Arthur Smith

Professor (Physics and Astronomy)


Office: Clippinger 165
Telephone: 740-597-2576
Fax: 740-593-0433
Email: smitha2@ohio.edu

The Smith Lab research group focuses on surfaces and interfaces of magnetic and spintronic materials.  This includes ferromagnetic layers as well as antiferromagnetic layers on semiconductor and oxide substrates. The general approach of the research is to grow the magnetic layers using epitaxial growth techniques like molecular beam epitaxy, and then to transfer the as-grown samples into an adjoining scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) facility. With STM we perform the investigation of the clean surface structure of the material.

In order to study the magnetic properties of surfaces with sub-nanometer scale spatial resolution, we utilize the technique of spin-polarized (SP)-STM.  SP-STM is a powerful method for obtaining spin (magnetic) resolution on surfaces down to even the atomic scale, as we have demonstrated on antiferromagnetic manganese nitride. We imaged the Mn3N2 (010) surface using magnetic-coated STM tips and were able to resolve the alternating magnetization of the atomic row structure of the surface.

We apply STM and SP-STM to a wide variety of materials that may find use in 'spintronics' - a new kind of electronics making use of the spin, as much as the charge, of the electron. For example, we have investigated the surface of magnetic-doped gallium nitride, including Cr-doped GaN and Mn-doped GaN.  These materials may allow the achievement of room-temperature ferromagnetism in semiconductors and could be important for room-temperature spintronic devices.

We have also investigated the growth of ferromagnetic layers on gallium nitride for spintronics, including recently the successful growth of d-MnGa/GaN.  Delta-phase manganese gallium (d-MnGa) is a ferromagnet with high magnetic moment. Furthermore, we found that d-MnGa has an ideal epitaxial matching relationship to GaN and that the magnetization of the d-MnGa layer can be controlled by monitoring the reconstruction during growth.

In addition to studies of magnetic-related materials for nanomagnetism and nanospintronics applications, the Smith group also investigates nitride surfaces in general. Transition metal nitrides form a very interesting group of materials ranging from metallic to semiconducting, magnetic to non-magnetic. Their surfaces are equally interesting, as we have shown in the cases of scandium nitride, manganese nitride, and chromium nitride.

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i. Education

  • Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO                        Physics             B.S.           1987
  • University of Texas at Austin                              Physics             Ph.D.       1995
  • Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA          Physics             Post-Doc   1996 - 1998

ii. Appointments

  • Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, Athens, OH, 2003-present.
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, Athens, OH, 1998-2003.

iii. Publications

a. Closely related to this project

  1. Reconstruction Control of Magnetic Properties during Epitaxial Growth of Ferromagnetic Mn3-dGa on Wurtzite GaN(0001), Erdong Lu, David C. Ingram, Arthur R. Smith, J. W. Knepper, and F. Y. Yang, Physical Review Letters 97, 146101 (2006).
  2. Energy-dependent contrast in atomic-scale spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy of Mn3N2(010): Experiment and first-principles theory, Rong Yang, Haiqiang Yang, Arthur R. Smith, Alexey Dick, and Joerg Neugebauer, Physical Review B 74, 115409 (2006).
  3. Recent Advances in Atomic-Scale Spin-Polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, Arthur R. Smith,  Rong Yang, Haiqiang Yang, Alexey Dick, Joerg Neugebauer, Walter R. L. Lambrecht, Microscopy Research & Technique 66(2-3), 72 (2005).
  4. Aspects of Spin-Polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscopy at the Atomic Scale: Experiment, Theory, and Simulation, Arthur R. Smith, Rong Yang, Haiqiang Yang, Walter R. L. Lambrecht, Alexey Dick, and Joerg Neugebauer, Surface Science 561(2-3), 154 (2004).
  5. Atomic-Scale Spin-Polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Applied To Mn3N2 (010), Haiqiang Yang, Arthur R. Smith, Margarita Prikhodko, and Walter R. L. Lambrecht, Physical Review Letters 89, 226101 (2002).

b.   Other significant publications

  1. Atomic-Scale Spin-Polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy: a Review, Arthur R. Smith, Journal of Scanning Probe Microscopy 1(1), 3 (2006).
  2. Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Surface Simulation of Zinc-Blende GaN(001) Intrinsic 4x Reconstruction: Linear Gallium Tetramers?, Hamad A. H. AL-Brithen, Rong Yang, Muhammad B. Haider, Costel Constantin, Erdong Lu, Arthur R. Smith, Nancy Sandler, and Pablo Ordejon, Physical Review Letters 95, 146102 (2005).
  3. Ga/N Flux Ratio Influence on Mn Incorporation, Surface Morphology, and Lattice Polarity During Radio Frequency Molecular Beam Epitaxy of (Ga,Mn)N, Muhammad B. Haider, Costel Constantin, Hamad Al-Brithen, Haiqiang Yang, Eugen Trifan, David Ingram, Arthur R. Smith, C. V. Kelly and Y. Ijiri, Journal of Applied Physics 93(9), 5274 (2003).
  4. Reconstructions of the GaN(000-1) Surface, A. R. Smith, R. M. Feenstra, D. W. Greve, J. Neugebauer, and J. E. Northrup, Physical Review Letters 79, 3934 (1997).
  5. Formation of Atomically Flat Silver Films on GaAs with a “Silver Mean” Quasi Periodicity, A. R. Smith, K.-J. Chao, Q. Niu, and C.-K. Shih, Science 273, 226 (1996).

iv.  Synergistic Activities

  • Reaching out to K-12 (e.g. through K-12 presentations & activities, such as nanoscience essay writing contests) supported by an NSF NIRT award (http://nsnm.phy.ohiou.edu/).
  • Training the next generation of science journalists from the Scripps School of Journalism through selective nanoscience-writing internships (see article: http://nsnm.phy.ohiou.edu/educ_spin.php).
  • Serving as an Executive Committee Member of the American Vacuum Society’s Magnetic Interfaces & Nanostructures Division (MIND), beginning Fall 2005.
  • Directing Ohio University’s Nanoscale and Quantum Phenomena Institute (NQPI), established in 2001 and now having 26 faculty members across 7 Departments and 2 Colleges.
  • Expanding our understanding of electronic and magnetic nitrides’ surface structure (i.e. to date, the surface structures of w-GaN, c-GaN, ScN, MnN, Mn3N2, CrN, MnGaN, CrGaN, and MnScN).

v.  Collaborators and Other Affiliations

a.   Collaborators

  • Dr. Julie Borchers, (NIST, Gaithersburg, MD)
  • Dr. Ronald Cappelletti (NIST, Gaithersburg, MD
  • Dr. Daniel Gall (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY)
  • Dr. Saw-Wai Hla (Ohio University, Athens, OH)
  • Dr. Yumi Ijiri (Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH)
  • Dr. David Ingram (Ohio University, Athens, OH)
  • Dr. Walter Lambrecht (Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH)
  • Dr. John Markert (University of Texas at Austin)
  • Dr. Joerg Neugebauer (Fritz-Haber Institute, Berlin, Germany)
  • Dr. Charles J. O’Connor (University of New Orleans)
  • Dr. Pablo Ordejon (ICMAB – CSIC, Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain)
  • Dr. Toshio Sakurai (Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan)
  • Dr. Nitin Samarth (Pennsylvania State University)
  • Dr. Nancy Sandler (Ohio University, Athens, OH)
  • Dr. Kai Sun (University of Michigan at Ann Arbor)
  • Dr. Sergio Ulloa (Ohio University, Athens, OH)
  • Dr. Mark Vaudin (NIST, Gaithersburg, MD)
  • Dr. Fengyuan Yang (Ohio State University, Columbus, OH)

b.   Graduate and Postdoctoral Advisors

  • Dr. Randall Feenstra, postdoctoral advisor (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA)
  • Dr. Chih-Kang Shih, Ph. D. thesis advisor (University of Texas at Austin)

c.   Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars Advised

Graduate Students

  • Hamad Al-Brithen – graduated w Ph.D. Fall ’04 (Ohio University)
  • Muhammad Haider – graduated w Ph.D. Fall ’05 (Ohio University)
  • Costel Constantin – graduated w Ph.D. Fall ’05 (Ohio University)
  • Rong Yang – graduated w Ph.D. Summer ’06 (Ohio University)
  • Wenzhi Lin, Kangkang Wang, Abhijit Chinchore, current Ph.D. students (Ohio University)

Postdoctoral Scholars

  • Dr. Erdong Lu, June 2004 to present (Ohio University)
  • Dr. Haiqiang Yang, September 2000 – December 2002 (Ohio University)
Posted on Sat, January 1, 1983 by Clayton Burnett