Robert Hovden

Robert Hovden joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering as an Assistant Professor in Winter 2017.

Hovden’s research can be broadly described as “the photography of atoms—a privilege afforded by precisely sculpted sub-Angstrom electron beams.” Utilizing electron microscopy, he unveils new understanding of how structure at the atomic and nanoscale determines material properties at the macroscale—spanning a wide class of systems including two-dimensional materials, next-generation energy devices, and biominerals.

“Modern materials are designed atomic layer by atomic layer with architectural complexity extending into the third dimension. Probing matter across sub-Angstrom to micron length scales in both two and three dimensions is therefore integral to the hierarchical engineering and design of future materials,” states Hovden. His work has pushed the limits of 3D measurement with electron tomography for the optimization of hydrogen fuel cell catalysts. More recently, he uncovered the control of charge density waves down to the ultrathin limit of TaS2 using cryogenic scanning transmission electron microscopy.

Robert received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics at Cornell University where he focused on the physics of aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy for the study of materials. After completing his doctoral work in atomic resolution characterization under Prof. David Muller he pursued low temperature measurements of atomic structure under the expertise of Prof. Lena Kourkoutis.

At Michigan, Hovden’s lab will continue working with sub-Angstrom electron beams to uncover structural insights spanning the length scale of a single atom to billions of atoms in two and three dimensions.

More about Robert can be found at: www.roberthovden.com or www.mse.engin.umich.edu/people/fac/hovden

PUBLICATIONS

1. Perera, SD, Ding, XY, Bhargava, A, Hovden, R, Nelson, A, Kourkoutis, LF, and Robinson, RD (2016). Enhanced Supercapacitor Performance for Equal Co-Mn Stoichiometry in Colloidal Co3-xMnxO4 Nanoparticles, in Additive Free Electrodes (vol 27, pg 7861, 2016),  Chemistry of Materials, 28(12):4522-4522.   (link)

2. Tate, MW, Purohit, P, Chamberlain, D, Nguyen, KX, Hovden, R, Chang, CS, Deb, P, Turgut, E, Heron, JT, Schlom, DG, Ralph, DC, Fuchs, GD, Shanks, KS, Philipp, HT, Muller, DA, and Gruner, SM (2016). High Dynamic Range Pixel Array Detector for Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy,  Microscopy and Microanalysis, 22(1):237-249.   (link)

3. Aran-Ais, RM, Yu, YC, Hovden, R, Solla-Gullon, J, Herrero, E, Feliu, JM, and Abruna, HD (2015). Identical Location Transmission Electron Microscopy Imaging of Site-Selective Pt Nanocatalysts: Electrochemical Activation and Surface Disordering,  Journal of the American Chemical Society, 137(47):14992-14998.   (link)

4. Asenath-Smith, E, Hovden, R, Kourkoutis, LF, and Estroff, LA (2015). Hierarchically Structured Hematite Architectures Achieved by Growth in a Silica Hydrogel,  Journal of the American Chemical Society, 137(15):5184-5192.   (link)

5. Cowman, CD, Padgett, E, Tan, KW, Hovden, R, Gu, YB, Andrejevic, N, Muller, D, Coates, GW, and Wiesner, U (2015).Multicomponent Nanomaterials with Complex Networked Architectures from Orthogonal Degradation and Binary Metal Backfilling in ABC Triblock Terpolymers,  Journal of the American Chemical Society, 137(18):6026-6033.   (link)

6. Hovden, R, Jiang, Y, Xin, HLL, and Kourkoutis, LF (2015). Periodic Artifact Reduction in Fourier Transforms of Full Field Atomic Resolution Images,  Microscopy and Microanalysis, 21(2):436-441.   (link)

7. Hovden, R, Wolf, SE, Holtz, ME, Marin, F, Muller, DA, and Estroff, LA (2015). Nanoscale assembly processes revealed in the nacroprismatic transition zone of Pinna nobilis mollusc shells,  Nature Communications, 6.   (link)

8. Tsen, AW, Hovden, R, Wang, D, Kim, YD, Okamoto, J, Spoth, KA, Liu, Y, Lu, WJ, Sun, YP, Hone, JC, Kourkoutis, LF, Kim, P, and Pasupathy, AN (2015). Structure and control of charge density waves in two-dimensional 1T-TaS2,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(49):15054-15059.   (link)

9. Baumgardner, WJ, Yu, YC, Hovden, R, Honrao, S, Hennig, RG, Abruna, HD, Muller, D, and Hanrath, T (2014). Nanoparticle Metamorphosis: An in Situ High-Temperature Transmission Electron Microscopy Study of the Structural Evolution of Heterogeneous Au:Fe2O3 Nanoparticles,  Acs Nano, 8(5):5315-5322.   (link)

10. Ha, DH, Caldwell, AH, Ward, MJ, Honrao, S, Mathew, K, Hovden, R, Koker, MKA, Muller, DA, Hennig, RG, and Robinson, RD (2014). Solid-Solid Phase Transformations Induced through Cation Exchange and Strain in 2D Heterostructured Copper Sulfide Nanocrystals,  Nano Letters, 14(12):7090-7099.   (link)

11. Hovden, R, Ercius, P, Jiang, Y, Wang, DL, Yu, YC, Abruna, HD, Elser, V, and Muller, DA (2014). Breaking the Crowther limit: Combining depth-sectioning and tilt tomography for high-resolution, wide-field 3D reconstructions,  Ultramicroscopy, 140:26-31.   (link)

12. Alden, JS, Tsen, AW, Huang, PY, Hovden, R, Brown, L, Park, J, Muller, DA, and McEuen, PL (2013). Strain solitons and topological defects in bilayer graphene,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(28):11256-11260.   (link)

13. Hovden, R (2013). Bibliometrics for Internet Media: Applying the h-Index to YouTube,  Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(11):2326-2331.   (link)

14. Kim, CJ, Brown, L, Graham, MW, Hovden, R, Havener, RW, McEuen, PL, Muller, DA, and Park, J (2013). Stacking Order Dependent Second Harmonic Generation and Topological Defects in h-BN Bilayers,  Nano Letters, 13(11):5660-5665.   (link)

15. Sai, H, Tan, KW, Hur, K, Asenath-Smith, E, Hovden, R, Jiang, Y, Riccio, M, Muller, DA, Elser, V, Estroff, LA, Gruner, SM, and Wiesner, U (2013). Hierarchical Porous Polymer Scaffolds from Block Copolymers,  Science, 341(6145):530-534.   (link)

16. Suteewong, T, Sai, H, Hovden, R, Muller, D, Bradbury, MS, Gruner, SM, and Wiesner, U (2013). Multicompartment Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles with Branched Shapes: An Epitaxial Growth Mechanism,  Science, 340(6130):337-341.   (link)

17. Wang, DL, Xin, HLL, Hovden, R, Wang, HS, Yu, YC, Muller, DA, DiSalvo, FJ, and Abruna, HD (2013). Structurally ordered intermetallic platinum-cobalt core-shell nanoparticles with enhanced activity and stability as oxygen reduction electrocatalysts,  Nature Materials, 12(1):81-87.   (link)

18. Brown, L, Hovden, R, Huang, P, Wojcik, M, Muller, DA, and Park, J (2012). Twinning and Twisting of Tri- and Bilayer Graphene,  Nano Letters, 12(3):1609-1615.   (link)

19. Cueva, P, Hovden, R, Mundy, JA, Xin, HLL, and Muller, DA (2012). Data Processing for Atomic Resolution Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy,  Microscopy and Microanalysis, 18(4):667-675.   (link)

20. Hovden, R and Muller, DA (2012). Efficient elastic imaging of single atoms on ultrathin supports in a scanning transmission electron microscope,  Ultramicroscopy, 123:59-65.   (link)

21. Hovden, R, Xin, HLL, and Muller, DA (2012). Channeling of a subangstrom electron beam in a crystal mapped to two-dimensional molecular orbitals,  Physical Review B, 86(19).   (link)

22. Huang, PY, Kurasch, S, Srivastava, A, Skakalova, V, Kotakoski, J, Krasheninnikov, AV, Hovden, R, Mao, QY, Meyer, JC, Smet, J, Muller, DA, and Kaiser, U (2012). Direct Imaging of a Two-Dimensional Silica Glass on Graphene,  Nano Letters, 12(2):1081-1086.   (link)

23. Stefik, M, Wang, ST, Hovden, R, Sai, H, Tate, MW, Muller, DA, Steiner, U, Gruner, SM, and Wiesner, U (2012). Networked and chiral nanocomposites from ABC triblock terpolymer coassembly with transition metal oxide nanoparticles (vol 22, pg 1078, 2012),  Journal of Materials Chemistry, 22(48):25487-25487.   (link)

24. Stefik, M, Wang, ST, Hovden, R, Sai, H, Tate, MW, Muller, DA, Steiner, U, Gruner, SM, and Wiesner, U (2012). Networked and chiral nanocomposites from ABC triblock terpolymer coassembly with transition metal oxide nanoparticles,  Journal of Materials Chemistry, 22(3):1078-1087.   (link)

25. Wang, DL, Yu, YC, Xin, HLL, Hovden, R, Ercius, P, Mundy, JA, Chen, H, Richard, JH, Muller, DA, DiSalvo, FJ, and Abruna, HD (2012). Tuning Oxygen Reduction Reaction Activity via Controllable Dealloying: A Model Study of Ordered Cu3Pt/C Intermetallic Nanocatalysts,  Nano Letters, 12(10):5230-5238.   (link)

26. Xin, HL, Mundy, JA, Liu, ZY, Cabezas, R, Hovden, R, Kourkoutis, LF, Zhang, JL, Subramanian, NP, Makharia, R, Wagner, FT, and Muller, DA (2012). Atomic-Resolution Spectroscopic Imaging of Ensembles of Nanocatalyst Particles Across the Life of a Fuel Cell,  Nano Letters, 12(1):490-497.   (link)

27. Yu, YC, Xin, HLL, Hovden, R, Wang, DL, Rus, ED, Mundy, JA, Muller, DA, and Abruna, HD (2012). Three-Dimensional Tracking and Visualization of Hundreds of Pt-Co Fuel Cell Nanocatalysts During Electrochemical Aging,  Nano Letters, 12(9):4417-4423.   (link)

28. Hovden, R, Xin, HL, and Muller, DA (2011). Extended Depth of Field for High-Resolution Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy,  Microscopy and Microanalysis, 17(1):75-80.   (link)

29. Zhang, HT, Ha, DH, Hovden, R, Kourkoutis, LF, and Robinson, RD (2011). Controlled Synthesis of Uniform Cobalt Phosphide Hyperbranched Nanocrystals Using Tri-n-octylphosphine Oxide as a Phosphorus Source,  Nano Letters, 11(1):188-197.   (link)

30. Zhang, HT, Hu, B, Sun, LF, Hovden, R, Wise, FW, Muller, DA, and Robinson, RD (2011). Surfactant Ligand Removal and Rational Fabrication of Inorganically Connected Quantum Dots,  Nano Letters, 11(12):5356-5361.   (link)

31. Hovden, R, Xin, HLL, and Muller, DA (2009). Electron Channeling Artifacts in "Sub-Angstrom" STEM Images,  Microscopy and Microanalysis, 15:1492-1493.   (link)

32. Guillaume, A, Lee, S, Wang, Y, Zheng, H, Hovden, R, Chau, S, Tung, Y, and Terrile, R (2007). Deep Space Network Scheduling Using Evolutionary Computational Methods,  IEEE Aerospace Conference 2007(paper #1270).