Paola Barbara

Paola Barbara

Professor

322 Regents Hall
Telephone: (202) 687-6025
E-mail: pb32@georgetown.edu

Publication List

P. Barbara received her M. S. degree (Laurea in Fisica) at the University of Salerno, Italy, in 1991 and her Ph. D. in Physics at the Technical University of Denmark, in Lyngby, Denmark, in 1995. Her thesis research was an experimental study of non-linear dynamics in coupled superconducting transmission lines. Prior to joining the faculty at Georgetown University, she worked at the Center for Superconductivity Research (currently Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials) at the University of Maryland as a postdoctoral associate. She studied Josephson junction arrays, including their synchronization properties (stimulated emission and amplification) and their magnetic properties (to understand unusual phenomena like the paramagnetic Meissner effect occurring in high-Tc granular superconductors). She is currently working on physical properties of nanoscale materials and devices. Dr. Barbara was the recipient of a NSF 2003 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) and a Research Innovation Award from Research Corporation.

Current Research

My current research focuses on the physics and applications of atomically thin materials, including carbon nanotubes and layered materials that can be separated in single or a few atomic layers. I am interested in quantum transport and superconductivity in reduced dimensions, as well as novel nanoscale devices, ranging from chemical sensors and their response mechanism to detectors and sources of electromagnetic radiation, e.g. using carbon nanotube and graphene quantum dots as THz detectors and few-layer molybdenum disulfide for photovoltaic cells.

Selected Publications

  1. Ambient Effects on Photogating in MoS2 Photodetectors,  P. Han, E. Adler, Y. Liu, L. St. Marie, A. El Fatimy†, S. Melis, E. Van Keuren and P. Barbara, Nanotechnology 30, 284004 (2019). https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6528/ab149e
  2. Effect of defect-induced cooling in graphene hot-electron bolometers, A. El Fatimy, P. Han, N. Quirk, L. St. Marie, M. T. Dejarld, R. L. Myers-Ward, K. Daniels, S. Pavunny, D.  K. Gaskill, Yigit Aytac, T. E. Murphy and P. Barbara, Carbon 154, 497-502 (2019). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622319308164
  3. P. Barbara, F. M. Araujo-Moreira, A. B. Cawthorne, and C. J. Lobb, Reentrant AC magnetic susceptibility in Josephson-junction arrays: An alternative explanation for the paramagnetic Meissner effect, Physical Review B 60, 7489 (1999).
  4. P. Barbara, A. B. Cawthorne, S. V. Shitov and C. J. Lobb, Stimulated emission and amplification in Josephson-junction arrays, Physical Review Letters 82, 1963 (1999).
  5. J. Zhang, A. Boyd, A. Tselev, M. Paranjape, and P. Barbara, Mechanism of NO2 interaction in carbon nanotube field effect transistor chemical sensors, Applied Physics Letters 88, 123112 (2006).
  6. J. Zhang, A. Tselev, Y. Yang, K. Hatton, P. Barbara, and S. Shafraniuk, Zero-bias anomaly and superconductivity in single-walled carbon nanotubes, Physical Review B 74, 155414 (2006).
  7. G. Fedorov, A. Tselev, D. Jimenez, S. Latil, N. Kalugin, P. Barbara, D. Smirnov, and S. Roche, Magnetically induced field effect in carbon nanotube devices, Nano Letters 7, 960 (2007).
  8. M. Rinzan, G. Jenkins, H. D. Drew, S. Shafranjuk, and P. Barbara, Carbon Nanotube Quantum dots as highly sensitive, THz-cooled spectrometers, Nano Letters 12, 3097–3100 (2012).Y. Yang, G. Fedorov,  P. Barbara, S. E. Shafranjuk, B. K. Cooper, R. M. Lewis, and C. J. Lobb, Coherent nonlocal transport in quantum wires with strongly coupled electrodes, Physical Review B 87, 045403-045408 (2013).
  9. M. Fontana, T. Deppe, A. Boyd, M. Rinzan, A. Liu, M. Paranjape, P. Barbara, Electron-hole transport and photovoltaic effect in gated MoS2 Schottky junctions, Scientific Reports 3, 1634-38 (2013).
  10. A. Boyd, I. Dube, G. Fedorov, M. Paranjape, and P. Barbara, Gas sensing mechanism of carbon nanotubes: From single tubes to high-density networks, Carbon 69, 417-423 (2014). 
  11. Y. Yang, G. Fedorov, S. E. Shafranjuk, T. M. Klapwijk, B. K. Cooper, R. M. Lewis, C. J. Lobb, and P. Barbara, Electronic Transport and Possible Superconductivity at Van Hove Singularities in Carbon Nanotubes,  Nano Letters DOI:10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b02564 (2015). 
  12. A. El Fatimy, R. L. Myers-Ward, A. K. Boyd, K. M. Daniels, D. K. Gaskill and P. Barbara, Epitaxial graphene quantum dots for high-performance terahertz bolometers, Nature Nanotechnology DOI:10.1038/nnano.2015.303 (2016).