The journal Advanced Functional Materials (Wiley VCH) has highlighted the article published by Q. Yong et al. (Adv. Funct. Mater. 2012, 22, 5157; DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201201791) on the back cover of their current issue. The published work is the result of an international collaboration of nanoGUNE’s Nanomaterials research group, led by Dr. Mato Knez, with four well-reputed research institutions: the Institute of Coal Chemistry (China), the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (Germany), and the École Polytechnique de Montréal (Canada).

The Nanomaterials research group at nanoGUNE, led by Dr. Mato Knez, in collaboration with scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Max Plank Institute of Microstructure Physics, describes in a recent article [ X. Tong et al., Small, 8, 22, 3390 (2012)] the results of a collaborative study on the high-precision synthesis of supported catalytic nanoparticles. The article has been featured on the back cover of the journal SMALL.

In a recent article, published in Physical Review Letters (PRL 109, 177205 (2012)) researchers from the Nanomagnetism group and Electron-Microscopy laboratory at nanoGUNE have reported on the crystallography-driven appearance of positive exchange bias in epitaxial Co/CoO bilayers.

Scientists of the Freie Universität Berlin demonstrate it is possible to use the energy of a moving hydrogen molecule to power up a “mechanical machine”. The work, led by Jose Ignacio Pascual (currently leader of the Nanoimaging Group at nanoGUNE), has been published in the prestigious journal Science (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1227621).

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.

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.