Gustau Catalán graduated in Physics at the Universitat de Barcelona (1997) and gained his PhD, also in Physics, at the Queen's University of Belfast (2001). This was followed by a one-year round-the-world climbing expedition, the highlights of which were the setting up of a new route in the Dogon country of Mali ("The man with no name", 6c-250 metres, north face of Ouro N'guérou) and the first ascent of a peak in the Himalayas (Draoich Parvat, 6200m, Garwhal, India). Upon returning to research, he worked at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (2002-2004), at the University of Groningen (2004-2005) and at the University of Cambridge (2005-2009). He joined ICREA in 2009 as a Research Professor and leader of the Oxide Nanoelectronics group at the Institut Català de Nanociencia i Nanotecnologia (ICN2).

Research interests

The main focus of my research is exploring what happens to the physical properties of complex oxides (mostly perovskites) when you make them nanoscopically small. The interest in these materials stems from their combination of structural simplicity with a vast array of interesting electronic properties, including ferroelectricity and piezoelectricity, magnetoelectricity and metal-insulator transitions. Currently the two themes that currently occupy me are the effects of strain gradients on electrical polarization (flexoelectricity, project funded by the ERC) and the physics of domain walls (domain wall nanoelectronics). I am also dipping my toes on photovoltaic properties of ferroelectrics and antiferroelectrics, with notable results regarding the enormous photovoltages that can be achieved in these materials. The research on these subjects is carried out in the laboratory of Oxide Nanoelectronics (ON) at the Institut Català de Nanociencia i Nanotecnologia (ICN2), located in the campus of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.