Peter A. Dowben
Charles Bessey Professor of Physics
Department of Physics and Astronomy
255 Behlen Laboratory
Phone: (402) 472-9838
Fax: (402) 472-2879
Email: pdowben@unl.edu
Peter Dowben's Physics Web Page
Current Research
Peter Dowben’s research program concentrates on electronic band structure and the influence of electronics structure on various phase transitions. A large effort is directed toward the study of the electronic (bandstructure) mediated transitions in thin films and overlayers and relating these phase transitions to changes in metallicity and the electronic band structure. In particular, Peter Dowben's group is interested in the nature of the transition - the details of what drives the transition from the clearly nonmetallic to the clearly metallic phase in reduced dimensionality. There is a transition region or a "gray region" between what is clearly nonmetallic and what is metallic. This transition region is a poorly understood aspect of the nonmetal to metal transition.
Strong emphasis is placed on understanding surface and interface electronic structure and related magnetic and ferroelectric properties. The experimental emphasis is on electron spectroscopies including angle-resolved photoemission, angle-resolved inverse photoemission, spin polarized inverse photoemission and spin polarized electron energy loss spectroscopy. Other techniques include low energy electron diffraction, angle-resolved thermal desorption, angle-resolved X-ray photoemission, and light polarization dependent photo-assisted thermal desorption.
Both organic (molecular) and inorganic systems are under investigation, including a variety of ferromagnets and dielectric barrier layer materials.
The research program is funded by the NSF, ONR, and DTRA.
Recent Key Publications
Luis G. Rosa, P.A. Jacobson, and P.A. Dowben, “Evidence for an Influence of Local Dipole Excitations in Thermal Desorption”, J. Phys. Chem. B 110, 7944-7950 (2006).
Hae-Kyung Jeong, R. Skomski, D. Wisbey, and P.A. Dowben, “Magnon-Plasmon Interactions”, Physics Letters A 341, 508-515 (2005).
Chun-gang Duan, R.F. Sabiryanov, Jianjun Liu, W.N. Mei, P.A. Dowben and J.R. Hardy, “Strain Induced half metal to semiconductor transition in GdN”, Physical Review Letters 94, 237201 (2005).
D.Q. Feng, R. Rajesh, J. Redepenning and P.A. Dowben, “The Anomalous “Stiffness” of Biphenydimethyldithiol”, Applied Physics Letters 87, 181918 (2005).
Ruihua Cheng, A. N. Caruso, L. Yuan, S.-H. Liou, and P. A. Dowben, “Magnetic Coupling in Co/Cr2O3/CrO2 Trilayer Films”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 82, 1443-1445 (2003).
A. Sokolov, C.-S. Yang, L. Yuan, S.-H. Liou, Ruihua Cheng, H.-K. Jeong, T. Komesu, B. Xu, C. N. Borca, P. A Dowben and B. Doudin, “Zero-Bias Anomaly in CrO2 Junctions,” Europhys. Lett. 58, 448-454 (2002).
R. Skomski and P. A. Dowben, “The Finite-Temperature Densities of States for Half-metallic Ferromagnets”, Europhys. Lett. 58, 544-548 (2002).
Bo Xu, Jaewu Choi, A. N. Caruso and P. A. Dowben, “Band Filling and Depletion Through the Doping of Polyaniline Thin Films”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 80, 4342-4344 (2002).
Graduate Students and Current Affiliations
· Danqin Feng, 2007, now post-doctoral associate, Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago.
· Luis Rosa, Ph.D., 2005, now post-doctoral associate, Department of Chemistry, Princeton University.
· Anthony Caruso, Ph.D., 2004, now Assistant Professor, University of Missouri - Kansas City.
· Hae-Kyung Jeong, Ph.D., 2003, now Research Assistant Professor, Sung Kyung Kwan University.
· Rui-Hua Cheng, Ph.D., 2002, now Assistant Professor of Physics at Purdue University - Indianapolis.
· Takashi Komesu, Ph.D., 2002, now staff at SPring–8.
· Bo Xu, PhD., 2002, now Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics, Yanjing University.
· Camelia Borca, Ph.D., 2001, now a staff member at the Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland.
