The micrograph of a lateral spin valve with integrated dielectric mask, which was obtained by the Ph.D. student Thales de Oliveira from the Self-Assembly Group, has been awarded the second prize of the Raith Micrograph Award 2011. Raith is one of the world-leading suppliers of innovative solutions for nanolithography and nanofabrication.

Dr. Andreas Berger, nanoGUNE Research Director and leader of the nanomagnetism group, co-organizes New Trends and Developments in Nanomagnetism, a symposium that will be celebrated in the framework of the Spring Meeting 2012 of the Materials Research Society. This symposium is focusing on recent trends in nanoscale magnetism and related technologies like advanced characterization techniques and fabrication processes that foster or initiate new development. The goal is to emphasize the strong mutual interaction between current research and present and future technologies.

Starting on 1 October, Prof. Emilio Artacho, coming from the University of Cambridge, has taken on his new responsibilities as Ikerbasque Research Professor and Leader of the Theory Group at nanoGUNE.

The new facility, with a processing power of 6220.8 GFLOPS and 1800 GB RAM, will be devoted mainly to nanosystems simulations performed by the newly created Theory Group at nanoGUNE led by Emilio Artacho.

A new strategy for spontaneous self-assembly of Graphene NanoRibbons (GNRs) using a Single-Walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) as both the reaction vessel and the template for nanoribbon growth has been reported in a recent article by researchers from nanoGUNE and from the Universities of Nottingham and Ulm (A. Chuvilin et al., Nature Materials 10, 687–692 (2011)).

In a recent article (J.Chen at al., Small, doi: 10.1002/smll.201100640) researchers from nanoGUNE have studied the fundamental optical properties of pure nickel nanoantennas. The article has been featured on the cover of the SMALL journal (Volume 7, Issue 16) and on the materials science news site Materials Views. “This study represents a step towards understanding and engineering magnetically controllable optical nanoantennas, which will be extremely useful for many developing technologies including biosensors, lasers, and solar cells”, says Richard Walters in his article “Nickel for Visible-Light Nanoantennas?”.

Researchers from the nanoscience research center CIC nanoGUNE (San Sebastián, Spain) and Neaspec GmbH (Martinsried, Germany) have developed an instrument that allows for recording infrared spectra with a thermal source at a resolution that is 100 times better than in conventional infrared spectroscopy. In future, the technique could be applied for analyzing the local chemical composition and structure of nanoscale materials in polymer composites, semiconductor devices, minerals or biological tissue (F. Huth et al., Nature Materials 10, 352 (2011)).

A joint cooperation between three research groups at nanoGUNE reports an innovative method to focus infrared light with tapered transmission lines to nanometer-size dimensions. This device could trigger the development of novel chemical and biological sensing tools, including ultra-small infrared spectrometers and lab-on-a-chip integrated biosensors (Nature Photonics 5, 283–287, (2011) ).

The combination of HRTEM experiments and first-principles electronic structure calculations opens a new way to investigate electronic configurations of point defects, other non-periodic arrangements or nanoscale objects that cannot be studied by an electron or X-ray diffraction analysis. In the article published in Nature Materials (Nature Mat. 10, 209-215, cover page, and News&Views article by K. U. Urban), the authors show experimental evidence of charge redistribution due to chemical bonding by means of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) in two different systems: nitrogen-substitution point defects in graphene, and single-layer hexagonal boron nitride.

The target of these two new initiatives is to bridge the gap between basic science and technology. The programs promote the exchange of people between companies and nanoGUNE at different levels. Nanobusiness Talent promotes internships of nanoGUNE’s young researchers in companies, while nanobusiness Ideas invites experts from companies to join nanoGUNE and explore new opportunities. Both programs are cost-free for the participating companies.