Rate My Professor Phillip Sprunger

Phillip Sprunger is a Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Louisiana State University, holding the Dr. Ward Plummer Professorship for Materials Research. He received his Ph.D. in 1993 from the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to his faculty position, Sprunger serves as Interim Director of the LSU Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD). He is a member of the leadership team for the Advanced Microscopy and Analytical Core (AMAC), representing the College of Science, and contributes to the Nanofabrication Facility and the Institute for Advanced Materials.

Sprunger's research specializes in experimental condensed matter physics, focusing on the interconnecting atomic/morphological, electronic/magnetic, and chemical/chemisorption properties of surface, thin-film, and nanophase systems. His group employs synchrotron-based techniques such as high-resolution and spin-resolved VUV photoemission, IR spectromicroscopy, x-ray absorption, electron energy-loss spectroscopy, as well as variable-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Investigated systems include heteroepitaxially grown metal-on-metal structures like Ag/Cu, Co/Ag, and Ag nanowires/Cu; metal-on-semiconductor systems such as Ag/GaAs and Be/Si; intermetallic alloy thin-films and surfaces like FeAl; simple and complex adsorbate overlayers including amino acids/polymers on SiO2 and Au; polymer photo-induced degradation; and metal on metal-oxide nanostructures like Ag/Al2O3/FeAl. Research emphasizes correlations of electronic/magnetic/photonic properties, including hybridization, band-structure, electron-phonon, and electron-electron interactions, with atomic structure via STM, AFM, LEED, and SEXAFS.

Sprunger has published extensively on these topics, with key works including 'The Role of Interstitial Sites in the Ti3d Defect State in the Band Gap of Titania' (Science, 2008), 'Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to CH3OH at Copper Oxide Surfaces' (Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 2011), 'Giant Friedel oscillations on the beryllium (0001) surface' (Science, 1997), 'Direct imaging of the two-dimensional Fermi contour: Fourier-transform STM' (Physical Review B, 1998), 'Growth of Ag on Cu (100) studied by STM: From surface alloying to Ag superstructures' (Physical Review B, 1996), and 'Direct Extraction of the Eliashberg Function for Electron-Phonon Coupling: A Case Study of Be (10\u011710)' (Physical Review Letters, 2004). He leads Project 5 in the LSU Superfund Research Program, examining microstructural pathways of environmentally persistent free radical formation and reactivity, as detailed in publications like 'EPFR Formation from Phenol adsorption on Al2O3 and TiO2: EPR and EELS studies' (Chemical Physics, 2012).