Researchers from the Basque institutions CIC nanoGUNE, Ikerbasque and Cidetec, and the German Robert Koch-Institut report the development of hyperspectral infrared nanoimaging. It is based on Fourier transform infrared nanospectroscopy (nano-FTIR) and enables highly sensitive spectroscopic imaging of chemical composition with nanoscale spatial resolution (Amenabar et al., Nat. Commun. 8, 14402 doi: 10.1038/ncomms14402 (2017)).

CIC nanoGUNE will join this celebration to draw attention towards achieving the full and equal participation of women and girls in science.

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Nicolò Maccaferri, Pre-doctoral Researcher at the Nanomagnetism Group at CIC nanoGUNE, received his PhD at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) after the defense of his thesis project on 9 December 2016. His research work, entitled “Designer magneto-optics with plasmonic magnetic nanostructures", has been developed under the supervision of Dr. Paolo Vavassori, Nanomagnetism group coleader.

The comic book “Dayanne and Murillo. The Power of Nanoscience”, created within the nanoKOMIK project, has been presented by CIC nanoGUNE and DIPC research centres.

Fan Yang, Pre-doctoral Researcher at the Nanomaterials Group at CIC nanoGUNE, received her PhD at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) after the defense of her thesis project on 10th October 2016. His research work, entitled “Functionalization of nanomaterials by atomic layer deposition", has been developed under the supervision of Dr. Mato Knez, Ikerbasque Research Professor and Group Leader of the Nanomaterials Group.

Daniel Sánchez-Portal, of the Centre for Materials Physics (CSIC-UPV/EHU), and Emilio Artacho, Cambridge University professor and Ikerbasque researcher at CICnanoGUNE, both members of the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), are co-authors of one of the twelve most important papers in the 50-year history of the Journal of Physics series, according to the publication’s editors. The work selected was published in 2002 and presented a new, efficient atomic simulation code known by its acronym SIESTA; its use is very widespread today.

Researchers developed a technique for imaging THz photocurrents with nanoscale resolution, and applied it to visualize strongly compressed THz waves (plasmons) in a graphene photodetector. The extremely short wavelengths and highly concentrated fields of these plasmons open new venues for the development of miniaturized optoelectronic THz devices (Nature Nanotechnology DOI: 10.1038/NNANO.2016.185)

A study by ICFO, CIC nanoGUNE, Columbia University and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan published in Nature Materials demonstrates how graphene can be employed simultaneously as both a plasmonic medium and detector.

Oxygen inhibits hydrogenases, a group of enzymes that are able to produce and split hydrogen. This degradation is fatal for possible biotechnological applications of these enzymes for the production of clean energy. Understanding the mechanisms of this process is hence essential. An international team led by researchers from UCL (UK), CNRS (France) and nanoGUNE/Ikerbasque, have combined theory and experiment to characterize each chemical reaction step that results in the reduction of oxygen by the enzyme. These results are being published this week in the journal Nature Chemistry.