Researchers from CIC nanoGUNE, in collaboration with ICFO and Graphenea, have demonstrated how infrared light can be captured by nanostructures made of graphene. This happens when light couples to charge oscillations in the graphene. The resulting mixture of light and charge oscillations – called plasmon - can be squeezed into record-small volumes – millions times smaller than in conventional dielectric optical cavities. This process has been visualized by the researchers now, for the first time, with the help of a state-of the-art near-field microscope and explained by theory. Particularly, the researchers identified two types of plasmons - edge and sheet modes - propagating either along the sheet or along the sheet edges. The edge plasmons are unique for their ability to channel electromagnetic energy in one dimension. The work - funded by the EC Graphene Flagship and reported in Nature Photonics - opens new opportunities for ultra-small and efficient photodetectors, sensors and other photonic and optoelectronic nanodevices.

Itxasne Azpitarte ha sido nombrada la mejor estudiante del curso 2014/2015 del Master in New Materials que se imparte entre varios departamentos universitarios de la UPV/EHU y la Universidad de Cantabria (UC).

Researchers from the Nanooptics group at CIC nanoGUNE in collaboration with colleagues at ICFO - The Institute of Photonic Sciences (Catalunya) developed a new non-invasive room-temperature technique for graphene device characterization. This work has been funded by the EC Graphene Flagship and was recently reported in Nature Communications.

Los centros de investigación CIC nanoGUNE y DIPC han organizado un taller de ciencia y cómic para el profesorado de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria y Bachillerato, en el marco del proyecto nanoKOMIK.

¿Quieres hacer prácticas en verano? Pues ahora es el momento, ya que esta semana hemos abierto el plazo de inscripción en el Programa de Prácticas de Verano.

nanoGUNE has hosted the 1st nanoGUNE PhD Workshop. This event has taken place to celebrate the 7th anniversary of the center´s opening data.

Researchers of the Nanodevices group, in collaboration with groups from the CFM and DIPC, both institutions also located in Donostia-San Sebastián, have discovered a new magnetoresistance effect occurring in materials with strong spin-orbit coupling. This new effect has been recently reported in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters and featured as an Editor’s Suggestion.

Con el proyecto nanoKOMIK, los centros de investigación CIC nanoGUNE y el Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), especializados en nanociencia y ciencia de materiales, proponen la creación, elaboración y difusión del primer cómic participativo de nanoficción en 2016.

El Grupo de Nanoingeniería de nanoGUNE, liderado por el investigador Ikerbasque Dr. Andreas Seifert, gira en torno a la investigación que combina tanto nanociencia fundamental como ingeniería aplicada, en el área de los microsistemas biomédicos, en particular. El objetivo del grupo es construir puentes entre las ciencias físicas y las aplicaciones industriales y clínicas, introduciendo nanotecnología con la finalidad de aportar valor añadido a innovadores microsistemas médicos y dispositivos mesoscópicos.

An international team led by Miguel M. Ugeda (CIC nanoGUNE) and Michael F. Crommie (UC. Berkeley (USA)) has demonstrated the coexistence of superconductivity and charge density wave (CDW) order in a single layer of NbSe₂, a model transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) metal. The demonstration that a single layer of NbSe₂ is a true 2D superconductor is a breakthrough in the field of 2D materials. Very few 2D superconductors exist in nature, and single-layer NbSe₂ is the first among them that remains a superconductor in its isolated, 2D form without the need of a special substrate. Furthermore, CDW order - spatial modulation of both the electron density and the atomic lattice (see figure below) – has been revealed to be a genuine 2D electronic phenomenon in NbSe₂. This work has been recently reported in Nature Physics.