Research interests
My main research interest is the physics of low-dimensional systems. Using a combination of scanning probe microscopies and low-temperature magneto-transport, we investigate quantum effects (quantum Hall effect, weak localization, anisotropic magneto-transport, Josephson junctions) and surface phenomena relevant for applications (hydrogen storage, defect characterization, surface functionalization, metal intercalation) in III-V 2DEGs, graphene, and exfoliated few-layer black phosphorus.
Biographical sketch
Stefan Heun received his diploma in physics in 1989 from the University of Hannover (Germany), where he investigated, in the group of Prof. M. Henzler, the initial stages of epitaxial growth of silicon on Si(100). In 1993 he received his Ph.D. in the same group, working on the magnetoconductivity of monolayer-thin films of Ag, Pb, and Au deposited on Si(111).
In 1993 he joined the Interdisciplinary Research Laboratories of the Japanese Telecom NTT in Tokyo (Japan), where he studied the surface passivation of III-V semiconductors using synchrotron radiation.
In 1995 he moved as a TMR Marie Curie research fellow of the Commission of the European Community to the Materials Division of the TASC lab in Trieste (Italy), where he worked on the engineering of heterostructure interfaces.
In 1997 he became a beam line scientist at the Sincrotrone Trieste, where he was appointed responsible of the Nanospectroscopy Beamline, at which he also performed his research on low-dimensional systems.
Finally, in 2004 he joined the CNR as a senior scientist, first at TASC in Trieste and since October 2006 at NEST in Pisa (Italy). In these last years his work focuses on the use of scanning probe microscopy, in particular scanning gate microscopy (SGM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), for the study of semiconductor and graphene nanostructures.
Stefan Heun has co-authored more than 150 papers and has given more than 110 invited presentations and seminars. To date (November 2018) his papers have been cited over 2700 times. h-index: 28. He is Contract Professor at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (Italy) where he teaches on Nanostructured Materials.
Selected publications
A. Kumar, F. Telesio, S. Forti, A. Al-Temimy, C. Coletti, M. Serrano-Ruiz, M. Caporali, M. Peruzzini, F. Beltram, and S. Heun: STM study of exfoliated few layer black phosphorus annealed in ultrahigh vacuum, 2D Mater. 6 (2019) 015005.
Y. Murata, A. Calzolari, and S. Heun: Tuning hydrogen adsorption on graphene by gate voltage, J. Phys. Chem. C 122 (2018) 11591.
L. Basta, S. Veronesi, Y. Murata, Z. Dubois, N. Mishra, F. Fabbri, C. Coletti, and S. Heun: A sensitive calorimetric technique to study energy (heat) exchange at the nano-scale, Nanoscale 10 (2018) 10079.
F. Telesio, E. Passaglia, F. Cicogna, F. Costantino, M. Serrano-Ruiz, M. Peruzzini, and S. Heun: Hybrid nanocomposites of 2D black phosphorus nanosheets encapsulated in PMMA polymer material: new platforms for advanced device fabrication, Nanotechnology 29 (2018) 295601.
Y. Murata, T. Cavallucci, V. Tozzini, N. Pavlicek, L. Gross, G. Meyer, M. Takamura, H. Hibino, F. Beltram, and S. Heun: Atomic and electronic structure of Si dangling bonds in quasi-free standing monolayer graphene, Nano Research 11 (2018) 864 – 873.
L. Bours, S. Guiducci, A. Mrenca-Kolasinska, B. Szafran, J. C. Maan, and S. Heun: Manipulating quantum Hall edge channels in graphene through scanning gate microscopy, Phys. Rev. B 96 (2017) 195423.
S. Fiori, Y. Murata, S. Veronesi, A. Rossi, C. Coletti, and S. Heun: Li-intercalated graphene on SiC(0001): An STM study, Phys. Rev. B 96 (2017) 125429.
N. Hemsworth, V. Tayari, F. Telesio, S. Xiang, S. Roddaro, M. Caporali, A. Ienco, M. Serrano-Ruiz, M. Peruzzini, G. Gervais, T. Szkopek, and S. Heun: Dephasing in strongly anisotropic black phosphorus, Phys. Rev. B 94, 245404 (2016).
S. Xiang, A. Mrenca-Kolasinska, V. Miseikis, S. Guiducci, K. Kolasinski, C. Coletti, B. Szafran, F. Beltram, S. Roddaro, and S. Heun: Interedge backscattering in buried split-gate-defined graphene quantum point contacts, Phys. Rev. B 94, 155446 (2016).
K. Takahashi, S. Isobe, K. Omori, T. Mashoff, D. Convertino, V. Miseikis, C. Coletti, V. Tozzini, and S. Heun: Revealing the multibonding state between hydrogen and graphene-supported Ti clusters, J. Phys. Chem. C 120 (2016) 12974 – 12979.