Aitor Mugarza

Aitor Mugarza

Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia

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 65+ articles, and of 45+ 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

– Ortega JE, Mugarza A, Schiller F, Lobo-Checa J, Corso M 2020, ‘Electronic States of Vicinal Surfaces’ in Springer Handbook of Surface Science, M. Rocca, T. S. Rahman, L. Vattuone, Eds. (Springer International Publishing, Cham), pp. 351–385.

– Cuxart MG, Valbuena MA, Robles R, Moreno C, Bonell F, Sauthier G, Imaz I, Xu H, Nistor,C, Barla A, Gargiani P, Valvidares M, Maspoch D, Gambardella P, Valenzuela SO & Mugarza A 2020, ‘Molecular Approach for Engineering Interfacial Interactions in Magnetic/Topological Insulator Heterostructures’, ACS Nano, 14, 5, 6285 – 6294.

– Panighel M, Quiroga S, Brandimarte P, Moreno C, Garcia-Lekue A, Vilas-Varela M, Rey D, Sauthier G, Ceballos G, Peña D & Mugarza A 2020, ‘Stabilizing Edge Fluorination in Graphene Nanoribbons’, ACS Nano vol. 14, pp 11120–11129.

– Figueroa A I, Bonell F, Cuxart MG, Valvidares M, Gargiani P, van der Laan G, Mugarza A & Valenzuela SO 2020, ‘Absence of Magnetic Proximity Effect at the Interface of Bi2Se3 and (Bi,Sb)2Te3 with EuS.’, Physical Review Letters, 125, 22, 226801 – 226801.

– Ajayakumar MR, Moreno C, Alcón I, Illas F, Rovira C, Veciana J, Bromley ST, Mugarza A & Mas-Torrent M 2020, ‘Neutral Organic Radical Formation by Chemisorption on Metal Surfaces’, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., vol. 11, pp 3897-3904.

– Fernandez L, Blanco-Rey M, Castrillo-Bodero R, Ilyn M, Ali K, Turco E, Corso M, Ormaza M, Gargiani P, Valbuena MA, Mugarza A, Moras P, Sheverdyaeva P M, Kundu A K, Jugovac M, Laubschat C, Ortega JE & Schiller F 2020, ‘Influence of 4f filling on electronic and magnetic properties of rare earth-Au surface compounds’, Nanoscale, 12, 43, 22258 – 22267.

Selected research activities

Selected  InvitedTalks

MRS Spring/Fall Meeting, Nov 27-Dec4 2020.

Other Activities

Member of the Scientific Committee of the Spanish Vacuum Society (ASEVA).

Lecturer in Master in Multidisciplinary Research in Experimental Sciences (UPF-BIST).

Lecturer in Master in Advanced Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (UAB).