Zhang Jun, Ph.D., Professor in the Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and University of CAS. He was supported by the first Beijing Outstanding Young Scientist Program in 2018, the CAS Interdisciplinary Innovation Team Program in 2020, awarded the Nano Research Young Innovators Award in 2021, supported by the CAS Stable Support Program for Young Teams in 2024, and granted funding from the National Outstanding Youth Science Foundation Program.

His research focuses on semiconductor optoelectronic properties, phonon physics, and quantum sensing. His major representative achievements include:

• (1) Based on the principle that phonon-assisted anti-Stokes fluorescence upconversion can dissipate thermal energy (phonons) from materials, he experimentally observed laser cooling of semiconductors for the first time. Ref：Nature 493, 504 (2013) [Cover Article], Optics Express 21, 19302 (2013), Nano Letters 14, 4724 (2014), and Nature Photonics 10, 115-121 (2016);
• (2) Using resolved-sideband Raman cooling technology, he achieved laser cooling of a single optical phonon mode in semiconductors for the first time, opening up a new direction for the Raman cooling of solids. Ref： Nature Photonics 10, 600–605 (2016) and Nano Letters 22, 7129 (2022), and were highlighted in a News & Views article in Nature Photonics 10, 566–567 (2016);
• (3) Systematic research on charge-spin-lattice interactions in two-dimensional layered semiconductors, including quantum interference between dark excitons and acoustic phonons (Nature Communications 14, 88 (2023)), magnetic field control of spin-entangled Zhang-Rice excitons (Nature Communications 15, 7841 (2024)), and multi-phonon processes in exciton resonances (Nano Letters 22, 5385 (2022));
• (4) Significant contributions to quantum control of solid-state color centers and single-photon emission, including proposing and verifying the donor-acceptor pair transition mechanism and defect-phonon coupling mechanism for broadband single-photon emission in hBN (Nano Letters 22, 1331 (2022)), and observing localized interlayer exciton (IX) emission in 2D MoS₂/WSe₂ moiré heterostructures (Nature Communications 14, 5766 (2023))

He has published over 130 academic papers in international journals, including Nature (Cover Article), Nature Photonics (3), and Nature Communications (6). He has contributed 2 chapters to an English book and 1 chapter to a Chinese book, and holds 3 authorized U.S. patents and 6 authorized Chinese patents. His work has been cited over 11,000 times with an h-index of 50, and has been highlighted by Nature Photonics, NPG Asia Materials, IOP Physics World, and Phys Org.

Plenary talk: Advancements in Solid State Laser Cooling: State of the art and perspectives