in the noise level in such type of devices made of wide band-gap
semiconductors. In 2008, he started the investigation of electronic noise in graphene and other 2D materials. The main results of his research included understanding the mechanism of the 1/f noise in graphene, which is different from that in conventional semiconductors or
metals; the use of few-layer graphene to address the century-old problem of surface vs. volume noise origin; understanding unusual effects of irradiation on noise in graphene, which revealed a possibility of noise reduction in graphene after irradiation. He successfully used noise measurements as
spectroscopy for better understanding of the specifics of
electron transport in graphene and other low-dimensional (1D and 2D) materials. Professor Balandin's work helped in the rebirth of the
charge density wave (CDW) research field. The early work on CDW effects was performed with bulk samples, which have quasi-1D crystal structures of strongly-bound 1D atomic chains that are weakly bound together by
van der Waals forces. The rebirth of the CDW field has been associated, from one side, with the interest in layered quasi-2D van der Waals materials and, from another side, with the realization that some of these materials reveal CDW effects at room temperature and above. Balandin group demonstrated the first CDW device operating at room temperature. Balandin and co-workers used original low-frequency noise spectroscopy to monitor
phase transitions in 2D CDW
quantum materials, demonstrated the extreme radiation hardness of CDW devices and proposed a number of
transistor-less
logic circuits implemented with CDW devices. ==Honors and awards==