Javier García de Abajo obtained his PhD in condensed matter theory from the University of the Basque Country (Spain) in 1993. After spending three years at Berkeley National Lab., he became a staff scientist at CSIC (Spain) and was promoted to Research Professor in 2008. He is currently an ICREA Research Professor and leader of the Nanophotonics Theory Group at ICFO. His interests include electron microscopy, light-matter interactions, quantum optics, condensed matter physics, surface science, ultrafast phenomena, plasmonics, and nanophotonics. He has co-authored 400+ papers that have accumulated 60,000+ citations and an h index of 118 (Google Scholar, Feb. 2024). He is a Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America.
Research interests
Javier García de Abajo's research program on the theory of nanoscale photonics ranges from optical characterization free-electron microscope spectroscopies and ultrafast microscopy to studies of ultrasensitive single-molecule detection, quantum aspects of light-matter interaction, excitation and characterization of plasmons by electron beams, plasmonic metamaterials, quantum friction, radiative transfer and coherent control, two-dimensional materials, and ultrafast free-electron processes. These topics cover a broad spectrum of research in nanophotonics. This theoretical effort encompasses classical and quantum methods, both analytical and numerical, which are the basis to understand and propose new phenomena with application to biosensing as well as quantum optics and metrology.
Selected publications
- Di Giulio V & García de Abajo FJ 2023, 'Nanophotonics for pair production'. Nature Communications 14, 8189.
- García de Abajo FJ & Ropers C 2023, 'Spatiotemporal Electron Beam Focusing through Parallel Interactions with Shaped Optical Fields', Physical Review Letters, 130, 24, 246901.
- H. Hu, N. Chen, H. Teng, R. Yu, M. Xue, K. Chen, Y. Xiao, Y. Qu, D. Hu, J. Chen, Z. Sun, P. Li, F. J. García de Abajo, and Q. Dai, 2023, 'Gate-tunable negative refraction of mid-infrared polaritons', Science, 379, 6632, 558-561.
- Goncalves PAD & García de Abajo, FJ 2023, 'Interrogating Quantum Nonlocal Effects in Nanoplasmonics through Electron-Beam Spectroscopy', Nano Letters, 23, 10, 4242 - 4249.
- Manjavacas A & Garcia de Abajo, FJ 2023, 'Highly directional single-photon source', Nanophotonics, 12, 16, 3351 - 3358.
- Y. Auad, E. J. C. Dias, M. Tencé, J.-D. Blazit, X. Li, L. F. Zagonel, O. Stéphan, L. H. G. Tizei, F. J. García de Abajo, and M. Kociak,
2023, 'μeV electron spectromicroscopy using free-space light', Nature Communications, 14, 4442.
- Goncalves PAD & García de Abajo, FJ 2023, 'Multi-plasmon effects and plasmon satellites in photoemission from nanostructures', Nanoscale, 15, 11852-11859.
- Echarri AR, Iyikanat F, Boroviks S, Mortensen NA, Cox JD & García de Abajo, FJ 2023, 'Nonlinear Photoluminescence in Gold Thin Films', ACS Photonics, 10, 8, 2918-2929.
- L. Wang, S. Papadopoulos, F. Iyikanat, J. Zhang, J. Huang, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, M. Calame, M. L. Perrin, F. J. García de Abajo, and L. Novotny,
2023, 'Exciton-assisted electron tunnelling in van der Waals heterostructures', Nature Materials, 2023.
- Dias EJC, Madan I, Gargiulo S, Barantani F, Yannai M, Vanacore GM, Kaminer I, Carbone F & García de Abajo FJ 2023. 'Generation and control of localized terahertz fields in photoemitted electron plasmas'. Nanoscale Advances 5, 3634-3645.