Welcome to Tan Group at George Mason University
Recent News & Events
- 07/28-31/2025: Esther presented a poster and Xiaoyan gave a talk at the North American Solid State Chemistry Conference (NASSCC) at Iowa State University. It was great to meet old and new friends. Thanks, Julia and Kirill, for organizing such a great NASSCC.
- 07/24-25/2025: Xiaoyan gave a talk the Quantum Materials Young Investigators Workshop 2025 at ORNL. Thanks, Eleanor and Danielle, for the invitation. Thanks, Erin and Tiffany, for arranging the travel.
- 06/25/2025: Zach’s paper on Mn5SiC is published in Chemistry of Materials! Congratulations! Thank all the collaborators.
Research
Functional Polar Magnetic Inorganic Solid-State Materials
Tan Group focuses on the discovery of functional and multifunctional inorganic solid-state materials, ranging from intermetallics to oxides, with the applications in technology and energy conversion. We target materials with noncentrosymmetric and polar space groups which will exhibit interesting and exotic physical properties such as, which include but not limit to polar metallic oxides and intermetallics, polar magnetic semiconductors, polar thermoelectric materials, and multiferroic materials. We are interested in investigating the magnetic and transport properties of those polar materials, and understanding the interplay between the polar crystal structure, electronic structure, and physical properties.
Students will be trained on the preparation of crystalline inorganic solid-state materials with various methods, growth of single crystals, structural analysis, calculation of electronic structure, and characterization of physical properties of inorganic solid-state materials. Students will also have the opportunity to learn X-ray neutron diffraction while use the state-of-art research facilities at national laboratories such as Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and Oak Ridge National laboratory (ORNL).
