A new nanoimaging method for resolving the interplay between local structure, conductivity, and chemical composition

Starting on 1 September, Nacho Pascual, Professor of Physics at the Free University in Berlin (Germany), has taken on his new responsibility as Ikerbasque Research Professor and Leader of the Nanoimaging Group at nanoGUNE. Nacho’s research is focused on the physics of surfaces and molecules investigated by low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and related methods.

NanoGUNE’s Nanodevices Group participates in HINTS, a European project that aims at advancing Spintronics by developing new hybrid organic-inorganic (HOI) materials featuring strong and tuneable spin-transfer efficiency at the interfaces.

In a recent article (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature11254) researchers from the nanooptics group at nanoGUNE, in collaboration with researchers from ICFO and IQFR-CSIC, report the launch and detection of propagating optical plasmons in tapered graphene nanostructures using near-field scattering microscopy with infrared excitation light. While optical graphene plasmon resonances had recently been investigated spectroscopically, no experiments so far had directly resolved propagating plasmons in real space. These results pave the way towards graphene-based optical transistors and a plethora of novel nano-optoelectronic devices and functionalities.

In a recent article a collaborative research team, including nanoGUNE’s Theory Group Leader Emilio Artacho and researchers from the Center of Materials Physics and the Donostia International Physics Center in the same campus, has studied the radiation damage processes beyond the Born-Oppenheimer approximation using time-dependent density functional theory. The article has been featured on the cover of the Physical Review Letters journal on 25 May 2012

Mato Knez, leader of the Nanomaterials Group at nanoGUNE and Ikerbasque Research Professor, received the Gaede Prize of the German Vacuum Society at the annual meeting of the German Physical Society (DPG) in Berlin on March 27th, 2012. The award was issued for his outstanding contributions to the research on and with atomic layer deposition over the past years.

Martin Schnell, Pre-doctoral researcher at the Nanooptics Group, got his Doctor Degree at the University of The Basque Country (UPV/EHU) after the defense of his thesis project last Monday 19 March. His research work achieved the maximum qualification (cum laude) after the defense and assessment of his work by an international committee that included leading researchers in the field of nanooptics. Dr. Schnell thesis project, done under the supervision of Rainer Hillenbrand, leader of the Nanooptics Group, has been the first thesis defended at nanoGUNE after the opening of the center in January 2009.

In a recent article (P. Alonso-González, et al., Nat. Commun. 3, 684) researchers from the nanooptics and the nanodevices groups at nanoGUNE provide experimental evidence that the intensity elastically scattered off the object scales with the fourth power of the local field enhancement provided by the antenna, and that the underlying electromagnetic mechanism is identical to the one commonly accepted in surface-enhanced Raman scattering.

NanoGUNE and Inbiomed have signed an agreement to promote synergies between regenerative medicine and nanotechnology in the area of tissue engineering. The first project has been already launched to face the challenge of growing neurons in vitro from stem cells. These neurons could offer a substantial improvement in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer or Parkinson.

Co-organized by ADEGI and nanoGUNE, and with the collaboration of the nanoBasque Agency, this workshop invites Basque companies to explore the opportunities offered by nanotechnology to increase their competitiveness. Four Basque companies – Graphenea, Maier, and GKN Driveline will participate in the workshop sharing the challenges they face to incorporate nanotechnology in their business.