UCL Chemistry

• Magnetic Nanostructures
• Dopants in Semiconductors
• Low Dimensional Quantum Systems
• Atomic and Molecular Electronics and Spintronics
• Many-body quantum phenomena, including quantum Hall effects and Kondo screening

My group's research focuses on understanding the electronic and magnetic properties of nanoscale structures and exploring how they might be used to make the smallest possible devices for information processing, data storage, and sensing. The primary tools that we use are low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopes. These state-of-the art instruments allow us to image individual atoms and molecules on surfaces; probe their structural, electronic, and magnetic properties; and even arrange them into new configurations.

You can find out more by visiting the Hirjibehedin Research Group.

Studying atomic scale structural and electronic properties of ion implanted silicon samples using cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy
Philipp Studer, Steven R. Schofield, Cyrus F. Hirjibehedin, and Neil J. Curson
Applied Physics Letters 102, 012107 (2013)

Site-Dependent Ambipolar Charge States Induced by Group V Atoms in a Silicon Surface
Philipp Studer, Veronika Brázdová, Steven R. Schofield, David R. Bowler, Cyrus F. Hirjibehedin, and Neil J. Curson
ACS Nano 6, 10456 (2012)

Spin crossover materials evaporated in clean high vacuum and ultra-high vacuum conditions: from thin films to single molecules
Tatiana Palamarciuc, Jenny C. Oberg, Fadi El Hallak, Cyrus F. Hirjibehedin, Michele Serrie, Sandrine Heutz, Jean-François Létarda, and Patrick Rosa
Journal of Materials Chemistry 22, 9690 (2012)

Charge-density waves in the graphene sheets of the superconductor CaC6
K.C. Rahnejat, C.A. Howard, N.E. Shuttleworth, S.R. Schofield, K. Iwaya, C.F. Hirjibehedin, Ch. Renner, G. Aeppli, and M. Ellerby
Nature Communications 2, 558 (2011)

Model system for controlling strain in silicon at the atomic scale
P. Studer, S.R. Schofield, G. Lever, D.R. Bowler, C.F. Hirjibehedin, and N.J. Curson
Physical Review B 84, 041306R (2011)

Spin excitations of a Kondo-screened atom coupled to a second magnetic atom
A.F. Otte, M. Ternes, S. Loth, C.P. Lutz, C.F. Hirjibehedin, and A.J. Heinrich
Physical Review Letters 103, 107203 (2009)

The role of magnetic anisotropy in the Kondo effect
Alexander F. Otte, Markus Ternes, Kirsten von Bergmann, Sebastian Loth, Harald Brune, Christopher P. Lutz, Cyrus F. Hirjibehedin, and Andreas J. Heinrich
Nature Physics, 4, 847 (2008)

The Force Needed to Move an Atom on a Surface
Markus Ternes, Christopher P. Lutz, Cyrus F. Hirjibehedin, Franz J. Giessibl, Andreas J. Heinrich
Science 319, 1066 (2008)

Large Magnetic Anisotropy of a Single Atomic Spin Embedded in a Surface Molecular Network
Cyrus F. Hirjibehedin, Chiung-Yuan Lin, Alexander F. Otte, Markus Ternes, Christopher P. Lutz, Barbara A. Jones, Andreas J. Heinrich
Science 317, 1199 (2007)

Spin-Coupling in Engineered Atomic Structures
Cyrus F. Hirjibehedin, Christopher P. Lutz, Andreas J. Heinrich
Science 312, 1021 (2006)

Cyrus F. Hirjibehedin is a Lecturer (the UK equivalent of an Assistant Professor) in the Departments of Physics & Astronomy and Chemistry at University College London (UCL) and is a Principal Investigator at the London Centre for Nanotechnology.  His group's research is focused on understanding the electronic and magnetic properties of nanometer-scale structures and exploring their potential applications in future paradigms of information processing, data storage, and sensing.  The primary tools that he uses for his research are low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopes, some of which operate in high magnetic fields.  These systems are able to image, manipulate, and probe structures on surfaces at the scale of individual atoms.

Dr Hirjibehedin received a B.S. in both Physics and Computer Science from Stanford University in 1997, after which he earned a Ph.D. in Physics from Columbia University in 2004.  His dissertation research – conducted at both Columbia and Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies under the guidance of Professor Aron Pinczuk – was a study of novel interaction effects in low dimensional electron systems formed in semiconductor quantum structures.

In 2004, Dr Hirjibehedin became a postdoctoral Research Staff Member at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in the Low-Temperature Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Group.  Working with Drs. Don Eigler and Andreas Heinrich, he used the atom-manipulation and spin-excitation-spectroscopy capabilities of a low-temperature high-field scanning tunneling microscope to study the onset of cooperative magnetic behavior in atomically-precise low-dimensional structures.

Career History

• Lecturer, Departments of Physics & Astronomy and Chemistry, UCL (2007-present)
• Principal Investigator, London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL (2007-present)
• Postdoctoral Scientist, IBM Almaden Research Center (2004-2007)
• Graduate Research Assistant, Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies (1998-2004)

Education

• Ph.D. in Physics, Columbia University (2004)
• M.Phil. in Physics, Columbia University (2000)
• M.A. in Physics, Columbia University (1999)
• B.S. in Physics and Computer Science, Stanford University (1997)

Awards and Honors

• Outstanding Innovation Award, IBM Almaden Research Center (2007)
• Bravo Team Award, IBM Almaden Research Center (2006)
• Charles Townes Fellow, Columbia University (2003)
• Jerry Selvaggi Scholar, Columbia University (2002)
• Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAAN) Fellowship, Columbia University (1999-2001)
• David Starr Jordan Scholar, Stanford University (1993)

External Advisory Boards

• Member of the Scientific Committee of the Advanced Microscopy Laboratory, Zaragoza, Spain

Memberships

• American Physical Society
• Institute of Physics