The Advanced Materials and Surface Science Group consists of 10 Research Fellows, 1 Senior Research Specialist and 6 adjunct Research Fellows. The goals of this research group are (1) to incept new ways of fabricating, characterizing and utilizing materials with novel properties, and (2) to achieve a thorough understanding of the mechanisms underlying these novel properties. There are plenty of collaboration and interaction among group members.

The research focus of Kuei-Hsien Chen is on the growth and characterization of nanomaterials for energy applications such as nanocatalysts in hydrogen technology, interface control in solar cell and solar fuel, and advanced thermoelectric materials. Yuh-Lin Wang exploits the concept of ‘constrained self-organization’ to create magic-number clusters of atoms or molecules on crystal surfaces and to fabricate ordered arrays of metallic nanowires as metamaterials with novel plasmonic properties as well as arrays of Raman-enhancing nanoparticles, which are used to monitor bacteria's response to antibiotic treatment via surface enhanced Raman scattering. Szu-yuan Chen is working on developing innovative methods based on optical physics for fabricating materials and controlling bio-organisms, and apply them to energy technology, optoelectronics, and medicine. The core scheme is to apply multiple light sources of various coherences, wavelengths, and pulse durations to achieve coherent, kinetic, dynamic, or selective control in a non-equilibrium system, so as to control the growth or transition of materials and bio-organisms in various hierarchical levels.

Ya-Ping Hsieh's group concentrates on the synthesis of novel 2D materials at high quality and large scale for applications in electronic devices and chemical processes. She employs spectroscopic characterization techniques to elucidate the properties of the produced material and enhance the understanding of the growth process. In the research group of Cheng-Tien Chiang, the ultrafast electron dynamics at the surfaces and in the nano-structures of condensed matter is studied by laser-based photoelectron spectroscopy and other relevant surface science techniques. Wei-Hua Wang's research focuses on the design, fabrication, and engineering of nanodevices composed of 2D materials and their composites. His group is interested in the transport and optoelectronic properties of these devices, including quantum phenomena and photovoltaic effect. Jessie Shiue is a Senior Research Specialist managing a Materials Characterization Lab and focusing on Instrumentation & Electron microscopy.

Mei-Yin Chou (1) the study of the electronic and dynamical properties of technologically important materials, and (2) the development of new algorithms and calculational methods in studying materials properties using quantum mechanics. Ching-Ming Wei conducts Quantum Monte Carlo calculations to explore the accuracy of exchange-correlation approximations used in the density functional theory. Liang-Yan Hsu uses theoretical and computational tools to explore quantum transport phenomena in advanced materials and light-matter interactions at the nanoscale. Yang-hao Chan's group is developing real-time simulation method to study non-equilibrium quantum dynamics.

The adjunct research fellows include: Chia-Chun Chen (NTNU) focuses on the synthesis, characterization and the applications of nano-materials for energy, optoelectronic and biomedical applications. Po-Wen Chiu (NTHU) is working on the growth and band structure engineering of 2D layered materials, and their high speed electronic and photodetector applications. Minn-Tsong Lin (NTU) is devoted to studying nano-magnetism and spintronics with help of spin-polarized STM and magnetic circular dichroism effect on emergent materials such as 2-dimensional materials and topological matters. Ken-Tsung Wong's (NTU) group focuses on synthesis and molecular design of organic nano materials for optoelectronic applications. Juen-Kai Wang's (NTU) expertise is to develop innovative optical spectroscopic techniques to investigate light-matter interaction at femtosecond and nanometer scales. The recent focus topics are near-field optical spectroscopy, plasmonics, surface-enhanced Raman scattering and its applications, and optical studies of photovoltiaic systems. Ya-Ping Chiu's (NTU) group focuses on developing characterization techniques to investigate the optoelectronics, low-dimensional materials, complex oxides and future semiconductor electronics at atomic scale.