group-members.html

Group Members
I. Group Leader II. Current Group Members III. Former Group Members

IV. Visitors V. Scripps (the School of Journalism) Students VI. Group Photos

I. Group Leader
	Dr. Arthur R. Smith, Professor Nanoscale & Quantum Phenomena Institute Department of Physics & Astronomy, Ohio University Contact: phone (740) 597-2576 fax (740) 593-0433 Email: smitha2@ohio.edu

II. Current Group Members
Graduate Students
	Hannah Hall 2nd year Ph.D. student Hannah began working in CRA Lab 102 in summer 2022. She has been learning the techniques of MBE and STM. So far, she has been involved in the research on Mn3Sn (man-tin). She assisted in producing the manuscripts for Sneha's initial results on man-tin. She plans to be involved in our STM studies of these Kagome material surfaces. hh044621@ohio.edu
	Ali Abbas in his 4th year as Ph.D. student Ali began working in the PLD lab in fall 2020. Since end of summer 2022, Ali has been working in Clippinger Lab 151 with Ashok using the MBE/STM system. So far, he has assisted Ashok Shrestha in some of his new projects looking at Mn2N films and Mn3Ga films, and he also started one new project of his own studying Mn3GaN using MBE and STM. Ali worked with Ashok in moving the MBE/STM lab to its new location in the East wing of Clippinger in fall 2022. fa295519@ohio.edu
	Ashok Shrestha in his 5th year as Ph.D. student Ashok joined the lab in spring 2019 and worked with the MBE/STM system on the Fe on CrN study. Ashok has worked on the VT-STM development. He designed a cryogenic heat shield for the system and has been responsible or the overall re-build of the STM head including the scanner. Ashok will also re-build the entire VT-STM system with the help of Ali Abbas. In fall 2022, he and Ali were responsible for moving the lab to its new location in the East wing of Clippinger. Ashok has been working on new projects involving Bi films, MnBi films, and Mn2N films, in addition to assisting with some older works. as521718@ohio.edu
	Tyler Erickson in his 5th year as Ph.D. student Tyler began working in our group in spring 2019 in the LT-STM lab. He made quick progress learning how to handle the MBE-LT-STM system. He also carried out some analysis for the MnGaN-2D project. Recently, Tyler has been deeply involved in the design for all the new tip and sample holders as well as sample handling system including all the sample receptacles and the tip annealing station. Tyler was central to the re-build of the VLT-STM. He is planning to study antiferromagnetic/ ferromagnetic Kagome systems and so far was collaborating on the study of Mn3Sn (man-tin). He has also done some initial experiments to study the Cr-Sn system. te467518@ohio.edu
	Sneha Ramesh Upadhyay in her 7th Year as Ph.D. Student Sneha began working in the group in May 2017. For one year, she performed a project to investigate exchange bias in L10-MnGa/MnN bilayers. Since then, she has mainly been focused on MBE/LVT-STM system development and upgrades. Since summer 2021, she has been studying Mn3Sn (man-tin) and has submitted a first publication on her results. She also attended a couple of conferences in 2022 including NAMBE (Rehoboth) and the AVS International Symposium (Pittsburgh). There she has presented her initial results on man-tin. She is on track for finishing in December 2023. su196516@ohio.edu
Undergraduate Students
	Tom Mcgraw, undergraduate student Tom is working on the PLD system project since summer 2019. He has participated in assembling the new PLD chamber and has worked on various components including the excimer laser, the target wheel, and the growth manipulator.
	Jason Tischler, undergraduate student Jason is working on the PLD system project since summer 2019. He has participated in assembling the new PLD chamber and has worked on various components including the excimer laser, the target wheel, and the growth manipulator.
	Technical Staff
	Doug Shafer Mechanical System Technician Room: Clippinger 001 Email: shaferd@ohio.edu
	Mike Myers Mechanical System Technician Room: Clippinger 001 Email: myersm4@ohio.edu
	Todd Koren Research Electronic Design Specialist and NQPI Technician Room: Clippinger 001 Email: koren@ohio.edu

III. Former Group Members Information about Former Students
	Shyam Chauhan	Shyam Chauhan, graduate student spring 2018 - spring 2020 Shyam worked with the MBE/STM system in Lab 151 and explored the growth and properties of CrN and Fe/CrN surfaces. E-mail: sc941717@ohio.edu
	Kelsey Turner	Kelsey Turner, undergraduate student Summer 2018 Kelsey worked with the AFM/ MFM system along with training to operate the MBE/ SP-STM system. She also participated in a summer science outreach program for junior high school students.
	Alexandra Semposki	Alexandra Semposki, undergraduate student, graduated spring 2019 Summer 2017 thru Summer 2018 Alexandra worked with the PLD system. She is also designed a full-fledged PLD chamber capable of multi-layer film growth at elevated or cryogenic substrate temperatures. Her chamber also includes ports for RHEED and a load-lock chamber, as well as the possibility of adding a UHV STM system.
	Yingqiao Ma	Yingqiao Ma, Ph.D. 2018. Yingqiao focused his investigations on the study of MnGaN-2D, a two-dimensional material made from Mn on the surface of GaN. This novel structure turns out to be ferromagnetic at room temperature. Yingqiao investigated this material using spin-polarized STM and discovered 2 sharp peaks in density of states, which, according to first-principles theory should be spin-polarized Mn peaks. Imaging the surface with magnetic STM tips resulted in magnetic images and revealed the domain structure of the surface. By applying increasing magnetic fields on the sample during imaging, Yingqiao mapped out the hysteresis loop using the SP-STM images. Many additional studies were also carried out for this material, including a study of the strain dependent magnetism of the surface as well as the robustness of the magnetism of the MnGaN-2D structure. After graduation in December 2018, Yingqiao returned to China for most of 2019. His next move however is to become a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hamburg working with Professor Dr. Roland Wiesendanger. E-mail: ym788111@ohio.edu
	Zakia Alhashem	Zakia Alhashem, Ph.D. 2018. Zakia made careful STM measurements of several different structures during her PhD. work including N-polar GaN(0001) surfaces, MnGa quantum size effect (QSE) islands on N-polar GaN surfaces, and Mn3N2 (010) surfaces. She determined a model structure for the trench-line structure on N-polar GaN which is based on sub-units of the c(6x12) reconstruction, investigated in detail the MnGa QSE islands, and found interesting new phenomena on the Mn3N2 (010) surfaces. Zakia obtained very high resolution images in her experiments. In addition, she also developed procedures for operation of our reflection high energy electron loss spectroscopy (RHEELS) system. Graduating in summer 2018, Zakia returned to Saudi Arabia with her family where she begins her life as a new Assistant Professor at King Faisal University.
	Joseph Perry Corbett	Joseph Perry Corbett, Ph.D. 2018. Perry investigated the properties of MnGa layers grown on Mn3N2 (001) substrates and their interfaces, finding exchange bias as well as perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. He further studied the detailed atomic structure of the MnGa (001) surfaces, finding 2 reconstructions on that surface. Using sp-stm, he investigated the surface of Cr (001) finding evidence for a 2x-reconstructed surface as well as layer-wise antiferromagnetism with at least 3 different in-plane anisotropies. Besides this, he also developed a novel STM tip-etching procedure and fabrication procedures for making effusion cells.
	Andrew Foley	Andrew Foley, Ph.D. 2017. Andrew carried out a series of important experiments, making use of our molecular beam epitaxy/low-temperature, spin-polarized STM system. He co-authored a publication in Nano Letters on the topic of native gallium adatoms on the GaN(0001) c(6x12) surface reconstruction. He also carried out a series of experiments aimed at the Ga-polar GaN surface, but his main work concentrated on the study of several phases of manganese nitride including the epsilon, eta, and zeta phases. His studies of epsilon-phase Mn4N have demonstrated its ferrimagnetic properties and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy on top of MgO(001). Andrew determined the key components of the PMA in these Mn4N layers and ultra-thin films.
	Khan Alam	Khan Alam, Ph.D. 2016. Khan carried out investigations of gallium nitride surfaces, chromium nitride layers and surfaces, and Fe/CrN bilayers and Fe islands on CrN surfaces. He has a first author publication in Nano Letters on the topic of native gallium adatoms on GaN(0001) c(6x12). He has several forth-coming articles on topics related to the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of CrN and Fe/CrN bilayer systems. Khan received his Ph.D. in December 2016 and began a postdoctoral position at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory. $12) surfaces, and he has carried out important studies of the fundamental magnetic properties of chromium nitride with several forth-coming$
	Jack Bruno	Jack Bruno, undergraduate student, graduated Summer 2016 Jack took over the pulsed laser deposition system project at the point where Yonry left off. With shop help, he added the necessary gases and gas lines and was able to test fire the laser. He also aligned the laser with a target in the vacuum chamber, and he then pulse laser deposited our first PLD films of Mn, Fe, Cr, and Gd. Jack had the depositions quantified using Rutherford backscattering, and he used that to determine the amount of material deposited per laser pulse for the various materials he studied.
	Andrada-Oana Mandru	Andrada Mandru, Ph.D. 2016. Prior to joining Prof. Smith’s group, Andrada obtained her MS degree from University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where she studied Fe-Ga-Ge magnetostrictive alloys using resonant ultrasound spectroscopy. Andrada’s Ph.D. studies involve a combination of molecular beam epitaxy and scanning tunneling microscopy, used to grow and investigate mainly magnetic samples (like the different phases of ferromagnetic manganese gallium and antiferromagnetic manganese nitrides). These materials are of high technological importance in the fields of spintronics and magnetic recording, when grown on a semiconductor (like gallium nitride) and/or doped with various magnetic atoms (like iron and chromium). After remaining in Athens a few more months as a short term postdoctoral scholar, Andrada took a new postdoctoral position in Switzerland at EMPA - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, located in Dubendorf.
	Benjamin Hirt	Summer 2015 Ben worked on developing a Halbach array, together with Perry Corbett, in order to create a strong permanent magnetic field for application to measurements to be performed on magnetic thin films grown by MBE in our lab.
	Yonry Zhu	Summer 2014 and 2015 Yonry worked on our pulsed laser deposition system. He designed and constructed a laser tube incorporating a stepper motor which can raster the laser beam across a target, and he developed a small vacuum chamber system including a target on a rotating stepper motor, a sample holder, a turbo pump, a gauge, and a viewport.
	Jeongihm Pak	Dr. Pak, group member from 2007 to 2015. Jeongihm was a Research Assistant Professor. In summer 2015, she decided to make a life change and move to Columbus, Ohio with her family, accepting a new job with Chemical Abstracts Service in Columbus Ohio, a division of the American Chemical Society.
	Thomas Riley	Thomas (Tad) Riley worked in the group for 2 summers (2013 and 2014), working with the AFM/MFM system.
	Hamad Al-Brithen	Hamad Al-Brithen, Ph.D. 2004. Hamad and his family live in Saudia Arabia where he is a Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at King Saud University, and also associated with the King Abdulah Institute for Nanotechnology at the same University as well as the National Center for Nano Technology at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, all in Riyadh.
	Costel Constantin	Costel Constantin, Ph.D. 2005. Costel is an Associate Professor of Physics at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, where he lives with his wife Anca (also an Associate Professor at JMU, in Astrophysics) and daughter Mia. Costel focuses his research interests on understanding the thermal, electrical, and structural properties of surface-engineered complex materials.
	Muhammad Haider	Muhammad Baseer Haider, Ph.D. 2005. Muhammad lives with his wife and their 2 children in Dhahran, Saudia Arabia where he is an Assistant Professor of Physics at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). Prior to his appointment at KFUPM in 2009, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow under a joint appointment of the University of Alberta and the National Institute for Nanotechnology, Edmonton, Canada.
	Rong Yang	Rong Yang, Ph.D. 2006. Rong lives in Beijing with her husband Wei and son Lingyu and is a full professor at the National Center for Nanoscience & Technology, China. She is working on the interdisciplinary research linking materials, physics, chemistry and biology. Her research includes preparation, characterization and biomedical applications of semiconductor nanomaterials. She has published more than 40 papers in academic journals such as Phys. Rev. B, Phys. Rev. Lett., Appl. Phys. Lett., ACS Nano, and ACS Appl. Mat. Interface.
	Haiqiang Yang	Postdoc ('00-'02)
	Erdong Lu	Postdoc ('04-'07)
	Yinghao Liu	Postdoc ('08-'10)
	Wenzhi Lin	Wenzhi Lin, Ph.D. 2011. Wenzhi and his family live in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Wenzhi is presently a postdoctoral research associate at Los Alamos National Laboratory. His research interest is focused on using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy to explore photophysics of semiconductor nanocrystals with an emphasis on applications in solar energy conversion and light-emitting devices.
	Kangkang Wang	Kangkang Wang, Ph.D. 2011. Kangkang currently lives in the San Francisco bay area and works at Seagate Technology. At Seagate, Kangkang is working towards extending the magnetic recording technology into the future, by focusing on the magnetic characterization of media and studying the recording physics.
	Abhijit Chinchore	Abhijit Vijay Chinchore, PhD 2011. Abhijit works in Intel as Logic Technology Development Engineer. Intel's 'Product Technology Development' center is located in Hillsboro, Oregon, this is where all the research and the initial development for the next generation chips takes place. It is here that Engineers test their knowledge and abilities to challenge the physical limits to attain the next rung in the Moore's law ladder. Oregon offers an incredible platform for outdoors enthusiasts like Abhijit. The Cascade's offer beautiful scenic views all throughout the year. They serve as skiing grounds in winter and hiking trails in the summer. The coastline is equally beautiful, the scenic highway that runs alongside the pacific coastline offers heavenly views.
	Meng Shi	M.S. Physics, Summer '13
	Tianjiao Chen	Tianjiao Chen, B.S. Physics & B.E. Mechanical Engineering, 2011. Tianjiao went on to obtain her M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, graduating from MIT in 2013. She has a patent for a rotary-bed reactor design that applies the chemical looping combustion technology. She currently lives in Wilton, CT and is a design engineer working for ASML, a major provider of lithography systems for the semiconductor industry.
	Daniel Bergman	Daniel Bergman, Bachelors of Applied Physics 2011. After graduating from Ohio University Daniel went to the University of Toledo and acquired a Masters of Science Professional of Photovoltaics degree in 2013. He currently lives in Toledo with his fiance and works at First Solar in their Quality and Reliability department testing the long term reliability of their thin film solar module.
	Alan Savage	*B.S. Physics, May '13* *Ohio State University Graduate School, Sep. '13*
	SooHyun Huang	*B.S. Physics*
	Jeremy Dennison	*Former Mechanical System Technician, Jan. '12*

IV. Visitors
Visiting Scholars and Students
	Rodrigo Ponce Perez Visiting Graduate Student, September 2015 - August 2016 (from Centro de Nanociencias y Nanotecnologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico) E-mail: guerrero@ifuap.buap.mx
	Jonathan Guerrero Sanchez Visiting Graduate Student, September 2013 - August 2014 (from Centro de Nanociencias y Nanotecnologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico) E-mail: guerrero@ifuap.buap.mx
	Reyes Garcia-Diaz Visiting Graduate Student, September 2011 - August 2012 (from Centro de Nanociencias y Nanotecnologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico) E-mail: reyesgd@ifuap.buap.mx
	Milo Swinkels Visiting Graduate Student, Fall 2011 (from Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Netherlands) Research Interest: Nanophotonics, Quantum Electrodynamics, Atomic Layer Growth Email: m.y.swinkels@student.tue.nl
	Dr. Noboru Takeuchi, Professor Collaborator, Visiting Scholar, September 2010 - August 2011 (from Centro de Nanociencias y Nanotecnologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico) Email: takeuchi@cnyn.unam.mx Link to Personal Webpage

V. Scripps (the School of Journalism) Students
Angie Faller	'13-'14
Emma Dean	'12-'13
Ben White	'11-'12
Audrey Rabalais	'10-'11
Alyse Zimmer	'09-'10
Jenna Miller	'09-'10
Amy Wright	'08-'09
Emily Hubbell	'08-'10
Kristina Davis	'07-'08
Stephanie Laird	'07-'08
Liz Leitch	'06-'07
Sam Stephens	'05-'06
Christopher Gohlke	'05-'06
Suzanne Wilder	'04-'05
Lauren Van Arsdale	'04-'05
Elizabeth Weinstein	'04-'05
Sarah Laubacher	'03-'05
Anita Martin	'03-'04