Engineering Quantum Materials, Phenomena and Devices
Welcome to the homepage of Vikram Deshpande’s research group! We are located in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Utah, by the foothills of the Wasatch mountains in picturesque Salt Lake City. We study emergent physical phenomena in Dirac materials such as 1D carbon nanotubes, 2D graphene and 3D topological insulators & semimetals.
The Deshpande group uses low-temperature electrical transport spectroscopy to study nano-fabricated devices from these materials and develops novel hybrid experimental tools using high-frequency techniques. Our aim is to explore the rich physics arising in these materials due to the combination of symmetry, topology and electronic correlations. We are also interested in potential applications resulting from the remarkable physical properties of these quantum materials. (see Research).
We are looking for passionate new PhD students, Postdocs, and undergraduate students to join the team (more info) !
We are grateful for funding from an NSF Quantum Idea Incubator award, the NSF DMR, an ACS PRF Young Investigator award, a USTAR research grant and the University of Utah.
News
August 2026
We are hiring! See openings for more info.
July 2026
We are delighted to win an elite NSF Programmable Cloud Lab award (one of 20 in the US across science and engineering) with Vikram as the Science Lead. See a news release for the award here.
December 2024
Our paper on nanomechanical coupling in the magnetic topological insulator MBT is accepted in Nano Letters.
November 2024
Vikram participated in a Roundtable on the ‘Future of Computing’ organized by Utah Business Magazine. Read the article here.
October 2024
Jamie’s paper on carbon nanotube vernier scales is published in Phys. Rev. B.
Spring 2024
We welcome our first cohort of SRI students.
Vikram co-chairs Condensed Matter Experiment faculty search.
Fall 2023
Vikram did a sabbatical in Dima Efetov’s lab in LMU Munich. Thank you Dima for being a gracious host!
August 2023
We are awarded a $900k NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant as co-PI for the “Acquisition of an integrated physical property measurement system for the electronic, optical, and magnetic characterization of materials”.
June 2023
Jasper departs for Urbana.
Lily and Andrew join the group.