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We have multiple openings for PhD students - please apply here! Deadline Dec 1st: https://gradschool.princeton.edu/admission-onboarding/apply
Welcome! I am an Assistant Professor at Princeton University with joint appointments in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE) and the Princeton Materials Institute (PMI). My group's interests are broadly in the areas of nanoscale thermal transport, nanoelectronics, and ultrafast science. Our approach involves visualizing materials on fast timescales, and asking how this dynamic behavior can be controlled for applications in energy-efficient computing, energy harvesting, and energy storage. Some questions of interest include: Can we actively control heat flow at the atomic scale? Can we make atomic-scale "movies" of electronic devices and image short-lived transient states in materials? Can we use external means to modulate ion transport in energy-storage materials? Can we create new "non-equilibrium” states of matter through ultrafast excitation? The group enjoys working on interdisciplinary problems in energy and computing, with a core emphasis on understanding physical phenomena. In addition to performing experimental work at Princeton, my group is an active user of advanced electron and X-ray sources at national labs across the country.
Before starting at Princeton in Jan 2023, I was a postdoc and research scientist at the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, at Stanford University and SLAC National Lab, where I worked with Profs. Aaron Lindenberg and Will Chueh on developing methods to visualize electrically- and optically-driven structural dynamics in low-dimensional materials. This work resulted in the first atomic-scale ultrafast "movie" of a memory bit, and the discovery of a new mechanism for ultra-efficient energy transfer at atomic junctions. Prior to that, I received my Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford, where I worked with Prof. Ken Goodson studying nanoscale thermal transport in 2D materials and defect-rich crystals. My dissertation work included the demonstration of a nanoscale thermal switch based on ion intercalation, and the development of a microscopy technique to visualize heat flow near a single grain boundary. My postdoc work was recognized by the MRS Postdoctoral Award (2022), the Early Career Award from the AVS Nanoscale Science & Technology Division (2022), and the LCLS Young Investigator Award from SLAC National Lab (2021). For my graduate work, I received a Gold Graduate Student Award from MRS (2017).
Recent news:
Our group is awarded a seed grant from the Princeton Center for Complex Materials MRSEC! (01/2024)
Aditya gives an invited talk at 3M's Tech Forum in Minneapolis (12/2023)
Our group is awarded its first grant -- the Doctoral New Investigator Award from the ACS-PRF! (10/2023)
Welcome to Henry Erdman, senior in the Physics department who will work on his senior thesis with us! (09/2023)
Aditya is elected to the executive committee of the AVS Nanoscale Science & Technology Division (08/2023)
Aditya gives an invited talk at the SPIE Optics + Photonics conference in San Diego (08/2023)
Aditya delivers a keynote at the North American Thermal Analysis Society meeting in Rockville (07/2023)
Aditya receives a Princeton Engineering Teaching Commendation from the SEAS Dean for his course 'Phase transformations in materials' (07/2023)
Welcome to summer REU Nicholas Zhu! Nick will work on simulating electron diffraction. (05/2023)
We welcome our first PhD student -- Touhid Ahmed from ECE! (01/2023)
Paper in Nature Nanotechnology: Electronic bridge allows rapid energy sharing between semiconductors
American Vacuum Society award: Aditya Sood receives the Early Career Award from the AVS Nanoscale Science and Technology Division 2022
Materials Research Society award: Mattia Biesuz and Aditya Sood receive MRS Postdoctoral Awards
Stanford News: Aditya Sood receives 2021 LCLS Young Investigator Award
PhysicsWorld: Stop-motion movie of atoms reveals short-lived state in nanoscale switch
IEEE Spectrum: Insulator-conductor transition points toward ultra-efficient computing
Stanford News: Scientists take first snapshots of ultrafast switching in a quantum electronic device
PhysicsWorld: Heat transport goes ballistic across 2D thin films
Stanford News: How can we design electronic devices that don't overheat?
PhysicsWorld: Grain boundaries limit heat flow in diamond