Joseph A Stroscio (Fed)

Joseph Stroscio is a NIST Fellow and Project Leader in the Nanoscale Processes and Measurements Group in the Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML) at NIST with expertise in quantum nanoscience. He received a B.S. and an M.S. in Physics from the University of Rhode Island, and a Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell University. Joe’s passion in instrument design began during his graduate work in Professor Wilson Ho’s group at Cornell University. Upon leaving Cornell, Joe worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, where he pioneered the development of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy measurements in the mid-1980s when ultra-high vacuum (UHV) scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) was just beginning. During this period, Joe made several ground-breaking scientific achievements. He performed some of the first UHV scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements, which showed that the STM does not simply image atoms but measures the energy-resolved electronic wavefunction probability distributions.  After leaving IBM, Joe joined NIST in 1987 to lead the scanning tunneling microscopy effort in the Electron Physics Group at NIST. At NIST, Joe leads multiple projects in quantum nanoscience, making notable achievements in two-dimensional (2D) quantum materials such as single-layer graphene and related 2D topological materials using his custom-designed scanning probe instruments.

Joe’s ability to advance measurement science stems from his creativity in instrument development. Throughout his career, Joe has had a passion for instrument design, creating some of the most advanced scanning probe microscopes operating in the world today. He has combined his UHV experience with cryogenic techniques to enable measurements in the extreme environments of UHV, ultra-low temperatures, and high magnetic fields. His STM instrument designs involving mK temperatures have opened the door to measurements with µeV resolution, allowing the STM not only to have both exceedingly high spatial and energy resolution. His designs have started a renaissance in STM instrument development, with many laboratories and companies all over the world following his lead. Joe’s recent instrumentation focus has made advances in atomic force microscopy, striving to make the “coolest” AFM in the world, operating at mK temperatures. He recently succeeded in combining atomic force microscopy capability with scanning tunneling microscopy and quantum transport measurements at mK temperatures in a multi-modal instrument that is the state-of-the-art quantum toolbox. His current focus continues the multi-modality theme by adding microwave excitation to the STM and AFM measurement capability for electron and nuclear spin resonance measurements for future quantum information science applications.

Joe is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Physical Society (APS), the American Vacuum Society (AVS). He has received the Arthur S. Flemming Award, the Department of Commerce Silver and Gold Medal Awards, the Sigma Xi Young Scientist Award, the Nano50 Award, the AVS Nanotechnology Recognition Award, and the NIST Samuel Wesley Stratton Award. He is a recipient of the Presidential Rank Award, the Heinrich Rohrer Grand Medal, and the APS Joseph F. Keithley award. He has served on numerous committees of the AVS, APS, and on the Editorial Board of the Review of Scientific Instruments.

Selected Programs/Projects

• Atom Manipulation with the Scanning Tunneling Microscope
• Designing Advanced Scanning Probe Microscopy Instruments
• Probing Graphene Electronic Devices with Atomic Scale Measurements
• Measuring the Magneto-Electronic Properties of Graphene on the Nanometer Scale
• Structure, Defects, and Scattering in Graphene
• Measuring Topological Insulator Surface State Properties

Selected Publications

• A Quantum Ruler for Orbital Magnetism in Moiré Quantum Matter, M. R. Slot, Y. Maximenko, P. M. Haney, S. Kim, D. T. Walkup, E. Strelcov, E. M. Shih, D. Yildiz, S. R. Blankenship, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, Y. Barlas, N. B. Zhitenev, F. Ghahari and J. A. Stroscio, Science 382, 81, (2023)
• Edge Channels of Broken-Symmetry Quantum Hall States in Graphene probed by Atomic Force Microscopy, Sungmin Kim, Johannes Schwenk, Daniel Walkup, Yihang Zeng, Fereshte Ghahari, Son T. Le1, Marlou R. Slot, Julian Berwanger, Steven R. Blankenship, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Franz J. Giessibl, Nikolai B. Zhitenev, Cory R. Dean, and Joseph A. Stroscio, Nature Communications 12, 2852 (2021).
• Achieving µeV Tunneling Resolution in an In-Operando Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy, and Magnetotransport System for Quantum Materials Research (Invited Article), Johannes Schwenk, Sungmin Kim1, Julian Berwanger, Fereshte Ghahari, Daniel Walkup, Marlou R. Slot, Son T. Le1, William G. Cullen, Steven R. Blankenship, Sasa Vranjkovic, Hans J. Hug, Young Kuk, Franz J. Giessibl, and Joseph A. Stroscio, Rev. of Sci. Instr. 91, 071101 (2020).
• An on/off berry phase switch in circular graphene resonators, F. Ghahari, D. Walkup, C. Gutierrez, J. F. Rodriguez-Nieva, Y. Zhao, J. Wyrick, F. D. Natterer, W. G. Cullen, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, L. S. Levitov, N. B. Zhitenev, and J. A. Stroscio, Science 356, 845 (2017).
• Controlling the Dynamics of a Single Atom in Lateral Atom Manipulation, J. A. Stroscio and R. J. Celotta, Science 306(5694), 242-247 (2004).
• Atomic and Molecular Manipulation with the Scanning Tunneling Microscope, J. A. Stroscio and D. M. Eigler, Science 254(5036), 1319-1326 (1991).
• Electronic Structure of the Si(111) 2x1 Surface by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, J. A. Stroscio, R. M. Feenstra, and A. P. Fein, Physical Review Letters 57, 2579 (1986).