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Benjamin Ocko

SMI Beamline Scientist, Complex Scattering Program, National Synchrotron Light Source II

Brookhaven National Laboratory

National Synchrotron Light Source II
Bldg. 744
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000

(631) 344-4299
ocko@bnl.gov

Ben leads the development and operation of the Open Platform and Liquids Scattering (OPLS) endstation at the SMI beamline. This is a open-platform, horizontal scattering instrument where the incident x-ray beam can be tilted downward to adjust the grazing angle. The instrument is suited for x-ray reflectivity, and grazing incidence x-ray small- and wide-angle scattering.

Expertise

Ben Ocko is a soft-matter physicist. He has pioneered the study of liquid and soft interfaces using surface x-ray scattering methods. He has contributed to the understanding of the phase behavior of surfaces under temperature, electrochemical, and pressure control. With Moshe Deutsch, he discovered surface freezing at the vapor interface in alkane and alkane derivative molecules where a single or bilayer molecular layer forms at the interface between the underlying melt and its vapor. His team discovered surface layering in liquids metals and elaborated the role of capillary waves in establishing the roughness of liquid surfaces. More recently Ben has turned his attention to ordering at liquid/liquid surfaces and molten salt interfaces. Ben has also contributed to our understanding of wetting behavior on nanostructured substrates, the structure of electrode surfaces under potential control, self-assembled monolayers, block copolymer thin films, organic photovoltaic materials under confinement, ionic liquids, the silicon/silicon oxide interface, and Langmuir monolayers on mercury.

Research Activities

Post-docs supervised: Derek Bruzewicz, David Germack, Xinhui Lu, Tommy Hofmann, Yunseok Jang, Sumit, Kewalramani, Julian Baumert, Oleg Gang, Antonio Checco, Yugang Cai, Elaine Di Masi, Olaf Magnussen, Jia Wang