The Second Awarding of The Heinrich Rohrer Medals
February 4, 2017
The Surface Science Society of Japan (SSSJ)
It is our great pleasure to announce the winners of the second awarding of The Heinrich Rohrer
Medals. The Medal was established after the name of Late Dr. Heinrich Rohrer, one of the Laureatesof Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986, for recognizing researchers who have made the world-top level
achievements in the fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology.

The 2nd Heinrich Rohrer Medal –Grand Medal–- Joseph A. Stroscio
National Institute of Standard Technology (NIST), U.S.A.
"For his pioneering achievements on spectroscopic capability of scanningtunneling microscopy opening novel perspectives for revealing the quantum
nature of the nano-world"

The 2nd Heinrich Rohrer Medal –Rising Medal–- Sascha Schäfer (born in 1980)
University of Göttingen, Germany"For his outstanding contributions to the development and application ofultrafast electron microscopy and diffraction"

The 2nd Heinrich Rohrer Medal –Rising Medal–- Alfred J. Weymouth (born in 1980)
University of Regensburg, Germany"For his valuable contributions to force microscopy at the atomic scale
including studying the interplay of current and force, applications of lateralforce microscopy, and imaging in ambient conditions"Award Ceremony
The award ceremony will be held at The 8th International Symposium on Surface
Science, ISSS-8 (http://www.sssj.org/isss8/), on October 22-26, 2017, at Epochal Tsukuba,Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, which is organized by The Surface Science Society of Japan.
The awarding will be in collaboration with Swiss Embassy in Japan. The laureates will
deliver the award lectures on their research achievements during ISSS-8.

Operated with- IBM Research-Zurich
Cosponsored by- JEOL Ltd.

- Scienta Omicron, Inc.

- UNISOKU Co., Ltd.

- KITANO SEIKI Co., Ltd.

Award Achievements
The 2nd Heinrich Rohrer Medal –Grand Medal–
Dr. Joseph A. Stroscio"For his pioneering achievements on spectroscopic capability of scanning tunnelingmicroscopy opening novel perspectives for revealing the quantum nature of the nanoworld"
Dr. Stroscio has been a leading scientist in surface/nano science field throughout hiscareer. His major contribution is the first successful measurement of scanning tunnelingspectroscopy (STS). Dr. Stroscio together with Dr. Feenstra showed that the local density ofstate at a site of interest in addition to surface structures could be measured by taking the firstvoltage derivative of the tunneling current. This idea could not be realized unless they added anextra feedback circuit to nullify a thermal drift of STM at room temperature. STM thus became
a tool with combined power of transmission electron microscope and photoemission
spectroscopy with an atomic resolution. He was the first person who showed a local electronic
structural map of Si(001)-2×1, revealing the surface bandgap and a π-bond nature of Si dimers.
He demonstrated the chemical identification of Ga and As atoms on a GaAs(110) surface, andidentified various gap states and their electronic influence to GaAs surfaces.
Stroscio’s other landmark contributions to surface/nanoscience involved manipulationof atoms with the scanning tunneling probe. This finding ushered in an unparalleled era of
discovery about the nanoworld. His passion in advancing instrumentation led to the design andconstruction of STMs operating at milli-Kelvin temperatures, dramatically improving theenergy resolution down to tens of μeV. With these systems he succeeded in unveiling thequantum mechanically degenerate energy states in graphene and topological insulators.
With his great contributions in STS, atom manipulation, and ultra-high energy
resolution STM, scanning tunneling microscopy/atomic force microscopy have become themost important structural and spectroscopic tools with atomic resolution and μeV energy
resolution, leading to many new scientific discoveries in surface science and nanotechnology.

Award Achievements
The 2nd Heinrich Rohrer Medal –Rising Medal–Dr. Sascha Schäfer"For his outstanding contributions to the development and application of ultrafast
electron microscopy and diffraction".
Dr. Schäfer has made widely recognized contributions to the development andapplication of ultrafast transmission electron microscopy (Ultrafast TEM) and diffraction
based on highly coherent electron sources. In ultrafast TEM, the transient state of an optically
excited sample is imaged by ultrashort electron pulses. This approach combines thefemtosecond temporal resolution of ultrafast pump-probe techniques with the nanometerspatial resolution of electron microscopy. The use of nanoscale electron sources in timeresolved electron microscopy can be considered a breakthrough in this field.
His work has now made it possible to conduct electron diffraction experiments with a
few nanometer spatial and 200-fs temporal resolution. Although the full implications of thiswork in the dynamical study of structure and magnetization would continue to evolve in thenear future, the Ultrafast TEM even at the first stage has already opened up completely new
possibilities in terms of manipulating electron beams in a quantum coherent manner. These
works have created a new link between quantum optics and electron microscopy, and they areexpected to lead to electron microscopy with attosecond precision in the future. By his intense
involvement in the conceptual and experimental realization of the Ultrafast TEM, Schäfer has
played a key role in making these works possible. He also made a major contribution to thefirst ultrafast low-energy electron diffraction (ULEED) experiment, which has enabled thestudy of the dynamics of a polymer monolayer on top of freestanding graphene.
Demonstrating his broad scientific scope, Schäfer has recently directed a study on thecreation of a completely new and unexpected type of magnetic texture composed of a networkof topological defects in a ferromagnetic thin film.

Award Achievements
The Heinrich Rohrer Medal –Rising Medal–
Dr. Alfred J. Weymouth"For his valuable contributions to force microscopy at the atomic scale including studying
the interplay of current and force, applications of lateral force microscopy, and imaging
in ambient conditions"
Dr. Weymouth made several significant contributions in the field of non-contact atomicforce microscopy (nc-AFM). An important aspect of his work was the discovery of the so-called"phantom force". It is the influence of a tunneling current on the force on the AFM tip, which
occurs on surfaces with relatively small conductivity. The current flow in the sample leads to apotential drop, affecting the electrostatic force sensitively measured by nc-AFM. While theatoms on a surface can appear repulsive due to the phantom force by applying the bias voltage(region I, bumps in the nc-AFM image), the expected attractive contrast be found when the tip
come closer to the sample without bias voltage (region III, depressions in the nc-AFM image).
He had also applied lateral force microscopy to outstanding problems. One example isthe characterization of a CO terminated tip, now used as a standard probe in nc-AFM
experiments at low temperature, capable of resolving the internal structure of adsorbed organic
molecules. The bending of the CO plays an essential role in enhancing the spatial resolution.
Weymouth measured the interaction of a CO molecule attached to the tip apex with another CO
molecule adsorbed on a Cu surface. He determined the lateral stiffness of the CO molecule on
the tip and clarified that the value is less than that of a molecule on the surface. This knowledge
is now standard in the field of Atomic Force Microscopy.
A third contribution is his work advancing nc-AFM in ambient conditions. The ability
to image individual atoms in this environment paves the way for its future use not only inSurface Science but also in other scientific branches such as Chemistry and Biology.