Christopher Weber - College of Arts and Sciences

Christopher P. Weber

Professor

Chris Weber received his A.B. and Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1999 and 2005, respectively. He studied the motion of electron spin in semiconductors. He stayed in Berkeley at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a post-doctoral researcher through 2008, using pulsed x-rays to study the bonding states of warm, dense matter. Since coming to Santa Clara in 2008, Professor Weber has built an "ultrafast optics" laboratory, using laser pulses less than .0001 nanoseconds long to study the motion of electrons in solids. He has studied semiconductors such as GaAs and InP that are widely used in electronic devices, and the magnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As. His current work focuses on the newly-discovered Dirac and Weyl semimetals, materials in which electrons behave as though massless.

Publications

C. P. Weber, “Ultrafast investigation and control of Dirac and Weyl semimetals.” Journal of Applied Physics 129, 070901 (2021). (Editor’s pick.)
Robert J. Kirby, Austin Ferrenti, Caroline Weinberg, Sebastian Klemenz, Mohamed Oudah, Shiming Lei, Chris P. Weber, Daniele Fausti, Gregory D. Scholes, and Leslie M. Schoop, "Transient Drude response dominates near-infrared pump-probe reflectivity in nodal-line semimetals ZrSiS and ZrSiSe." Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 11, 6105-6111 (2020).
Chris P. Weber, Leslie M. Schoop, Stuart S. P. Parkin, Robert C. Newby, Alex Nateprov, Bettina Lotsch, Bala Murali Krishna Mariserla, J. Matthew Kim, Keshav M. Dani, Hans A. Bechtel, Ernest Arushanov, and Mazhar Ali. "Directly photoexcited Dirac and Weyl fermions in ZrSiS and NbAs" Applied Physics Letters 113, 221906 (2018).
Chris P. Weber, Madison G. Masten, Thomas C. Ogloza, Bryan S. Berggren, Michael K. L. Man, Keshav M. Dani, Jinyu Liu, Zhiqiang Mao, Dennis D. Klug, Adebayo A. Adeleke, and Yansun Yao. "Using coherent phonons for ultrafast control of the Dirac node of SrMnSb₂" Physical Review B&nbsp98, 155115 (2018).
Chris P. Weber, Bryan S. Berggren, Madison G. Masten, Thomas C. Ogloza, Skylar Deckoff-Jones, Julien Madéo, Michael K. L. Man, Keshav M. Dani, Lingxiao Zhao, Genfu Chen, Jinyu Liu, Zhiqiang Mao, Leslie M. Schoop, Bettina V. Lotsch, Stuart S. P. Parkin, and Mazhar Ali. "Similar ultrafast dynamics of several dissimilar Dirac and Weyl semimetals" Journal of Applied Physics (Editor's Pick) 122, 223102 (2017).
F. Cadiz, V. Notot, J. Filipovic, D. Paget, C. P. Weber, L. Martinelli, A. C. H. Rowe, and S. Arscott. “Ambipolar spin diffusion in p-type GaAs: A case where spin diffuses more than charge” Journal of Applied Physics 122, 095703 (2017).
Niloufar Yavarishad, Tahereh Hosseini, Elaheh Kheirandish, Chris P. Weber, and Nikolai Kouklin. "Room-temperature self-powered energy photodetector based on optically induced Seebeck effect in Cd3 As2" Applied Physics Express 10 052201 (2017).
Weber, C. P., Arushanov, E., Berggren, B. S., Hosseini, T., Kouklin, N. and Nateprov, A. “Transient reflectance of photoexcited Cd₃As₂” Applied Physics Letters 106, 231904 (2015).
Weber, C. P., Kittlaus, E. A., Mattia, K. B., Waight, C. J., Hagmann, J., Liu, X., Dobrowolska, M. and Furdyna, J. K. “Rapid diffusion of electrons in GaMnAs” Applied Physics Letters 102 182402 (2013).
Weber C. P., and Kittlaus E. A. "Diffusion of degenerate minority carrier in a p-type semiconductor," Journal of Applied Physics, 113, 053711 (2013).
Weber C. P., Benko, C. A., Hiew, S.C. “Measurement of spin diffusion in semi-insulating GaAs,” Journal of Applied Physics, 109, 106101 (2011).
J. D. Koralek, C. P. Weber, J. Orenstein, B. A. Bernevig, Shou-Cheng Zhang, S. Mack, and D. D. Awschalom, "Emergence of the persistent spin helix in semiconductor quantum wells,” Nature 458, 610-613 (2009).
C. P. Weber, J. Orenstein, B. A. Bernevig, S.-C. Zhang, J. Stephens, and D. D. Awschalom, "Nondiffusive spin dynamics in a two-dimensional electron gas” Physical Review Letters 98, 076604 (2007).
C. P. Weber, N. Gedik, J. E. Moore, J. Orenstein, J. Stephens, and D. D. Awschalom, “Observation of spin Coulomb drag in a two-dimensional electron gas,” Nature 437, 1330-1333 (2005).