The Fischer Group
nanomaterials research at the interface of organic chemistry and condensed matter physics
WE ARE A SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH GROUP IN THE DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY AT UC BERKELEY
Our group leverages the tools of organic synthesis, reticular chemistry, and bottom-up design to realize exotic electronic and magnetic structures in custom engineered covalent carbon nanomaterials. Recent notable successes include the realization of intrinsically metallic graphene nanoribbons, highly tunable (topological) semiconductors, and magnetically ordered phases in 1D and 2D lattices.
Thinking about joining our research team?
Interested in organic materials synthesis or scanning tunneling microscopy?
Check out our open positions, or send us an email, say hi.
CHECK OUT OUR HIGHLIGHTS
Our Science
Our work is guided by molecular orbital engineering approaches used to fine-tune the wave function of π-conjugated molecular organic and inorganic lattices to access exotic electronic structures synthetic covalent quantum nanomaterials. We draw inspiration from theory and bottom-up chemical design to develop new molecular synthetic tools that provide atomically precise control over geometric parameters (e.g., length, width, or symmetry), the position and density of dopant atoms, and the interaction of changes and spins within custom tailored molecular lattices.
Square Lattices with
Exotic Band Structures
Magnetic Ordering in
Graphene Nanoribbons
NANOMATERIALS SYNTHESIS
Our research focuses on the design and bottom-up synthesis of molecular precursors that serve as the building blocks for extended 1D and 2D lattices. This core effort expands on the reticular tools developed for COF and MOF structures, develops new on-surface polymerization techniques, and builds on a vast library of extended polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Rather than focusing on macroscopic physical properties our team targets unusual electronic and magnetic states the emerge within the extended lattice of 1D or 2D covalent quantum nanomaterials that set the technological foundation for faster and more energy efficient integrated circuit architectures.
SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPY
A core competency that sets our scientific effort apart is our close integration of synthesis with atomically resolved scanning probe techniques. Our team operates cryogenic (4K) scanning tunneling microscopes that not only allow us to inspect the precise atomic positions and bonding in bottom-up synthesized nanomaterials but directly image their electronic structure. Using modern scanning tunneling spectroscopy tools we visualize the spatial distribution of molecular orbitals, the nodal pattern that emerge from the wave function within a periodic lattice, and even probe the localization of unpaired electron spins with sub-nanometer resolution.
MEET US
Our Team
Felix Raoul Fischer
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR / Professor
Prof. Fischer received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ). Prior to joining the Faculty at UC Berkeley as an Assistant Professor he was a German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Columbia University New York.
Jieqi (Jackie) Chen
GRADUATE RESEARCHER
Jieqi graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry from Shanghai Jiao Tong University where he explored the field of supramolecular chemistry and functional polymers. He is currently interested in on-surface self-assembly structures and GNRs with exciting physics.
Adam Cronin
GRADUATE RESEARCHER
Adam graduated with a B.S. in chemistry from California Polytechnic State. His research interests include exploiting SPM to investigate the properties of new materials for different device applications.
Christina Dadich
GRADUATE RESEARCHER
Christina graduated from Florida State University with a B.S. in chemistry. She worked under Dr. Gregory Dudley, where her research included synthesizing analgesic derivatives and pioneering use of microwave chemistry. Her current research interests are diverse, including organic synthesis at the interface of materials science and device fabrication.
Alex Da Rosa
GRADUATE RESEARCHER
Alex is from Orinda, California. He graduated with a B.A. in Chemistry at Amherst College in 2024, where he explored leveraging conformational inversion for ferroelectricity. He is recently interested in the design of Van der Waals materials.
Jiahe Ji
GRADUATE RESEARCHER
Jieqi graduated with a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Washington. His research interest is in organic synthesis, mostly on triangulenes and other precursors for surface chemistry.
Fujia Liu
GRADUATE RESEARCHER
Fujia graduated from Fudan University with a B.A. in Macromolecular Materials and Engineering. His current research interest is synthesizing functional graphene nanoribbons and 2D materials for various applications.
Boyu Qie
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER
Boyu holds a B.S. in Chemistry from South University of Science and Technology and a M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Columbia University. He graduated with a Ph.D. in chemistry from UC Berkeley. He currently is a BIDMAP postdoctoral fellow developing AI databases and LLMs for carbon nanomaterials research.
Jakov Smesny
GRADUATE RESEARCHER
Jakov graduated with a BSc in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology from the Polytechnic of Milan and a MSc in Micro- and Nanosystems from ETH Zürich. He is interested in novel approaches to large-area atomically defined low-dimensional nanoarchitectures featuring unusual and precisely engineered electronic properties.
Pranav Viswanathan
GRADUATE RESEARCHER
Pranav is from Ashland, MA. He completed his BS in Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he worked under Dr. Murugappan Muthukumar studying the self-assembly and phase behavior of charged polymer solutions. His current research focuses on the covalent functionalization of TMDs for the purpose of developing novel quantum materials.
Yuyi Yan
GRADUATE RESEARCHER
Yuyi graduated with a B.S. in Physics from Southeast University in 2020. He received his M.E. in Materials Physics and Chemistry from Shanghai University in 2023 worked under Prof. Qiang Sun. His current research interest lies in the fabrication and characterization of graphene nanoribbons with novel magnetic and topological properties.
Han Xuan Wong
GRADUATE RESEARCHER
Han graduated with a B.Eng. in Materials Science and Engineering from Imperial College London, UK. His current research is aimed at the scalable integration of nanographenes into electronic devices.
Sihao Chen
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHER
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Jun Yu
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHER
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OUR RESEARCH IS SUPPORTED BY
Our Funders
We are grateful for the trust and generous financial support provided by federal funding agencies and private foundations that support our science.
FROM THE BLOG
Latest News
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Engineering Phase-Frustration Induced Flat Bands in an Aza-triangulene Covalent Organic Kagome Lattice
Read more: Engineering Phase-Frustration Induced Flat Bands in an Aza-triangulene Covalent Organic Kagome LatticeCongratulations to Yuyi, Fujia, Weichen, Han & Boyu who had their paper published in Nature Materials today! In this work we demonstrate how molecular engineered orbital-phase frustration within a diatomic Kagome lattice gives rise to non-trivial flat bands near…
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Jahn-Teller-like Distortions in a One-Dimensional π-Conjugated Polymer
Read more: Jahn-Teller-like Distortions in a One-Dimensional π-Conjugated PolymerCongratulations to Ziyi, Boyu, Weichen, Jingwei, Fujia, Peter, Jaiming & Xinheng who had their paper accepted in The Journal of the American Chemical Society today! While our European friends beat us to the publication (read their paper in…
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Engineering Phase-Frustration Induced Flat Bands in an Aza-triangulene Covalent Organic Kagome Lattice
Read more: Engineering Phase-Frustration Induced Flat Bands in an Aza-triangulene Covalent Organic Kagome LatticeCongratulations to Yuyi, Fujia, Weichen, Han & Boyu who had their paper accepted in Nature Materials today! In this work we demonstrate how molecular engineered orbital-phase frustration within a diatomic Kagome lattice gives rise to non-trivial flat bands near…