Venkatraman Gopalan

About

Venkatraman Gopalan is a Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and of Physics at Penn State University, where he also serves as the Associate Head for Graduate Education and Chair of the Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Materials Science and Engineering. He received his B.Tech. in Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, in 1989, and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University in 1995. His postdoctoral work included research at Carnegie Mellon University and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, focusing on ferroelectrics and electro-optics. His research focuses on the science and technology of nonlinear optical materials, straddling the fields of materials science, physics, and optical engineering. Key areas include complex oxides exhibiting phenomena such as ferroelectricity, magnetism, and metal-insulator transitions, with investigations into emergent phenomena, metastable phases, and hidden phases using ultrafast light pulses and nanoscale scanning probe techniques. He also collaborates on the development of semiconductor fibers and metalattices, creating complex optical structures with applications in high-speed detection and mid-infrared imaging. Additionally, Gopalan's work involves the study of symmetry operations in materials, including the introduction of rotation reversal symmetry and distortion reversal symmetry, which have implications for understanding material phenomena…

Research topics

• Materials science
• Chemistry
• Composite material
• Nanotechnology
• Optoelectronics
• Physics
• Condensed matter physics
• Optics
• Inorganic chemistry
• Engineering

Selected publications

• Overcoming Shockley-Queisser limit using halide perovskite platform?

  Joule · 2022 · 211 citations

  DOI

• Subterahertz collective dynamics of polar vortices.

  Nature · 2021 · 136 citations

  The collective dynamics of topological structures1-6 are of interest from both fundamental and applied perspectives. For example, studies of dynamical properties of magnetic vortices and skyrmions3,4 have not only deepened our understanding of many-body physics but also offered potential applications in data processing and storage7. Topological structures constructed from electrical polarization, rather than electron spin, have recently been realized in ferroelectric superlattices5,6, and these…

  DOI

• SrNbO3 as a transparent conductor in the visible and ultraviolet spectra

  Communications Physics · 2020 · 79 citations

  Abstract Few materials have been identified as high-performance transparent conductors in the visible regime (400–700 nm). Even fewer conductors are known to be transparent in ultraviolet (UV) spectrum, especially at wavelengths below 320 nm. Doped wide-bandgap semiconductors employed currently as UV transparent conductors have insufficient electrical conductivities, posing a significant challenge for achieving low resistance electrodes. Here, we propose SrNbO 3 as an alternative transparent con…

  DOI

• Achieving Minimal Heat Conductivity by Ballistic Confinement in Phononic Metalattices

  ACS Nano · 2020 · 19 citations

  Controlling the thermal conductivity of semiconductors is of practical interest in optimizing the performance of thermoelectric and phononic devices. The insertion of inclusions of nanometer size in a semiconductor is an effective means of achieving such control; it has been proposed that the thermal conductivity of silicon could be reduced to 1 W/m/K using this approach and that a minimum in the heat conductivity would be reached for some optimal size of the inclusions. Yet the experimental ver…

  DOI

• Strain-induced lead-free morphotropic phase boundary

  Nature Communications · 2025-08-20 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access

  Enhanced susceptibilities in ferroelectrics often arise near phase boundaries between competing ground states. While chemically-induced phase boundaries have enabled ultrahigh electrical and electromechanical responses in lead-based ferroelectrics, precise chemical tuning in lead-free alternatives, such as (K,Na)NbO3 thin films, remains challenging due to the high volatility of alkali metals. Here, we demonstrate strain-induced morphotropic phase boundary-like polymorphic nanodomain structures i…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• A Symmetry-Based Approach to Minimum Energy Pathways

  NSF · $420k · 2018–2023

• Superior Nonlinear Optical Single Crystals and An Open-Source Modeling Package for Classical and Quantum Light Generation

  NSF · $485k · 2022–2026

• Nonlinear Optical Probing of Ferroic and Multiferroic Domain Dynamics

  NSF · $235k · 2005–2009

Frequent coauthors

• Darrell G. Schlom

  Leibniz Institute for Crystal Growth

  186 shared

• Long‐Qing Chen

  Pennsylvania State University

  113 shared

• Amit Kumar

  108 shared

• R. Ramesh

  99 shared

• Nikolas J. Podraza

  University of Toledo

  98 shared

• Lane W. Martin

  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  97 shared

• M. O. Ramı́rez

  96 shared

• J. L. Musfeldt

  University of Tennessee at Knoxville

  96 shared

Awards & honors

• NSF CAREER award (2000)
• Robert R. Coble Award from the American Ceramics Society (20…
• Corning Faculty Fellowship in Ceramic Sciences (2004)
• National Research Council Faculty Fellowship (2004)
• Wilson Award for Excellence in Research (2005)

Similar researchers at Pennsylvania State University

• Zi-Kui Liuh-92
• Ralph Colbyh-82