Contact info

ResearcherID: B-1850-2009

Life story

Steve Erwin received his A.B. in Physics from Harvard University in 1982, then temporarily left the East Coast to receive a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1988. His thesis advisor there was C.C. Lin, and his dissertation was on the development and application of density-functional theory to the electronic structure of solids. He returned east to the Naval Research Laboratory as a National Research Council postdoctoral associate from 1988-90, working with Warren Pickett on electronic-structure calculations of semiconductor/metal interfaces. From 1990-94 he was a Research Associate in the Department of Physics at the University of Pennsylvania, working mostly with Gene Mele to study the C₆₀ fullerides. Steve returned to NRL in 1994 as a government employee with his own desk and pushbutton telephone. From 1998-99 he was an Alexander von Humboldt research fellow at the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin, working in the Theory Department with the group of Matthias Scheffler. Since 2005 he has been the head of the Theory of Advanced Functional Materials Section in the Center for Computational Materials Science at NRL.

Research

• Magnetism in semiconductors (see details here)
• Nanocrystals & quantum dots (see details here)
• Surfaces & interfaces (see details here)
• Fullerides (now just as a spectator)

Selected papers

• Magnetism in semiconductors
  • Intrinsic magnetism at silicon surfaces   S.C. Erwin and F.J. Himpsel. Nature Communications (August 24, 2010)
    • Press release at NRL's website
  • Making Mn Substitutional Impurities in InAs Using a Scanning Tunneling Microscope  Y.J. Song, S.C. Erwin, G.M. Rutter, P.N. First, N.B. Zhitenev, and J.A. Stroscio. Nano Letters (September 29, 2009)
    
    • Press release at NIST's website
  • Thermodynamics of Carrier-Mediated Ferromagnetism in Semiconductors  A.G. Petukhov, I. Zutic, and S.C. Erwin. Physical Review Letters (December 21, 2007)
    
  • Spin Injection and Detection in Silicon  I. Zutic, J. Fabian, and S.C. Erwin. Physical Review Letters (July 14, 2006)
    
  • Determination of Interface Atomic Structure and Its Impact on Spin Transport Using Z-Contrast Microscopy and Density-Functional Theory.    T.J. Zega, A.T. Hanbicki, S.C. Erwin, I. Zutic, G. Kioseoglou, C.H. Li, B.T. Jonker, and R.M. Stroud. Physical Review Letters (May 16, 2006)
  • Tailoring ferromagnetic chalcopyrites  S.C. Erwin and I. Zutic. Nature Materials (June 6, 2004) [see also this News and Views article by S. Picozzi]
    
  • Cross-sectional STM of Mn-doped GaAs: Theory and experiment  J.M. Sullivan, G.I. Boishin, L.J. Whitman, A.T. Hanbicki, B.T. Jonker, and S.C. Erwin. Physical Review B (December 23, 2003)
    
  • Predicted absence of ferromagnetism in manganese-doped diamond  S.C. Erwin and C.S. Hellberg. Physical Review B (December 30, 2003)
    
  • Theory of dopants and defects in Co-doped TiO2 anatase   J.M. Sullivan and S.C. Erwin. Physical Review B (April 18, 2003)
    
  • Self-Compensation in Manganese-Doped Ferromagnetic Semiconductors   S.C. Erwin and A.G. Petukhov. Physical Review Letters (November 25, 2002)
    
  • First-principles study of nucleation, growth, and interface structure of Fe/GaAs  S.C. Erwin, S.-H. Lee, and M. Scheffler. Physical Review B (May 22, 2002)
    
  • A Group-IV Ferromagnetic Semiconductor: Mn(x)Ge(1-x)  Y.D. Park, A. Hanbicki, S.C. Erwin, C.S. Hellberg, J.M. Sullivan, J.E. Mattson, T.F. Ambrose, A. Wilson, G. Spanos, and B.T. Jonker. Science (January 25, 2002)
    
  
  
• Nanocrystals & quantum dots
  • Doping PbSe nanocrystals: Predictions based on a trapped-dopant model   S.C. Erwin. Physical Review B (June 25, 2010)
  • Trapped-Dopant Model of Doping in Semiconductor Nanocrystals  M.-H. Du, S.C. Erwin, and Al.L. Efros. Nano Letters (August 5, 2008)
  • Doped Nanocrystals  D.J. Norris, Al.L. Efros, and S.C. Erwin. Science (March 27, 2008) [review article]
  • Comment on "Self-Purification in Semiconductor Nanocrystals"   M.-H. Du, S.C. Erwin, Al. L. Efros, and D.J. Norris. Physical Review Letters (May 2, 2008)
  • Spin doctors play with single electrons  S.C. Erwin. Nature Nanotechnology News & Views (November 2006)
  • Impact of Ripening on Manganese-Doped ZnSe Nanocrystals   L. Zu, D.J. Norris, T.A. Kennedy, S.C. Erwin, and Al.L. Efros. Nano Letters (December 31, 2005)
  • Doping semiconductor nanocrystals  S.C. Erwin, L. Zu, M.I. Haftel, Al.L. Efros, T.A. Kennedy, and D.J. Norris. Nature (July 7, 2005)
    • News and Views article by G. Galli
    • Press coverage in Chemical and Engineering News, nanotechweb, pro-physik.de [in German], Il Sole 24 Ore [in Italian], Science News
  
  
• Semiconductor surfaces
  • Epitaxial Interfaces Between Crystallographically Mismatched Materials   S.C. Erwin, C. Gao, C. Roder, J. Lähnemann, and O. Brandt. Physical Review Letters (July 8, 2011)
    
  • Structure and energetics of Si(111)5x2-Au  S.C. Erwin, I. Barke, and F.J. Himpsel. Physical Review B (October 2, 2009)
    
  • When is a metal not a metal?  S.C. Erwin. Nature News & Views (May 17, 2006).
  • Phase transition at finite temperature in one dimension: Adsorbate ordering in Ba/Si(111)3x2  S.C. Erwin and C.S. Hellberg. Surface Science Letters (July 10, 2005) [see also this Surface Science Perspective by L.W. Bruch]
    
  • Self-Doping of Gold Chains on Silicon: A New Structural Model for Si(111)5x2-Au  S.C. Erwin. Physical Review Letters (November 10, 2003)
    
  • Frenkel-Kontorova Model of Vacancy-Line Interactions on Ga/Si(112)  S.C. Erwin, A.A. Baski, L.J. Whitman, and R.E. Rudd. Physical Review Letters (August 30, 1999)
    
  • Strongly Correlated Electrons on a Silicon Surface: Theory of a Mott Insulator  C.S. Hellberg and S.C. Erwin. Physical Review Letters (August 30, 1999)
    
  • Theory of the "Honeycomb Chain-Channel" Reconstruction of M/Si(111)-(3x1)   S.C. Erwin and H.H. Weitering. Physical Review Letters (September 14, 1998)
    
  • Structure and Stability of Si(114)-(2x1) S. C. Erwin, A. A. Baski, L. J. Whitman. Physical Review Letters (July 22, 1996)
    
  • A Stable High-Index Surface of Silicon: Si(5,5,12) A.A. Baski, S.C. Erwin, and L.J. Whitman. Science (September 15, 1995)
    
  
  
• Metal-intercalated fullerene solids
  • Role of alkali atoms in A4C60   O. Gunnarsson, S. C. Erwin, E. Koch, R. M. Martin.  Physical Review B (January 15, 1998)
    
  • Experimental and theoretical study of electron momentum density of K6C60 and comparison to pristine C60  M. Marangolo, J. Moscovici, G. Loupias, S. Rabii, S.C. Erwin, .... Physical Review B (September 15, 1998)
    
  • Three-dimensional electronic instabilities in polymerized solid AC60 S.C. Erwin, G.V. Krishna, E.J. Mele. Physical Review B (March 15, 1995)
    
  • Theoretical Fermi-Surface Properties and Superconducting Parameters for K3C60 S.C. Erwin and W.E. Pickett. Science 254, 842 (1991)
    
  • Electronic Structure of Crystalline K6C60 S.C. Erwin and M.R. Pederson. Physical Review Letters (September 16, 1991)
    

All publications | Curriculum vitae (yawn)