Robust and escalating computing demand over the next several decades will necessitate the development of new materials, algorithms, and devices that address both performance and sustainability. We perform advanced materials synthesis, spectroscopy, and device integration focused on new classes of two-dimensional (2D) materials. These planar, few-atom thick 2D crystals and their assemblies exhibit intriguing phenomena that can be harnessed for optics, sensing, energy conversion, quantum control, and of course information technology. In this talk, I will summarize our research advances in 2D atomic crystals, 2D molecular lattices, and the first assembly of bespoke van der Waals heterostructures with these materials. First, I will share how careful control of precursor flux and substrate interactions can both shape and significantly reduce defects in 2D semiconductors that show promise as building-blocks for future field effect transistors. Second, I will show how our unique capabilities in gas-phase synthesis and exfoliation of 2D metal-organic frameworks, which harbor stimulus responsive properties and mixed-valency, enable the creation of unconventional sensors and catalytically-active substrates. Finally, I will discuss how seamless integration of 2D semiconductor monolayers with molecular thin films and the aforementioned metal-organic frameworks yields devices that exhibit efficient photon upconversion and unprecedented quantum emission phenomena. Collectively, these efforts help address some of the essential materials needs critical to future electronics.
Thomas J. Kempa is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and of Materials Science and Engineering (by courtesy) at Johns Hopkins University. Tom received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Boston College in 2004. He was awarded a Marshall Scholarship, which he used to pursue two years of post-graduate study at Imperial College London. After returning to the United States, Tom pursued graduate studies in chemistry under the direction of Prof. Charles Lieber at Harvard University where he focused on the discovery and development of nanoscale materials for next- generation solar cells and photonic devices. After receiving his PhD in 2012, Tom conducted postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of Prof. Daniel Nocera, first at MIT and then at Harvard, and focused on harnessing electrochemical and hydrodynamic phenomena to form complex inorganic nanostructures. Over the course of his graduate and post-doctoral studies, Tom received the MRS Graduate Student Award, the Dudley Herschbach Teaching Award, and the 2013 IUPAC Young Chemist Prize. Professor Kempa’s research group develops new methods to prepare and study low-dimensional (low-D) inorganic crystals from nanoparticles (0D) to few-atom thick sheets (2D) whose exceptional properties render them intriguing platforms for optoelectronic, energy conversion, and quantum science studies. His group's expertise spans the areas of physical, inorganic, and materials chemistry. Professor Kempa is the recipient of numerous awards including a DARPA Young Faculty Award, an NSF CAREER Award, a Dreyfus Foundation Fellowship, a Mercator Fellowship, a Toshiba Distinguished Young Investigator Award, two Hopkins Discovery Awards, and others. He was also named an Emerging Investigator by the Journal of Materials Chemistry A and was selected by Matter as one of 35 early career PIs leading breakthroughs in materials science. In 2023, Tom was appointed a member of the Nano Letters Editorial Advisory Board. In December 2024, Tom began an appointment as Associate Editor at npj 2D Materials and Applications. Tom was elected the co- Vice Chair and Chair of the 2026 and 2028, respectively, GRCs on “2D Electronics Beyond Graphene.” He is founder and co-director of the Hub for Imaging and Quantum Technologies, a major institute at JHU.
Robust and escalating computing demand over the next several decades will necessitate the development of new materials, algorithms, and devices that address both performance and sustainability. We perform advanced materials synthesis, spectroscopy, and device integration focused on new classes of two-dimensional (2D) materials. These planar, few-atom thick 2D crystals and their assemblies exhibit intriguing phenomena that can be harnessed for optics, sensing, energy conversion, quantum control, and of course information technology. In this talk, I will summarize our research advances in 2D atomic crystals, 2D molecular lattices, and the first assembly of bespoke van der Waals heterostructures with these materials. First, I will share how careful control of precursor flux and substrate interactions can both shape and significantly reduce defects in 2D semiconductors that show promise as building-blocks for future field effect transistors. Second, I will show how our unique capabilities in gas-phase synthesis and exfoliation of 2D metal-organic frameworks, which harbor stimulus responsive properties and mixed-valency, enable the creation of unconventional sensors and catalytically-active substrates. Finally, I will discuss how seamless integration of 2D semiconductor monolayers with molecular thin films and the aforementioned metal-organic frameworks yields devices that exhibit efficient photon upconversion and unprecedented quantum emission phenomena. Collectively, these efforts help address some of the essential materials needs critical to future electronics.
Thomas J. Kempa is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and of Materials Science and Engineering (by courtesy) at Johns Hopkins University. Tom received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Boston College in 2004. He was awarded a Marshall Scholarship, which he used to pursue two years of post-graduate study at Imperial College London. After returning to the United States, Tom pursued graduate studies in chemistry under the direction of Prof. Charles Lieber at Harvard University where he focused on the discovery and development of nanoscale materials for next- generation solar cells and photonic devices. After receiving his PhD in 2012, Tom conducted postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of Prof. Daniel Nocera, first at MIT and then at Harvard, and focused on harnessing electrochemical and hydrodynamic phenomena to form complex inorganic nanostructures. Over the course of his graduate and post-doctoral studies, Tom received the MRS Graduate Student Award, the Dudley Herschbach Teaching Award, and the 2013 IUPAC Young Chemist Prize. Professor Kempa’s research group develops new methods to prepare and study low-dimensional (low-D) inorganic crystals from nanoparticles (0D) to few-atom thick sheets (2D) whose exceptional properties render them intriguing platforms for optoelectronic, energy conversion, and quantum science studies. His group's expertise spans the areas of physical, inorganic, and materials chemistry. Professor Kempa is the recipient of numerous awards including a DARPA Young Faculty Award, an NSF CAREER Award, a Dreyfus Foundation Fellowship, a Mercator Fellowship, a Toshiba Distinguished Young Investigator Award, two Hopkins Discovery Awards, and others. He was also named an Emerging Investigator by the Journal of Materials Chemistry A and was selected by Matter as one of 35 early career PIs leading breakthroughs in materials science. In 2023, Tom was appointed a member of the Nano Letters Editorial Advisory Board. In December 2024, Tom began an appointment as Associate Editor at npj 2D Materials and Applications. Tom was elected the co- Vice Chair and Chair of the 2026 and 2028, respectively, GRCs on “2D Electronics Beyond Graphene.” He is founder and co-director of the Hub for Imaging and Quantum Technologies, a major institute at JHU.
