Jean Joseph Heremans
Professor of Physics
Virginia Tech  ,   Department of Physics
Robeson Hall MC 0435, 910 Drillfield Drive / Room 321
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Tel: 540-231-4604    Fax: 540-231-7511    Email see here
Ph.D.: Princeton University
Teaching
Spring 2013: Graduate Solid State Physics


Research funding past and present, external
NSF CAREER Award
NSF NIRT grant
DOE Basic Energy Sciences grant

Research in the Quantum Transport Lab
Experimental mesoscopic condensed matter physics: electronic, spin-dependent and magnetic properties at the nanoscale

Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Ray Kallaher (now at NIST), graduate students Robert Lillianfeld (PhD, graduated), Yong-Jae Kim and Yao Zhang, undergraduate students Daniel Davis, Joseph Gilpin, and Stefan Green, and Prof. Jean Heremans. Absent from the photo are graduate students Lingling Xu, Shaola Ren, Martin Rudolph, and Qifan Yuan.

• quantum nanoscience with spins: spintronics and quantum information processing in low-dimensional semiconductor systems under strong spin-orbit coupling
• electronic transport in molecular systems and organic semiconductors
• magnetic sensor geometries on high-mobility semiconductors
• nanoscale fabrication techniques

We use two-dimensional electron systems in InAs/AlGaSb and InSb/InAlSb, and thin film InSb, to study spin physics and spintronics under strong spin-orbit coupling in mesoscopic geometries. Example projects are: spin-resolved magnetic focusing, the effect of spin on quantum interference, and spin-dependent reflection. Apart from quantum information processing, InSb and InAs have applications in magnetic sensing due to their high mobility. We also perform experiments on electronic properties of molecular species and organic semiconductors. The lab is equipped with measurement cryostats (helium-three, and variable temperature, magnetic fields to ~10 T), fabrication equipment (electron beam lithography, photolithography, dry etching, thin film deposition), characterization equipment (SEMs, AFM, profilometer, optical microscopes), and equipment for electronic measurements.

	Graduate student Martin Rudolph and kadet Gordon Lott with the semimetals growth chamber.
Quantum interference ring pattern for AAS measurements, by electron beam lithography and RIE on an InAs/AlGaSb heterostructure.
	Quantum interference device, by electron beam lithography and wet etching on an InSb/InAlSb heterostructure.
Gold electrodes on Si/SiO2 fabricated by electron beam lithography using a PMGI/PMMA double layer resist, for nanoscale organic electronics. Electrode gap about 20 nm.

Trajectory

• Ph.D.: Princeton University, 1994
• Post Doc: Florida State University & The National High Magnetic Field Lab
• Research Scientist at the Emcore Corporation (III-V narrow-gap semiconductors)
• Assistant Professor, Ohio University, Department of Physics and Astronomy
• Associate Professor, Ohio University, Department of Physics and Astronomy
• Director of the Nanoscale and Quantum Phenomena Institute, Ohio University
• Associate Professor, Virginia Tech, Department of Physics
• Present: Professor, Virginia Tech, Department of Physics