LongjiÌýCui

  • Assistant Professor
  • Thermo Fluid Sciences, Materials, Micro/Nanoscale
Address

Office Location: ECME 267B
Lab Location: ECME 1B66F / ECME 108

Research Interests

Thermal energy sciences, ultrahigh resolution sensor, scanning probe microscopy, nano-optics, quantum engineering

Dr. Cui's research group develops high precision instrumentation and computational techniques to explore energy transport, conversion, and dissipation at extreme scales. Our highly interdisciplinary research spans scanning thermal microscopy, picowatt resolution thermal sensors, atomic and molecular-scale electronics, and thermophotovoltaics.

Societal Impact

Our research addresses critical challenges of the 21st century, including affordable and sustainable energy, next-generation microelectronics, and advanced materials and sensors for high-performance applications.

Select Publications

  • M. Habibi, S. C. Yelishala, Y. Zhu, E. J. Tervo, M. A. Steiner, L. Cui, Enhanced power density in zero-vacuum-gap thermophotovoltaic devices, Energy & Environmental Science 18, 1514-1523(2025).
  • M. Habibi, A. Beardo, L. Cui, Near-field thermal radiation as the probe of nanoscale hot electron and phonon transport, ACS Nano 19 (6), 6033-6043Ìý(2025).
  • S. C. Yelishala, C. Murphy, L. Cui, Molecular perspective and engineering of thermal transport and thermoelectricity in polymers, Journal of Materials Chemistry A 12, 10614-10658 (2024).
  • Y. Zhu, M. Raschke, D. Natelson, L. Cui, Molecular scale nanophotonics: hot carriers, strong coupling, and electrically driven plasmonic processes, Nanophotonics 13, 2281-2322 (2024).
  • L. Cui et al., Thousand-fold increase in plasmonic light emission via combined electronic and optical excitations, Nano Letters 21(6), 2658–1665 (2021).
  • L. Cui et al., Electrically driven hot carrier generation and above-threshold light emission in plasmonic tunnel junctions", Nano Letters 20(8), 6067–6075 (2020).
  • L. Cui et al.,Ìý Thermal conductance of single-molecule junctions, Nature 572, 628-633 (2019).
  • L. Cui et al., Peltier cooling in molecular junctions, Nature Nanotechnology 13, 122-127 (2018).
  • L. Cui et al., Study of radiative heat transfer at Ã…ngström and nanometer scale gaps, Nature Communications 8, 14479 (2017).
  • L. Cui et al., Quantized thermal transport in single atom junctions, Science 355, 1192 (2017).

Select Awards

  • 2025 - CEAS Innovation & Entrepreneurship Fellow, Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder
  • 2024 - ASME Rising Star Award
  • 2023 - NSF CAREER Award
  • 2023 - Lab Venture Challenge Award, Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder
  • 2018 - J. Evans Attwell-Welch Fellowship, Rice University
  • 2017 - Richard & Eleanor Towner Award for Outstanding PhD Research, University of Michigan
  • 2017 - MRS Graduate Student Gold Award