I have focused on growth of two-dimensional (2D) materials using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method to control the crystallinity from polycrystallinity to single-crystallinity, thickness from monolayer to few micrometer and scaling-up to by ~2 inch of the grown 2D materials. My main material is hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) which is an insulating substrate that can lead to 2D intrinsic properties when it is utilized as the substrate or passivation layer. Furthermore, I have investigated the 2D heterostructures (graphene and molybdenum disulfide) based on high-quality multilayer hBN to demonstrate the high performances of 2D materials.
Nowadays, I’m very interested in researching photonic applications via structural engineering on high-quality multilayer hBN. Representatively, optically detective magnetic resonance using boron vacancy, carbon doped hBN for single-photon emitter and bandgap tuning, twisted hBN with angle-control to study any new quantum phenomena, stacking control for nonlinear optical properties.

2026
Surface Acoustic Wave-guided Reconfigurable Memristor, Sihyeok Kim, Jang Woo Lee, Hyeonseung Ryu, Taehoon Kim, Hayoung Ko, Soo Ho Choi, Young Chul Kim, Kai Qi, Ilya V Novikov, Jeong-Seok Nam, Dong Hyeon Kim, Hyeong Chan Suh, Mun Seok Jeong, Vincent Tung, Ki Kang Kim, Yeong Hwan Ahn, Keekeun Lee, Sungjoo Lee*, Il Jeon*, ACS Nano 20(29) 20530-20542 (2026)
Seed-Assisted Substitutional Doping of the Late 3d-Transition Metals in Transition Metal Dichalcogenides, Enoch Elorm Anthonio, Hang Sik Kim, Balakrishnan Kirubasankar, Jae Woo Kim, Hai Phuong Duong, Hayoung Ko, Sang-Hyeok Yang, Hyung-Jin Kim, Laud Anim Adofo, Andrew Ben-Smith, Soo Ho Choi, Soo Min Kim, Young-Min Kim*, Young-Kyu Han*, Ki Kang Kim*, Advanced Functional Materials, 36(36), e31464 (2026)

2025
Phase-Selective Growth of Violet Phosphorus Crystals via Sn–Bi Flux, Jiwon Kim, Byung Hoon Lee, Soo Ho Choi, Jina Lee, Seungjin Lee, Kamal Kumar Paul, Hyeonbeom Kim, Byeong Wook Cho, Hayoung Ko, Jae Woo Kim, Hang Sik Kim, Taesoo Kim, Dahyun Choi, Min Cheong, Young-Min Kim, Min-Kyu Joo, Soo Min Kim*, Young Hee Lee*, Ki Kang Kim*, ACS Nano 19(44), 38499-38508 (2025)
Large-Area Bright Emission of Plasmon-Coupled Dark Excitons at Room Temperature, Hyun Jeong, Hyeong Chan Suh, Ga Hyun Cho, Huitae Joo, Yeonjeong Koo, Hayoung Ko, Ki Kang Kim, Youngbum Kim, Jeongyong Kim, Kyoung‐Duck Park*, Mun Seok Jeong*, Advanced Science 12, 3, 2411841 (2025)

2024
Van der Waals Multilayered Films: Wafer-Scale Synthesis and Applications in Electronics and Optoelectronics, Seok Joon Yun*, Hayoung Ko, Sunny Park, Byung Hoon Lee, Nahun Kim, Hai Phuong Duong, Yeojin Lee, Soo Min Kim*, Ki Kang Kim*, Advanced Functional Materials 2409458 (2024)
Continuous Template Growth of Large-Scale Tellurene Films on 1T'-MoTe2, Jin Young Park, Min Soo Moon, Heewoo Lee, Dongil Kim, Hajung Park, Jae Woo Kim, Hayoung Ko, Taewoo Ha, Jeongwoo Kim, Young-Mi Bahk, Byoung Hee Moon, Ki Kang Kim, Seung Ryong Park, Soobong Choi, Riya Sebait, Jung Ho Kim, Young Hee Lee*, Gang Hee Han* ACS Nano, 18, 29, 18992-19002 (2024)
Atomic sawtooth-like metal films for vdW-layered single-crystal growth, Hayoung Ko, Soo Ho Choi, Yunjae Park, Seungjin Lee, Chang Seok Oh, Sung Youb Kim, Young Hee Lee, Soo Min Kim*, Feng Ding*, Ki Kang Kim*, Nature Communications 15, 5848 (2024)
Ultraflat hexagonal boron nitride for high-κ dielectric integration, Hayoung Ko, Seungjin Lee & Ki Kang Kim*, Natural Materials 23, 1461-1462 (2024)

2026. Young Vacuum Scientist Award, the Korean Vacuum Society (KVS)
2025. Encouragement Award, BK Department of Energy Science (DoES), SKKU
2024. Convergence Semiconductor Paper award, the Korean Physical Society (KPS)
2024. Outstanding Presentation Award, the Korean Physical Society (KPS)
2024. Best Poster, ACS Nano Summit Symposium 2024 in SKKU
2024. Best Poster, Boron Nitride Workshop 2024 in University of Technology Sydney (UTS)