Hongling Lott is an experimental materials science postdoctoral researcher at NREL. She received a doctorate in materials science and engineering from the University of Michigan, and double bachelor degrees in physics and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. Her current research focuses on the investigation of arsenic doping and diffusion within single crystal and polycrystalline cadmium telluride (CdTe) (and related semiconductors) deposited by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). She also works on proof-of-concept single crystal CdTe photovoltaic (PV) device fabrication and characterization. Through her studies, she seeks to develop fundamental understandings of materials to drive improvement in typical CdTe based PV devices. Her doctoral thesis is titled Nanoscale GaN Epitaxy and Polytype Selection in Liquid-metal Mediated Environments and Writing-to-Learn in Materials Science and Engineering. During her doctoral work, she studied growth mechanism of gallium nitride and indium nitride nanostructures (via MBE) on silicon for energy, quantum, and optoelectronic applications. She also studied engineering education with an emphasis on the effect of writing assignments (Writing to Learn) on materials science curricula.  

For additional information, see Hongling Lott LinkedIn Profile.
Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed on LinkedIn are the author’s own, made in the author's individual capacity, and do not necessarily reflect the views of NREL. 

Education

Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan 

M.S., Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan 

B.A., Physics, University of California, Berkeley 

B.A., Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley

Professional Experience

Co-chair, Gordon Research Seminar: Defects in Semiconductors (2022) 

Co-chair, Engineering Research Symposium, University of Michigan (2019) 

Lecturer, CS 70 - Discrete Mathematics and Probability Theory, University of California, Berkeley (2017) 

Featured Work

Writing-to-Learn in introductory Materials Science and Engineering, MRS Communication (2022)  
 
Influence of Gallium Surface Saturation on GaN Nanowire Polytype Selection During Molecular-Beam Epitaxy, Applied Physics Letters (2021) 
 
Mechanisms of GaN Quantum Dot Formation During Nitridation of Ga Droplets, Applied Physics Letters (2020) 
 
Kinetic Control of Tunable Multi-State Switching in Ferroelectric Thin Films, Nature Communications (2019) 
 
Influence of Surface Nano-patterning on the Placement of InAs Quantum Dots, Journal of Applied Physics (2018) 
 
Surfactant-Induced Chemical Ordering of GaAsN:Bi, Applied Physics Letters (2018)  
 
Reducing Coercive-Field Scaling in Ferroelectric Thin Films via Orientation Control, ACS Nano (2018)  
 
Large Polarization Gradients and Temperature-Stable Responses in Compositionally Graded Ferroelectrics, Nature Communications (2017)  

Awards and Honors

Ovshinsky Student Travel Awards, American Physical Society (2022) 

Distinguished Leadership Award, University of Michigan (2022) 

Sweetland Junior Fellow, University of Michigan (2020)