Nai Phuan Ong

Position
Professor of Physics
Office Phone
Assistant
Office
302 Jadwin Hall
Advisee(s):
Bio/Description

Nai Phuan Ong is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics at Princeton University and a former Director of the Princeton Center for Complex Materials serving from 2008 to 2014. He received his undergraduate education at Columbia University and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1976. His research interests include topological matter (topological insulators and Dirac-Weyl semimetals), superconductivity, quantum magnetism, candidate spin liquids, and quantum shot-noise phenomena in 2D materials. With Pierre Monceau, Ong found the first example of a metal that exhibits sliding charge-density-wave conduction, NbSe3. In high-Tc superconductors, Ong’s group -- using the Nernst effect and torque magnetometry -- established the existence of strong fluctuations of the order parameter engendered by the vortex liquid. In a series of experiments on a variety of ferromagnets, Ong clarified the central role played by the Berry curvature in the anomalous Hall effect ubiquitous in magnetic materials. With Bob Cava, Ong and students have also made a number of fundamental contributions to the nascent field of topological materials. They uncovered the two Dirac-Weyl semimetals Na3Bi and GdPtBi known to exhibit the chiral anomaly (the ultralow-energy analog of the Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly in the decay of neutral pions). They also found the first example of a superconductor, MoTe2, that hosts a distinctive edge supercurrent co-existing with bulk superconductivity. Ong has received numerous honors, including an Alfred P. Sloan fellowship in 1982 and the H. Kamerlingh Onnes Prize in 2006. He has co-authored two patents, for “Flux Method for producing crystals of YBa2Cu3O7,” and for “Electronic interconnects and devices with topological surface states and methods for fabricating same.” He is a member of the American Physical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and U.S. National Academy of Sciences. 

 

Selected Publications
  • Dong-Xia Qu, Y. S. Hor, Jun Xiong, R. J. Cava and N. P. Ong, “Quantum Oscillations and Hall Anomaly of Surface States in the Topological Insulator Bi2Te3”, Science 329, 821 (2010), DOI: 10.1126/science.1189792.
  • Tian Liang, Quinn Gibson, Mazhar N. Ali, Minhao Liu, R. J. Cava, and N. P. Ong, “Ultrahigh mobility and giant magnetoresistance in the Dirac semimetal Cd3As2,” Nature Materials 14, 280 (2015), DOI: 10.1038/NMAT4143
  • Max Hirschberger, Jason W. Krizan, R. J. Cava, N. P. Ong, “Large thermal Hall conductivity of neutral spin excitations in a frustrated quantum magnet,” Science 348, 106-109 (2015), DOI: 10.1126/science.1257340.
  • Jun Xiong, Satya K. Kushwaha, Tian Liang, Jason W. Krizan, Max Hirschberger, Wudi Wang, R. J. Cava, and N. P. Ong, “Evidence for the chiral anomaly in the Dirac semimetal Na3Bi,’’ Science 350, 413 (2015). DOI: 10.1126/science.aac6089
  • Yayu Wang, Lu Li and N. P. Ong, “The Nernst effect in high-Tc superconductors”, Phys. Rev. B 73, 024510 (2006).
  • Z. Xu, N.P. Ong, Y. Wang, T. Kakeshita and S. Uchida, "Vortex-like excitations and the onset of superconducting phase fluctuation in underdoped La2-x Srx CuO4 ", Nature 406, 486 (2000).
  • Yayu Wang, N. P. Ong, Z.A. Xu, T. Kakeshita, S. Uchida, D. A. Bonn, R. Liang and W. N. Hardy, "High field phase diagram of cuprates derived from the Nernst effect", Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 257003 (2002).
  • Y. Zhang, R. H. Austin, J. Kraeft, E. C. Cox, and N. P. Ong, "Insulating behavior of lambda-DNA on the micron scale", Phys. Rev. Lett., Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 198102 (2002).
  • Yayu Wang, Nyrissa S. Rogado, R. J. Cava, and N. P. Ong, "Spin entropy as the likely source of enhanced thermopower in NaxCo2O4", Nature 423, 425 (2003).
  • Wei-Li Lee, Satoshi Watauchi, R. J. Cava and N. P. Ong, "Dissipationless anomalous Hall current in the ferromagnetic spinel CuCr2Se4-xBrx ", Science 303, 1647 (2004).
  • Lu Li, J. G. Checkelsky, S. Komiya, Y. Ando and N. P. Ong, "Low temperature vortex liquid in La2-xSrxCuO4", Nature Physics 3, 311 (2007).
  • J. G. Checkelsky, L. Li and N. P. Ong, "Zero-energy state in graphene in a high magnetic field", Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 206801 (2008).
  • Lu Li, J. G. Checkelsky, Y.S. Hor, C. Uher, A. F. Hebard, R. J. Cava and N. P. Ong, “Phase transitions of Dirac electrons in bismuth”, Science 321, 547 (2008).
  • Minhyea Lee, W.W. Kang, Y. Onose, Y. Tokura, and N. P. Ong, “Unusual Hall Effect Anomaly in MnSi Under Pressure”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 186601 (2009).
  • J. G. Checkelsky and N. P. Ong, “Thermopower and Nernst Effect in graphene in a magnetic field”, Phys. Rev. B 80, 081413 (2009).
  • J. G. Checkelsky, Y. S. Hor, M.-H. Liu, D.-X. Qu, R. J. Cava and N. P. Ong, “Quantum Interference in Macroscopic Crystals of Nonmetallic Bi2Se3”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 , 246601 (2009).
  • Shu-Wen Teng, Yufang Wang, Kimberly C. Tu, Tao Long, Pankaj Mehta, Ned S. Wingreen, Bonnie L. Bassler and   N. P. Ong, “Measurement of the copy number of the master quorum-sensing regulator of a bacterial cell”, Biophysical Jnl 98 (2010).