About

Professor Gang Cao is the Director of the Center for Experiments on Quantum Materials and the Founding Chair of the APS Topical Group on Quantum Materials Synthesis (GQMS). He is affiliated with the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research focuses on quantum materials, and he is actively involved in experimental investigations in this field. Professor Cao has a significant role in leading research initiatives related to quantum materials, contributing to the advancement of knowledge in this area.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Optoelectronics
• Electrical engineering
• Engineering
• Materials science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer hardware
• Electronic engineering
• Condensed matter physics
• Nanotechnology
• Quantum mechanics
• Atomic physics
• Nuclear magnetic resonance
• Physics

Selected publications

• A Method for Filling Blank Stripes in Electrical Imaging Based on the Fusion of Arbitrary Kernel Convolution and Generative Adversarial Networks

  Applied Sciences · 2026-03-27

  articleOpen access

  Electrical imaging logging images play a crucial role in petroleum exploration; however, in practical applications, blank strips frequently appear due to instrument malfunctions or data transmission failures, severely compromising geological interpretation and hydrocarbon evaluation. Existing image inpainting methods have limited adaptability to blank strips at different depth scales and exhibit blurred high-resolution geological textures. To address these issues, this paper proposes a blank strip filling method that integrates Arbitrary Kernel Convolution (AKConv) with the Aggregated Contextual-Transformations Generative Adversarial Network (AOT-GAN). Specifically, the adaptive sampling mechanism of AKConv is incorporated into the generator network of AOT-GAN, enabling the model—to effectively capture long-range contextual information and adaptively handle blank strips of varying scales and shapes through multi-scale feature fusion. Experimental results on real oilfield datasets demonstrate that the proposed method achieves significant improvements in PSNR, SSIM, and MAE, exhibiting superior structural preservation and texture sharpness—especially in restoring deep and large-scale blank strips. Furthermore, visual comparisons confirm the method’s superior performance in recovering key geological features, such as bedding continuity and fracture structures, thus providing an effective approach for electrical imaging logging image restoration.

  PublisherDOI

• Inductance meets memory in a quantum magnet

  Communications Physics · 2026-04-11

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Orbital degrees of freedom offer a largely untapped route to emergent dynamical phenomena in correlated quantum materials. However, it remains unclear whether collective orbital states can intrinsically generate both reactive and memory functionalities in a bulk system. Here we show that in the ferrimagnet Mn3Si2Te6, nonequilibrium reconfiguration of chiral orbital currents produces both emergent inductance and nonvolatile memristance as intrinsic properties of a single crystal. At low frequency and under a magnetic field along the c axis, coherent orbital-current domains generate robust clockwise inductive I-V loops. At higher frequency and low field, current-driven first-order reconfiguration leads to incomplete reversal and metastable trapping, producing an intrinsic electromotive force and a finite remanent voltage at zero current. These results establish orbital currents as a class of quantum state variables that encode both reactive and memory functionalities, opening routes toward intrinsically reconfigurable and energy-efficient electronic systems.

  PublisherDOI

• Association of vitreous CREG1 with diabetic macular edema response and edema resolution following ranibizumab therapy

  Frontiers in Medicine · 2026-04-30

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Background This study examined the association between vitreous cellular repressor of E1A-stimulated genes 1 (CREG1) levels and the therapeutic response to ranibizumab in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME). Methods In this retrospective study, 189 DME patients receiving ranibizumab were categorized into responders ( n = 158) and non-responders ( n = 31) based on edema resolution. Clinical variables and vitreous CREG1 levels were analyzed. LASSO regression and multivariate logistic models identified factors influencing treatment response. Patients were followed for 12 months, with central macular thickness (CMT), retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) compared between groups and correlated with CREG1. Results Non-responders had a higher prevalence of serous retinal detachment and elevated HbA1c, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), but lower CREG1 and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (all P < 0.05). LASSO-selected factors (CREG1, OCT classification, HbA1c, NLR, PLR, eGFR) were analyzed by logistic regression: OCT class, HbA1c, NLR, and PLR were risk factors for non-response, whereas CREG1 and eGFR were protective factors (all P < 0.05). Throughout follow-up, non-responders exhibited worse BCVA, greater CMT, and thicker RNFL ( P < 0.05). Vitreous CREG1 was negatively correlated with CMT, RNFL, and BCVA at all timepoints (all P < 0.05). Conclusion Lower vitreous CREG1 is associated with poor response to ranibizumab in DME. CREG1, along with OCT features, HbA1c, NLR, PLR, and eGFR, significantly influences treatment outcomes and correlates with long-term anatomical and visual prognosis.

  PublisherDOI

• Spatio-temporal migration of antiferromagnetic domain walls in Sr2IrO4

  ArXiv.org · 2025-11-10

  preprintOpen access

  By laser pump-probe time-resolved coherent magnetic X-ray diffraction imaging, we have measured the migration velocity of antiferromagnetic domain walls in the Mott insulator Sr2IrO4 at 100 K. During the laser-induced demagnetization, we observe domain walls moving at 3x10^6 m/s, significantly faster than acoustic velocities. This is understood to arise from a purely electronic spin contribution to the magnetic structure without any role for coupling to the crystal lattice.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Joint Multi-level Attention and Consistency Aligned for Multimodal Emotion Recognition Based on Physiological Signals

  Lecture notes in computer science · 2025-10-15

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Layer-dependent spin-resolved electronic structure of ferromagnetic triple-layered ruthenate <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mi>Sr</mml:mi><mml:mn>4</mml:mn></mml:msub><mml:msub><mml:mi>Ru</mml:mi><mml:mn>3</mml:mn></mml:msub><mml:msub><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">O</mml:mi><mml:mn>10</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>

  Physical review. B./Physical review. B · 2025-03-21 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Electronic structure origins of anomalous magnetic character in the ferromagnetic trilayer Sr${}_{4}$Ru${}_{3}$O${}_{10}$ are investigated using angle- and spin-resolved photoemission. The authors highlight two momentum-separated narrow spectral peaks 30 $m\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}e\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}V$ below the Fermi-level with opposite-spin polarization as well as dramatic temperature-dependent coherence-incoherence crossover behavior. In addition, comparison to spin-polarized band theory reveals that they possess different antibonding versus nonbonding ${d}_{x\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}z/y\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}z}$ orbital character, and thus different spatial localization in the central versus outer layers, with implications for its in-plane metamagnetic behavior.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Gesture Recognition Method of Surface Electromyography Signal Based on Dual-View Fusion Network

  2025-08-01

  article

  In the field of human-computer interaction research, how to improve the accuracy of gesture recognition has always been a research hotspot. Among the existing gesture recognition studies based on surface electromyography (sEMG), one is a method based on deep learning, which mainly uses convolutional neural networks to capture the spatial morphological information of multi-channel sEMG or using a long short-term memory network to extract time-dependent information of single-channel sEMG, but without considering the correlation of electrode arrangement. The other method is to combine traditional features with deep learning, which mainly stacks and replaces the validated time-domain and frequency-domain features, but lacks the evaluation of feature importance. In order to solve the above problems, this paper takes sEMG as the research object and aims to improve the performance of gesture recognition, and proposes a neural network framework for sEMG gesture recognition based on dual-view fusion. The framework extracts the temporal and spatial features of the signal through the time-domain image subnetwork, extracts the time-frequency domain statistical features of the signal through the feature set image subnetwork, and uses the dual-view feature level and decision-making level fusion strategy of the time-domain image subnetwork and the feature set image subnetwork to obtain the recognition results. Experimental results in Ninapro's DB2 and DB4 databases show that the proposed method has higher recognition accuracy than the existing sEMG gesture recognition methods. The proposed method will provide a reference for promoting the academic research and popularization of gesture recognition based on Smeg signals.

  PublisherDOI

• Refining the two-band model for highly compensated semimetals using thermoelectric coefficients

  Physical review. B./Physical review. B · 2025-06-24 · 1 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Interaction of magnetic fields with spinons in a fractionalized state

  npj Quantum Materials · 2025-08-08 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The 4d-electron trimer lattice Ba₄Nb₁₋ₓRu₃₊ₓO₁₂ exhibits either a quantum spin liquid (QSL) or a heavy-fermion strange metal (HFSM) phase, depending on Nb content. In the QSL state, itinerant spinons act as effective heat carriers, enhancing thermal conductivity. Strikingly, applying a magnetic field up to 14 T causes an abrupt, up-to-5000% increase in heat capacity below 150 mK, disrupting the linear temperature dependence typical of both phases. Meanwhile, AC susceptibility and electrical resistivity remain nearly unchanged, while thermal conductivity drops by up to 40% below 4 K. These results suggest spinons, despite being charge-neutral, are highly sensitive to magnetic fields at low temperatures. We propose that the magnetic field could induce Anderson localization of spinons, creating emergent non-magnetic two-level systems responsible for the Schottky-like anomaly in heat capacity. These findings point to a previously unexplored regime of spinon dynamics, potentially governed by field-induced localization and distinct from conventional magnetic or transport signatures.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Firm Lifespan and Entrepreneurial Reentry after Failure: The Moderating Role of Temporal Focus

  Management and Organization Review · 2025-11-20 · 3 citations

  articleCorresponding

  Abstract Entrepreneurial reentry after business failure is an important area of research in the field of entrepreneurship. However, previous studies have largely overlooked the crucial role of time factors – both objective and subjective – in the context of failure and subsequent entrepreneurial endeavors. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the impact of firm lifespan on entrepreneurial reentry and the moderating effect of entrepreneurs’ temporal focus. Through manual matching across multiple databases, we obtain a sample of 368 entrepreneurs. The results show that a longer firm lifespan negatively influences entrepreneurial reentry and that a past focus further amplifies this negative relationship. This study contributes to research on the determinants of entrepreneurial reentry and provides theoretical insights into the role of time in entrepreneurial reentry.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Discovery and study of spin-orbit-coupled quantum materials

  NSF · $590k · 2019–2023

• 4d and 5d Transition Metal Oxides: A New Frontier of Materials with Exotic Phenomena

  NSF · $348k · 2006–2010

• Novel Phenomena in Single-Crystal Oxides

  NSF · $400k · 2013–2017

• CAREER: Designing Efficient Resource Management Schemes to Support Integrated Services in Mobile Computing Systems

  NSF · $267k · 2001–2008

• Novel States in Spin-Orbit-Coupled and Correlated Materials

  NSF · $573k · 2016–2019

Frequent coauthors

• J. E. Crow

  123 shared

• S. McCall

  Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  111 shared

• J. Terzic

  92 shared

• J. E. Crow

  National High Magnetic Field Laboratory

  83 shared

• P. Schlottmann

  Florida State University

  83 shared

• Li Zhang

  74 shared

• Shalinee Chikara

  Florida State University

  59 shared

• Hengdi Zhao

  Argonne National Laboratory

  57 shared

Labs

• Gang Cao Research GroupPI

  Not provided

Education

• Postdoc

  National High Magnetic Field Laboratory

  1995

• PhD in Physics, Physics

  Temple University

  1993

Awards & honors

• Monograph: Physics of Spin-Orbit-Coupled Oxides, Oxford Univ…
• Editors’ Suggestion in Phys. Rev. B 106, L180402 (2022)
• Editors’ Suggestion in Phys. Rev. B 104, L041108 (2021)
• Editors’ Suggestion in Phys. Rev. B 98, 064418 (2018)
• Editors’ Suggestion in Phys. Rev. B 56, R2916 (1997)