Stephan Roche

Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia

Engineering Sciences

ICREA Prof. Stephan Roche is working at the Catalan Institute of Nanosciences and Nanotechnology-ICN2 and the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology. He leads the "Theoretical and Computational Nanoscience" group which focuses on quantum physics in Dirac materials (graphene and topological insulators). He pioneered the development of linear scaling computational approaches for wavepacket dynamics, Kubo conductivities, and Landauer-Büttiker conductance in disordered materials.  He studied Theoretical Physics at ENS and University UJF (France), received a PhD in Physics in 1996 (CNRS), and worked in Japan, Spain and Germany. He was appointed Assistant Prof.  at UJF (2000) and CEA Researcher (2004). He received the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany). He is the PI of ICN2 in the GRAPHENE FLAGSHIP, and is deputy leader of the Graphene Spintronics Workpackage. 


Research interests

At ICN2, S. Roche and his group theoretically explore exotic quantum transport in Dirac Matter including graphene and topological insulators. Main current  interests include (i) the study of quantum interferences and decoherence mechanisms in presence of electron-phonon coupling and spin-orbit interaction, (ii) spin dynamics and spin-torques phenomena in van der Waals heterostructures, (iii) spin Hall and quantum spin Hall effects, valley Hall effects in Dirac Matter (iv) thermoelectricity in two-dimensional materials (v)  quantum devices simulation and (vi) quantum technologies (quantum computing and entanglement in many body physics).

Selected publications

- Garcia JH, Vila M, Cummings AW & Roche S 2018 'Spin Transport in Graphene/Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Heterostructures', Chem Soc Rev, 47, 3359-3379

- Khokhriakov D, Cummings AW, Song K, Vila M, Karpiak B,  Dankert A, Roche S & Dash SP 2018,  'Tailoring emergent spin phenomena in Dirac material heterostructures', Sci Adv, Vol. 4, no. 9, eaat9349.

- Valenzuela SO & Roche S 2018, “a Barrier to Spin Filter”, Nat Electr 1, 328–329

- Song K, Soriano D, Cummings AW, Robles R, Ordejon P & Roche S 2018, ´Spin Proximity Effects in Graphene/Topological Insulator Heterostructures´, Nano Letters 18 (3), 2033–2039  

- Aprojanz J, Power, SR, Bampoulis P, Roche S, Jauho AP, Zandvliet HJW, Zakharov AA & Tegenkamp C 2018 'Ballistic tracks in graphene nanoribbons', Nat Commun 9, 4426

- Karpiak B, Dankert A, Cummings AW, Power SR, Roche S &Dash SP 2018, '1D ferromagnetic edge contacts to 2D graphene/h-BN heterostructures', 2D Materials 5, 014001

- Gregersen SS, Garcia JH, Jauho AP, Roche S & Power SR 2018 'Charge and spin transport anisotropy in nanopatterned graphene', J Phys Mater 1 015005

- Marmolejo-Tejada JM, García JH, Petrović MD, Chang P-H, Sheng XL, Cresti A, Plecháč P,  Roche S & Nikolić BK 2018, 'Eciphering the origin of nonlocal resistance in multiterminal graphene on hexagonal-boron-nitride with ab initio quantum transport: Fermi surface edge currents rather than Fermi sea topological valley current', J Phys Mater, 1 015006

- Veliev F, Cresti A, Kalita D, Bourrier A, Belloir T, Briançon-Marjollet A, Albrieux M, Roche S, Bouchiat V & Delacour C 2018, 'Sensing ion channel in neuron networks with graphene field effect transistors', 2D Materials 5, 045020

- Lopez-Bezanilla A, Froufe-Pérez LS, Roche S & Sáenz JJ 2018, 'Unequivocal signatures of the crossover to Anderson localization in realistic models of disordered quasi-one-dimensional materials', Phys Rev B 98, 235423


Selected research activities

Appointement as Editor in Chief of Journal of Physics Materials (Institute of Physics).