Aitor Mugarza

Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia (ICN2)

Engineering Sciences

Aitor Mugarza graduated and obtained his PhD in Physics both at the University of Basque Country. After his doctoral studies, he was awarded a Marie Curie fellowship to work as a postdoctoral scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA, and at the Materials Science Institute of Barcelona (ICMAB). He later joined the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology-ICN2 (formerly ICN) starting as a Ramon y Cajal Fellow in 2007, and as Tenure Track Group Leader of the Atomic Manipulation and Spectroscopy Group at ICN2 since 2013. He is author of 50 articles, and of more than 35 invited talks at international conferences, universities and schools. His research activity is based on the investigation of quantum properties of matter on the nanoscale, and developing strategies to manipulate them with atomic precision.


Research interests

The research interests of Aitor Mugarza focus on the atomic-scale engineering of the quantum properties of novel nanomaterials. At the nanoscale, the properties of materials are dominated by quantum effects and interfacial phenomena, which impose strong limitations on the control and reproducibility of device performances, but also open up avenues for engineering new physical properties. The aim of Aitor Mugarza and his group is to understand and control quantum phenomena with atomic precision by chemical and structural manipulation, nanostructuring and interfacing materials that are identified as strategic in the roadmap for new technologies (hybrid metal-organic heterostructures, graphene-based 2D materials, topological insulators…).

Selected publications

– Caputo M, Panighel M, Lisi S, Khalil L, Di Santo G, Papalazarou E, Hruban A, Konczykowski M, Krusin-Elbaum L, Aliev ZS, Babanly MB, Otrokov MM, Politano A, Chulkov EV, Arnau A, Marinova V, Das PK, Fujii J, Vobornik I, Perfetti L, Mugarza A, Goldoni A & Marsi M 2016, ‘Manipulating the Topological Interface by Molecular Adsorbates: Adsorption of Co-Phthalocyanine on Bi2Se3’, Nano Letters, 16, 6, 3409 – 3414.

– Ormaza M, Fernández L, Ilyn M., Magaña A, Xu B, Verstraete MJ , Gastaldo M, Valbuena MA, Gargiani P, Mugarza A, Ayuela A, Vitali L, Blanco- Rey M, Schiller F & Ortega JE 2016, ‘High temperature ferromagnetism in a GdAg2 monolayer’, Nano Letters 16, 4230–4235

– Sessi P, Rüßmann P, Bathon T,Barla A, Kokh KA, Tereshchenko OE, Fauth K, Mahatha SK, Valbuena MA, Godey S, Glott F, Mugarza A, Gargiani P, Valvidares M, Long NH, Carbone C, Mavropoulos P, Blügel S & Bode M, 2016, ‘Superparamagnetism-induced mesoscopic electron focusing in topological insulators’,  Phys. Rev. B 94, 075137.


Selected research activities

Invited talks and seminars

Manipulating charge and spin at the metal-organic interface, Energy Materials Nanotechnology Spring Meeting, March 8-11, 2016, Taipei (Taiwan).

In-situ structural, chemical, and magnetic characterization of nanostructures by combining STM with X-rays, NFFA-Europe Summer School, Universitat Autónoma de  Barcelona (Spain)

Electronic and magnetic properties at the metal-organic interface, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Science, December 6, 2016, Prague (Czech Republic).

Metal-organic interfaces: is the metallic surface a problem or an advantage?, Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials (CIQUS), May 20, 2016, Santiago de Compostela (Spain).

 

Organizing Committee

Chairman of Congreso de Fuerzas y Túnel 2016, Girona (Spain)