ARLINGTON, Texas (Diya TV) — A UT Arlington physics student has been awarded a prestigious award for his research on graphene, a material that has gained recognition for its extraordinary strength and thinness, which might revolutionize applications from solar cells to cancer treatments.
Pratyanik Sau, who graduated Dec. 13 with a bachelor’s degree in physics, received the Outstanding Undergraduate Student Oral Presentation Award at the Fall 2024 Joint Meeting of the Texas Section of the American Physical Society. In his research, conducted under the mentorship of physics faculty members, Sau explored electronic properties in graphene by injecting positrons, the antiparticles of electrons.
Sau’s project, “Positron Impact-Induced Secondary Electron Spectra of Graphene and Graphite,” focused on 2D materials: substances only one or two atoms thick but wide in other directions. Working with professors Alex Weiss, Ali Koymen, and assistant research professor Varghese Chirayath, Sau and his collaborator Nicholas Hancock, a senior majoring in mathematics, examined how positrons can reveal the unique properties of graphene.
“Characterizing surfaces of 2D materials is challenging,” Sau explained. “Most conventional methods produce signals from both the material and the underlying substrate on which it’s grown.” His work, however, overcame these limitations by using positrons to eject electrons from the graphene surface, enabling the team to obtain detailed data on its electronic behavior.
By comparing the results from graphene to its 3D counterpart, graphite, and the copper substrate it was grown on, Sau’s research provided key insights that could inform future designs of particle accelerators and fusion reactors. The findings help researchers understand how the material behaves in extreme environments, a potential breakthrough in scientific fields reliant on advanced materials.
Graphene was discovered in 2004, and since then, much has been said about it in terms of potential application in energy storage, medical technology, and electronics. Sau’s winning research joins the growing list of literature on the material and sets him up as one of the bright young minds in physics.
Originally from Kolkata, West Bengal, India, Sau is set to graduate from The University of Texas at Arlington with minors in data science and mathematics, and he hopes to continue his research into graduate school.
