Extreme electric fields
Dual ionic gating applies record static fields of roughly 3 V/nm across 2D materials — enough to close the bandgap of bilayer WSe₂ and switch a semiconductor into a metal.
Nature Communications · 2022 · lead author
01 About
Benjamin I. Weintrub is a condensed-matter physicist studying two-dimensional materials — atomically thin crystals such as graphene and transition-metal dichalcogenides, whose electronic and optical properties can be reshaped by their environment. He is a doctoral researcher in the Bolotin Lab at Freie Universität Berlin, where his work centers on ionic gating: using ions to apply extreme electric fields to 2D semiconductors.
His lead-author work in Nature Communications introduced dual ionic gating, a technique that produced the largest static electric fields applied across any electronic device — strong enough to close the bandgap of bilayer WSe₂ and drive it from semiconductor to metal. His broader research spans optoelectronics, electrical transport, excitonic physics, and chemically functionalized graphene. Before Berlin, he earned an M.A. in physics from Vanderbilt University and dual B.Sc. degrees in physics and engineering physics from the University of Kansas.
02 Research
Excitons under control
Dynamically screening excitonic complexes in 2D semiconductors — tuning, in a single device, how strongly bound electron–hole pairs feel their environment.
Scientific Reports · 2018
Rewriting graphene chemically
From the controlled transfer of oxo-functionalized graphene to iodine-induced trans-oligoene chains: chemistry as a tool for engineering 2D materials.
Small · 2024 · Nanoscale Advances · 2020
03 Publications
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2024
Evidence for Trans-Oligoene Chain Formation in Graphene Induced by Iodine
Small 20, 2311987 (2024)4 citations
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2022
Generating intense electric fields in 2D materials by dual ionic gating
Nature Communications 13, 6601 (2022)103 citations
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2022
High-Power-Density Energy-Harvesting Devices Based on the Anomalous Nernst Effect of Co/Pt Magnetic Multilayers
ACS Applied Energy Materials 5, 11835–11843 (2022)23 citations
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2020
Controlled assembly of artificial 2D materials based on the transfer of oxo-functionalized graphene
Nanoscale Advances 2, 176–181 (2020)8 citations
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2019
Influence of SiO₂ or h-BN substrate on the room-temperature electronic transport in chemically derived single layer graphene
RSC Advances 9, 38011–38016 (2019)18 citations
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2018
Controlled dynamic screening of excitonic complexes in 2D semiconductors
Scientific Reports 8, 768 (2018)17 citations
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2013
High Photoresponse in Hybrid Graphene–Carbon Nanotube Infrared Detectors
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 5, 11703–11707 (2013)66 citations
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2010
Hot carrier diffusion in graphene
Physical Review B 82, 195414 (2010)126 citations
Citation counts from Google Scholar, July 2026.
04 Education
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current
Doctoral research, Physics
Bolotin Lab, Freie Universität Berlin
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2014–2016
M.A., Physics
Vanderbilt University
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2008–2014
B.Sc. Physics & B.Sc. Engineering Physics (Digital Electronic Systems)
University of Kansas