Xue Qikun

Xue earned his PhD from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1994.[6] From 1994 to 2000, he worked as a research associate at Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Japan, and as a visiting assistant professor at the Physics Department of North Carolina State University, US. He became a professor at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 1999, and since 2005 has worked as a professor in the Physics Department of Tsinghua University. He is a partner investigator in Australia's ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies.[7] In 2020, he became the president of Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech).[8]

Xue pioneered high quality thin films of topological insulators and, in 2013, first achieved the quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE), at Tsinghua University. Nobel Laureate Chen-Ning Yang called this discovery "worthy of a Nobel Prize".[9] Xue's current research aims at preparation of low-dimensional structures exhibiting pronounced quantum phenomena, and understanding of growth dynamics and quantum mechanical effects on solid surfaces and in thin films,[10] including:

• atomic-scale probing of surface electronic and magnetic properties by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy
• molecular beam epitaxial growth of novel quantum materials including low-dimensional and interface-related superconductivity and topological insulators
• quantum size effects in various low-dimensional structures
• study of electronic band structures of thin films using angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and molecular beam epitaxy.
• exploration of novel quantum phenomena in materials with transport measurements
• development of new measurement techniques with high spatial and energy resolutions

• 2004, State Natural Science Second Class Award
• 2005, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
• 2010, TWAS Prize in Physics [11]
• 2011, State Natural Science Second Class Award
• 2011, Outstanding Scientific Research Team Award[12]
• 2014, Outstanding Scientist Award[13]
• 2016, The first Future Science Prize in physical science [14]
• 2020, Fritz London Memorial Prize for low-temperature physics[15]

1. Experimental Observation of the Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in a Magnetic Topological Insulator[16]
2. Superconductivity in One-Atomic-Layer Metal Films Grown on Si(111)[17]
3. Superconductivity Modulated by Quantum Size Effects[18]