About

Nadya Mason is the Dean of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) and Interim Vice President for Science, Innovation, and Partnerships at the University of Chicago. She specializes in experimental studies of quantum materials, with a research focus on the electronic properties of nanoscale and correlated systems, such as nano-scale wires, atomically thin membranes, and nanostructured superconductors. Her research is relevant to applications involving nanoscale and quantum computing elements. Mason has previously served as the Rosalyn S. Yalow Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she directed the Illinois Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and was the founding director of the Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (I-MRSEC). She is actively involved in building community within the physical sciences through mentoring and has served as chair of the APS Committee on Minorities, helping to initiate the “National Mentoring Community.” Mason is also engaged in promoting science through local TV, the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, and a TED talk on “Scientific Curiosity.” She holds a B.S. from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from Stanford University, both in physics. Her numerous honors include membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as awards such as the 2009 Denise Denton Emerging Leader Award, the 2012 APS Maria Goeppert Mayer Award, the 2019 APS Bouchet Award, and the 2025 Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award.

Research topics

• Quantum mechanics
• Materials science
• Condensed matter physics
• Nanotechnology
• Physics

Selected publications

• Field‐Effect Transistors from Artificial Charged Domain Walls in Stacked Van der Waals Ferroelectric α‐In ₂ Se ₃ (Adv. Mater. 20/2026)

  Advanced Materials · 2026-04-01

  article

  Van der Waals Ferroelectric By transferring van der Waals ferroelectrics with opposite polarization, it is possible to create an artificial highly conducting charge domain wall at the interface. This provides a new strategy for engineering emergent states in van der Waals materials and a new route for synthesizing on demand and electrically addressable charge domain walls. More details can be found in the Research Article by Arend M. van der Zande and co-workers (DOI: 10.1002/adma.202523096).

  PublisherDOI

• Data for Field-Effect Transistors from Artificial Charged Domain Walls in Stacked van der Waals Ferroelectric α-In2Se3

  Illinois Data Bank · 2026-01-01

  datasetOpen access

  Room-temperature transfer curves; Benchmarking conductance; STEM images of charged domain walls; Temperature-dependent transfer curves; Scaling of conductance, hopping length, threshold voltage, trap density, and field-effect mobility with temperature; Magnetotransport data; Optical, AFM, and PFM image of different field-effect transistors; STEM images of contacts; Output and transfer curves of FETs; Additional STEM images of charged domain walls; Temperature scaling of subthreshold swing and threshold voltage difference; Comparison of maximum field-effect mobility for different structures

  PublisherDOI

• Field‐Effect Transistors from Artificial Charged Domain Walls in Stacked Van der Waals Ferroelectric α‐In ₂ Se ₃

  Advanced Materials · 2026-01-30 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  ABSTRACT Ferroelectric charged domain walls (CDWs) offer emergent electronic states that can serve as functional elements in high‐density nonvolatile memory and neuromorphic computing. Yet, poor conductivity, structural instability, and lack of deterministic control limit their practical use. Moreover, the CDWs are typically out‐of‐plane and buried interfaces, which prohibits electrical access and prevents gate control of their carrier density. This work demonstrates the fabrication of artificial in‐plane CDWs by stacking oppositely polarized flakes of van der Waals (vdW) ferroelectric ‐In 2 Se 3 . Edge contact is utilized to electrically access the CDWs and integrate them into CDW‐based field‐effect transistors (CDW‐FETs). CDW‐FETs exhibit room‐temperature conductance up to four orders of magnitude higher than single domains, exceeding previously reported CDWs by 2–9 orders of magnitude. Electron microscopy imaging reveals atomic reconstruction and interfacial heterogeneity in CDWs. Temperature and gate‐dependent electrical and magneto‐transport measurements confirm that interfacial band bending governs transport. Two transport mechanisms are identified in these CDW‐FETs: variable‐range hopping and thermally activated traps, showing a transition temperature of 80 K. These results establish artificial CDWs as on‐demand, designable conductive channels in vdW ferroelectrics, advancing the understanding of CDW conduction mechanisms and bridging the gap toward device integration.

  PublisherDOI

• Field-effect transistors based on charged domain walls in van der Waals ferroelectric α-In$_2$Se$_3$

  ArXiv.org · 2025-07-14

  preprintOpen access

  Charged domain walls (CDW) in ferroelectrics are emerging as functional interfaces with potential applications in nonvolatile memory, logic, and neuromorphic computing. However, CDWs in conventional ferroelectrics are vertical, buried, or electrically inaccessible interfaces that prevent their use in functional devices. Here, we overcome these challenges by stacking two opposite polar domains of van der Waals ferroelectric $α$-In$_2$Se$_3$ to generate artificial head-head (H-H) CDWs and use edge contact to fabricate charged domain wall-based field-effect transistors (CDW-FET). We relate the atomic structure to the temperature-dependent electrical and magneto-transport of the CDW-FET. CDW-FETs exhibit a metal-to-insulator transition with decreasing temperature and enhanced conductance and field-effect mobility compared to single domain $α$-In$_2$Se$_3$. We identify two regimes of transport: variable range hopping due to disorder in the band edge below 70 K and thermally activated interfacial trap-assisted transport above 70 K. The CDW-FETs show room-temperature resistance down to 3.1 k$Ω$ which is 2-9 orders of magnitude smaller than the single CDW in thin-film ferroelectrics. These results resolve longstanding challenges with high CDW resistance and their device integration, opening opportunities for gigahertz memory and neuromorphic computing.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Observation of a Zero-Field Josephson Diode Effect in a Helimagnet Josephson Junction

  ArXiv.org · 2025-12-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Cr$_{1/3}$NbS$_{2}$ is a transition metal dichalcogenide that is also a chiral helimagnet, and so lacks inversion symmetry and has non-zero Berry curvature in position and momentum space. It is well known that the combination of broken time-reversal symmetry and broken inversion symmetry can generate non-reciprocal phenomena, but the interplay between these kinds of systems and superconductivity is not well known. We present Josephson junctions fabricated from Cr$_{1/3}$NbS$_{2}$ that give magnetic diffraction patterns with asymmetry in both the magnetic field and the critical current. The non-reciprocity in positive critical current and negative critical current, generally called the Josephson diode effect, has an efficiency of up to $η=20\%$ in some parts of the magnetic diffraction pattern and persists even at zero applied field. We propose that pinned Abrikosov vortices are a main mechanism for the asymmetric magnetic field response in this system, and that the non-zero spin chirality of the Cr$_{1/3}$NbS$_{2}$ causes the diode effect. Simulations of magnetic diffraction patterns from Josephson junctions with vortices present show offsets from zero-field consistent with observations, while simulations of chiral spin structures with an out-of-plane canting show a diode effect.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Programmable Strainscapes in a Two-Dimensional (2D) Material Monolayer

  ACS Nano · 2025-08-13 · 4 citations

  article

  Introducing mechanical strain into two-dimensional (2D) materials offers a powerful way to modulate their properties, yet precise strain control remains a significant challenge. By depositing metal oxide films as stressors on selected regions of 2D materials, the process-induced strain generates spatially resolved eigenstrain fields within the stressor-covered areas and modifies the strain distribution in adjacent regions, enabling the creation of strainscapes─complex, spatially varying strain tensor fields that were previously difficult to realize experimentally. Moreover, this technique offers a more versatile and powerful approach at the device level compared with conventional global loading methods. However, it also introduces more complex loading configurations and necessitates a fast and accurate tool for stressor design and strainscape prediction. Here, we show that the three-dimensional (3D) interfacial problem can be simplified into a 2D Eshelby inclusion problem and subsequently solved by a complex potential method in linear elasticity. Additionally, we develop a fully atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulation model to interpret the strain in both 2D materials and stressors and validate the theoretical predictions. Theoretical and MD simulation results show excellent agreement with experimental measurements in terms of strain magnitude and distribution. The theoretical framework and stressor-based methods provide a rapid and precise tool for programming strainscapes in 2D materials and demonstrate the ability to tune pseudomagnetic fields (PMFs) in a graphene monolayer both spatially and temporally. This work lays the foundation for stressor-based, strain-engineered quantum properties in 2D materials and highlights the power of the mechanics theory in advancing the field of 2D materials.

  PublisherDOI

• Observation of large magnetoresistance switching in topological-insulator/ferromagnetic-metal heterostructure with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

  Physical Review Materials · 2024-05-08 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  In the last decade, studies of magnetoresistance in heterostructures of topological insulator (TI) and ferromagnetic (FM) insulators have indicated the existence of induced magnetization at TI surfaces. However, the magnetic proximity effect in heterostructures of TIs and FM metals has been less explored. Here, we report a spin-valve-like magnetoresistance (MR) switching observed in a bilayer device of ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Se}}_{3}$ and a Co/Pt multilayer ([Co/Pt]), where the [Co/Pt] is a FM metal with a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. This MR switching happens at temperatures below 1 K and for magnetic field sweeps along all in-plane and out-of-plane directions, at values much lower than the magnetization switching fields of the top FM layer. The in-plane field sweeps at various angles also reveal a threefold symmetry of the switching fields, matching the symmetry of the TI crystal structure. We suggest that the large MR switching rises from the interplay between the magnetization of the top FM metal layer and the induced magnetization at the TI surface.

  PublisherDOI

• Spin-Polarized Antiferromagnetic Metals

  Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics · 2024-10-14 · 23 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Spin-polarized antiferromagnets have recently gained significant interest because they combine the advantages of both ferromagnets (spin polarization) and antiferromagnets (absence of net magnetization) for spintronics applications. In particular, spin-polarized antiferromagnetic metals can be useful as active spintronics materials because of their high electrical and thermal conductivities and their ability to host strong interactions between charge transport and magnetic spin textures. We review spin and charge transport phenomena in spin-polarized antiferromagnetic metals in which the interplay of metallic conductivity and spin-split bands offers novel practical applications and new fundamental insights into antiferromagnetism. We focus on three types of antiferromagnets: canted antiferromagnets, noncollinear antiferromagnets, and collinear altermagnets. We also discuss how the investigation of spin-polarized antiferromagnetic metals can open doors to future research directions.

  PublisherDOI

• Tunable magnetic confinement effect in a magnetic superlattice of graphene

  npj 2D Materials and Applications · 2024-04-11 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Two-dimensional van der Waals materials such as graphene present an opportunity for band structure engineering using custom superlattice potentials. In this study, we demonstrate how self-assemblies of magnetic iron-oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ) nanospheres stacked on monolayer graphene generate a proximity-induced magnetic superlattice in graphene and modify its band structure. Interactions between the nanospheres and the graphene layer generate superlattice Dirac points in addition to a gapped energy spectrum near the K and K′ valleys, resulting in magnetic confinement of quasiparticles around the nanospheres. This is evidenced by gate-dependent resistance oscillations, observed in our low temperature transport measurements, and confirmed by self-consistent tight binding calculations. Furthermore, we show that an external magnetic field can tune the magnetic superlattice potential created by the nanospheres, and thus the transport characteristics of the system. This technique for magnetic-field-tuned band structure engineering using magnetic nanostructures can be extended to a broader class of 2D van der Waals and topological materials.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Spin-polarized antiferromagnetic metals

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2024-08-28

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Spin-polarized antiferromagnets have recently gained significant interest because they combine the advantages of both ferromagnets (spin polarization) and antiferromagnets (absence of net magnetization) for spintronics applications. In particular, spin-polarized antiferromagnetic metals can be useful as active spintronics materials because of their high electrical and thermal conductivities and their ability to host strong interactions between charge transport and magnetic spin textures. We review spin and charge transport phenomena in spin-polarized antiferromagnetic metals, in which the interplay of metallic conductivity and spin-split bands offers novel practical applications and new fundamental insights into antiferromagnetism. We focus on three types of antiferromagnets: canted antiferromagnets, noncollinear antiferromagnets, and collinear altermagnets. We also discuss how the investigation of spin-polarized antiferromagnetic metals can open doors to future research directions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Measurements and Implications of Graphene Adhesion - A Coherent Study via Experiments and Modeling

  NSF · $215k · 2011–2014

• CAREER: Tuning Transport in Nanostructures

  NSF · $470k · 2007–2012

• Emergent Unconventional Superconductivity at Interfaces between Superconductor, Topological, and Magnetic Materials

  NSF · $620k · 2017–2021

• Exploring unconventional pairing symmetry in topological materials and novel doped two-dimensional superconductors

  NSF · $750k · 2014–2018

• Controlling the Behavior of Ferroelectric Materials through Strain Engineering

  NSF · $510k · 2014–2018

Frequent coauthors

• Matthew J. Gilbert

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  34 shared

• Cesar Chialvo

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  28 shared

• A. Hoffmann

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  26 shared

• Joseph Sklenar

  23 shared

• Malcolm Durkin

  21 shared

• J. Henry Hinnefeld

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  17 shared

• Taylor L. Hughes

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  16 shared

• Travis Dirks

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  15 shared

Awards & honors

• 2009 Denise Denton Emerging Leader Award
• 2012 APS Maria Goeppert Mayer Award
• 2019 APS Bouchet Award
• 2025 Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award