News

A diary of some remarkable events in the Surface Physics group…

2018-June

• Paul Ryan from Imperial College London and Diamond Light Source, UK, visits for a few months. He is working with Gareth on the single-atom catalysis project.

2018-June-27

• Our paper about water adsorption on Fe3O4(001) has been published in PNAS. We are particularly proud of this work it was a very complex problem and it took the best of our capabilities in imaging, spectroscopy and theory to unravel. In the picture you see on of the structures formed in which water molecules adsorb on the surface Fe cations, with additional molecules bridging the gaps in a periodic fashion. Congratulations to all involved!

The paper can be found here: “Water agglomerates on Fe3O4(001)”PNAS (2018)

and the usual brilliant write up from Florian Aigner here: TU Webpage article. It was picked up by news media der Standard, apa

2018-June-15

• Daniel Halwidl successfully defends his PhD thesis entitled “Surface Science Investigations on Single-Crystalline Ruthenates”. In the photo he poses with dissertation advisor Ulrike Diebold, co-advisor Michael Schmid, and external examiner Prof. Niklas Nilius from the University of Oldenburg. Congratulations!

2018-June-13

• Martin Setvin successfully defends his habilitation thesis. Soon he will receive the 'venia legendi', the right to teach and to independently supervise bachelor, master, and PhD theses at TU Wien. Congratulations!

2018-May-09

• In order to achieve excellent ultrahigh vacuum, a bakeout of the vacuum chamber is required that can last up several days. Sometimes this makes the security personnel in our building nervous. To prevent them from raising alarm, and calling us – typically in the middle of the night on weekends – Zhiyu designs this most helpful sign.

2018-April-12

• Spring is finally here. Following our annual tradition, we take advantage of one of the first warm days to storm our favorite kebap stand at Naschmarkt. Everyone comes along to hang out at the park and eat.

2018-March-20

• The Surface Physics Group has patented a device for suspending a load in a vibration-insulated manner, designed for high-resolution microscopy and nanotechnology. While other similar instruments are usually placed in the basement of a building in a quiet environment, the low-temperature non-contact AFM/STM at the IAP/TU Wien suspended according to the invention delivers excellent performance in spite of its place in the 5th floor of a building in downtown Vienna! The patented vibration isolation system also features accurate levelling even under changing load distribution during operation.

For more information, see the TU press release (English, German), the Youtube movie, article in Der Standard or the Feature in Nature on high-performance microscopy

2018-March-09

• Professor Jian Xu (徐健) from the Dept. of Metallurgical Engineering, Chongqing University, joins our surface physics group. Jian will stay with us for one year to get his fingers dirty with UHV-based surface science experiments. A warm welcome!

2018-March-19

• Jakob Hofinger and Sebastian Moser both pass their final exam. Their masters theses dealt with PLD growth of In₂O₃ and SrTiO₃, respectively, and in both cases Michele and Giada were a big help.

Congratulations to Jakob, Sebastian, and the PLD team!

2018-March-14

• Melissa Hines comes all the way from the US to give a super-entertaining talk in front of a fully-packed auditorium during the post-deadline session at the DPG Meeting in Berlin.

2018-March-14

• The surface physics group has a strong presence at this year's Spring Meeting of the DPG in Berlin. We report on our research results in 3 invited talks, 11 contributed talks, and 2 posters. In order to make the trip affordable, some of us bunk up in big flat.

2018-March-13

• Gareth Parkinson is awareded the Gaede Prize at the Spring Meeting of the German Physical Society in Berlin, Germany. This prize is given out annually to a young scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the field of vacuum science and technology.

Congratulations!

2018-March-01

• As in previous years the poster introduction session was a special highlight at the Symposium of Surface Science, 3S'18. Based on the creative and entertaining way they presented their scientific results, Honza, Matthias, and Roland scored top points.

2018-February-12

• Each year we have the pleasure to host students from TU Brno/CEITEC. David Pokorný, Jakub Urbiš, Tomáš Krajňák, Martin Mikula, and Juraj Bobek have arrived in our lab. We very much look forward to working with our new friends.

2018-Feb-02

* Ionic crystals - materials that are composed of positively and negatively charged ions - can be put into a highly unfavorable situation. When split in half along certain crystallographic directions the electrostatic energy diverges. To alleviate this so-called polar catastrophe, materials can react in a variety of ways. In a recent paper, Martin Setvin and co-workers from the Surface Physics group and from the University of Vienna show the surface of a KTaO₃(001) single crystal after cleaving, heating, and exposure to water vapor. Six different mechanisms to compensate polarity are encountered. One of the most pretty solutions, a nano-labyrinth with 4-5 atom-wide walls, is shown in the image on the right.

The article in Science ⋅ TU Press release in English and German
Media coverage: die Presse ⋅ APA ⋅ Welt der Physik

2017-December-4

* During the opening ceremony of the ALC'17 conference in Kauai/Hawaii today Peter Varga received the Award of the 141st Committee on Microbeam Analysis of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Sciences (JSPS) for (quote) ”… his distinguished contribution on the clarification of surface phenomena by atomic level investigation and the development of novel functional materials.” Congratulations, Peter!

2017-December-1

• Mandana Azmi starts her appointment at IAP. She will pursue her PhD in electrochemical surface science under the guidance of Stijn Mertens.

2017-November/December

• The TU library is celebrating its 30th anniversary. As part of the festivities, some stunning research results are projected onto the big owl that adorns the corner of the library building. The nice work by Stijn Mertens et al. on electrochemical switching of friction was chosen as one of the show cases.

2017-November-27

• Second successfully-defended Masters thesis this month: Flora Poelzleitner worked on “Polarity compensation on KTaO₃(001) surfaces”. Her research results were included in our paper on the polar catastrophe, see the news entry above.

2017-November-23

• Sabrina Mayr successfully defends her Master's thesis on “Studies of Few-Monolayer Zirconia Films and Metal Nucleation on Zirconia Surfaces”. The group and her family celebrate the happy occasion and, in best Italian tradition, place the well-earned laurel wreath on her head.

2017-November-11

• For his outstanding habilitation thesis, Gareth Parkinson is awarded the 'Förderpreis' of the Kardinal Innitzer Studienstiftung. The award ceremony took place at the formidable Episcopal Palace, located in the center of Vienna. Gareth's family came all the way from England to celebrate.

2017-October-24

• How to achieve scanning probe microscopy with sub-picometer resolution in the 5^th floor of a building in busy downtown Vienna? The Surface Physics Group has devised a solution by suspending the machine from a frame or the ceiling, with highly accurate levelling and a performance that rivals very expensive active vibration control systems, at much lower cost (patent pending). Watch the Youtube movie.

2017-October-19

• Prof. Melissa Hines of Cornell University, USA is staying with us this fall. Melissa is a renowned surface chemist and, amongst other things, she is interested in TiO₂. We warmly welcome her and wish her - in fact, all of us - a productive stay.

2017-October-15

• For a long time the (1×2) reconstruction of one of our favorite materials - rutile TiO₂(110) - has puzzled us, and many of our colleagues world-wide. Based on Martin Setvin's beautiful STM/AFM results, our DFT friends at the University of Vienna have figured out that polarons are of essence. Our paper, which appeared in PRX earlier this month, has caught the eye of one of the editors of Nature Reviews.

2017-October-06

• In surface science it is essential to cleanly grow ultrathin films with a carefully-controlled thickness of less than one monolayer. For some materials (zirconium, say), this is difficult: Even though the melting point is exceedingly high, the vapor pressure is low. To circumvent this problem we have refined a UHV-compatible sputter deposition source. Read here how our source works and how well it performs.

2017-September-01

• We are extremely pleased to learn that Gareth Parkinson has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. He will continue his highly-successful research into the surface science of heterogeneous catalysis together with his growing surface physics subgroup focused on iron oxides.

2017-July-31

• This year our group hosted again three Erasmus students from TU Brno/CEITEC. As always, it was an extremely pleasant and productive experience for us: Michal Andrýsek worked on the growth of metastable ferromagnetic iron layers, and Tomáš Axman and Mojmír Komora designed and tested a high-pressure cell and a UHV-compatible liquid doser, respectively.

2017-July-10

• Stijn Mertens successfully defends his habilitation thesis. This is the last step towards receiving the venia legendi, the right to teach and to officially supervise graduate students at TU Wien. Congrats, Stijn!

2017-July-09

• We extend our warmest congratulations to Matthias and Tini, who tied the knot this weekend, and we wish them a great honeymoon trip together with their daughter Sophie.

2017-July-08

• We welcome a new post-doc, Zhiyu Zou, to our group. Zhiyu comes from Trieste, where he worked on graphene-based systems. At TU Wien, he will strengthen our efforts to better understand the fundamental surface properties and chemistry of zirconia.

2017-July-04

• Now it is seriously a tradition: July has arrived and we need to get out of the city for some fresh air and exercise. Our 4th Annual Group Outing brings us to Payerbach, where we hike in the beautiful mountain area of Lower Austria.

2017-May-16

• Roland Bliem graduates with a "promotio sub auspiciis praesidentis rei publicae"”. This honour is based on top academic performance and is awarded to only a handful of PhD students in the whole country. With a GPA of 1.0 (the best grade on Austria's 5-point scale) from high school all the way through his studies at the university, Roland is one of the selected few. A big day for Roland, the institute, and the surface physics group.

TU press release (in German) der standard Tiroler Tageszeitung

2017-May-03

• We decide that a barbecue at Donauinsel might be a good idea. Martin Setvin reserves a Grillplatz and brings coal and his young family. It rains a bit. Nevertheless everyone comes out, and we are having a great time.

2017-April-26

• Florian Kraushofer successfully defends his Masters thesis, and he has already landed a job: on Monday he will start as a PhD student with Gareth.

2017-April-22

• On April 22, people around the world gather to support science and to acknowledge the critical role it plays in each of our lives. Members of the surface physics group & friends do their share by joining the Vienna March for Science.

2017-April-4

• Igor Sokolović has decided to pursue his PhD degree with us. He is supported by the doctoral programme Solids4Fun and will work with Martin Setvin on our new q+ AFM. Here you can see him getting his fingers dirty (well, not in the literal sense) while building sensors for the microscope.

2017-March-28

• Earlier than usual, spring has arrived this year. Temperatures will reach 25°C here in Vienna on the weekend, so we hurry to eat our traditional spring kebap before summer arrives. Our Erasmus students from Brno university meanwhile relax while driving their new car.

2017-March-14

• The oxygen molecule O₂ is chemically inert (except at high temperatures), but becomes reactive when an additional electron gets added. This process happens in biology, catalysis and can be also triggered by light on some surfaces. Martin Setvin of the Surface Physics Group managed to switch oxygen molecules adsorbed at a titanium dioxide surface back and forth between the non-reactive (neutral) and reactive (O₂^-) state and examine them in detail using non-contact atomic-force microscopy (nc-AFM) with the tiny tip of a so-called qPlus sensor (image). The results were published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS).

Publication in PNAS
TU Press Release in English and German
Media Coverage: APA · Der Standard · ORF · MyScience · Chemie.de

2017-March-03

• Some of us write a tutorial review on surface defects on bulk oxides, and how to characterize them with atomically-resolved Scanning Probe Microscopy. The article will be published in the journal Chem. Soc. Rev. Here you see a photo of the authors. (Taking the photo was a bit difficult, as co-author Margareta Wagner is spending a year at the Steinrück group in Erlangen, Nürnberg. With a little help from skype we manage nevertheless.)

2017-January-26

• Every year our university celebrates its traditional ball at the Hofburg palace. The surface physics group participated enthusiastically, and met up with friends, colleagues, and visitors.

2017-January-18

• Today Iris Dorner finished her Masters studies. In her masters thesis, she helped us to improve our EC-STM, and here we help her celebrate her degree. Congratulations!

2016-December-23

• In recent weeks, several of our research proposals were approved for funding: The group is part of the consortium of the H2020 project A-LEAF (“An Artifical Leaf: A Photo-electro-catalytic Cell From Earth-Abundant Materials for Sustainable Solar Production of CO₂-based Chemicals and Fuels”). In a joint Belgian/Austrian Research Project, Stijn Mertens & friends will investigate the

“Boron nitride nanomesh for actuated self-assembly”, and the WWTF will fund our work on “Modeling and Design of Epitaxially Strained Nanoislands” as part of the 'Mathematics and..' initiative. We are set for a Happy New Year 2017!

2016-December-7

• A division of TU surface physicists heads out to Brno to inspect the new lab facilities at CEITEC, discuss possible future collaborations, and taste local beers.

2016-October-21

• Oscar Gamba, who worked with Gareth for several years, receives his Ph.D. degree Thanks to his research, we now understand the surface chemistry of magnetite much better.

2016-October-03

• Gareth Parkinson successfully defends his habilitation and our institute gains a newly-minted 'Dozent'. Congratulations!

2016-August-31

• Prof. Bilge Yildiz is saying good bye with a nice farewell party. She has been visiting with us for a good (in fact: very good) year. We are sad to see her leave, but have many ideas for continued and future collaborations. Also, Roland will be joining her soon at MIT.

2016-July-29

• Roland Bliem defends his PhD thesis entitled “Single Metal Adatoms at the Reconstructed Fe₃O₄(001) Surface”. His paper on Pt dimers appears in PNAS – see the next entry. Most importantly, he just got married!
  

We wish the beautiful couple much happiness and continued success.

2016-July-28

• Sintering - the aggregation of catalytically active, metallic nanoparticles into bigger clumps - is one of the major causes of catalyst de-activation. This is particularly important in the emerging field of single-atom catalysis, the main research topic of the START project of Gareth Parkinson. A detailed STM and DFT study, mainly conducted by Roland Bliem, and published in PNAS, shows how single Pt atoms on the Fe₃O₄(001) surface are made mobile by CO, and how they merge into bigger clusters. Interestingly, the smallest cluster, a Pt dimer, is stabilized by the CO molecules. When the sample is heated, and the CO desorbs, and the two Pt atoms separate again.

Original Publication
TU press release · Der Standard · Tiroler Tageszeitung

2016-July-16

• Zdenek Jakub joins the group as new a PhD student. He is no stranger to us, though: Zdenek studied at the TU Brno and already worked with us as an Erasmus student and during his Masters thesis. We are very happy that he joined us now officially!

2016-June-30

• The article "Switching stiction and adhesion of a liquid on a solid" by Stijn Mertens et al. is featured on this week's cover of Nature Magazine. The work describes dynamic contact angle measurements of a single drop of 0.1 M HClO₄ on a single layer of BN supported on Rh(111). Friction can be changed reversibly by applying an appropriate electrochemical potential that leads to the intercalation of H between BN and the Rh.

2016-June-21

• This year, our annual group outing brings us to the beautiful area around Neusiedlersee. We bike a lot (some of us even more than others), quench the resulting thirst, taste local foods, hang out in the shade, and a few brave people even go swimming in the lake. Overall, everyone was having a good time.

2016-June-17

• Roland Bliem, a PhD student in our group, has received the Christian-Doppler-Preis 2015 in the category Physics for his work on metal adsorption on the magnetite (001) surface. The Christian-Doppler-Preis is the science award of Roland's home province Salzburg, awarded biennially to researchers under 40 years of age. It is named after the famous physicist Christian Doppler who was born in Salzburg in 1803.

Salzburger Nachrichten
Aktuelles TU Wien

2016-June-10

* Stefan Gerhold successfully defends his PhD thesis entitled “Surface Reactivity and Growth of Strontium Titanate (110)”. Afterwards he celebrates with examiner Prof. Wolf Widdra, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, and advisor Ulrike Diebold.

2016-May-16

• Martin Calkovsky (center) from Brno University of Technology joins us as an Erasmus student for one semester. In order to tell him apart from 'Tech Martin' (left) and 'Czech Martin' (right) we decide to affectionately call him 'Martin Jr.'

2016-May-10

• Bilge Yildiz, our visiting professor, has learned that her latest research results have been accepted for publication in Nature Materials. As is customary in our group, this happy news deserves some serious celebration. Abhorred by the idea of warm champagne, we are quick (perhaps a bit too quick) to help out with a little lN2. The resulting, somewhat unorthodox, state of matter of the celebratory beverage does not prevent us from partying on, with Bilge's group partaking per skype.

2016-May-4

• To commemorate 30 years of Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, Physical Review Letters has put together a collection of prime articles using this technique. The feature "Scanning Probe Microscopy: From Sublime to Ubiquitous" is a great read. Admittedly we are a tad proud to be listed among these great works.

2016-April-22

• Jong Il Jake Choi successfully defends his PhD thesis entitled “Studies of Zirconia Surfaces On the Atomic Scale”. Congratulations, Dr. Choi!

2016-April-18

• Our comprehensive study of metal adatoms and clusters on ultrathin zirconia films is accepted for publication in the Journal of Physics C.

2016-April-5

• First nice day of the year. Following our tradition we venture out to Naschmarkt, where we greet the season with a kebap lunch.

2016-March-14

• Giada Franceschi, a physics student from Polimi in Milano joins us for a 6 months. She is working on her Masters thesis, performing growth and surface experiments using our Laser MBE.

2016-March

• The surface physics group shows a strong presence at this year's Spring Meeting of the German Physics Society in Regensburg, Germany. Most prominently, Martin Setvin is selected as a finalist for the Gerhard Ertl Young Investigator Award, and gives a brilliant talk summarizing his research on fundamental photocatalytic processes. Well done, Martin!

2016-March

• The first paper reporting results from our Laser MBE setup will appear soon: Stefan Gerhold et al., “Adjusting Island Density and Morphology of the SrTiO₃(110)-(4×1) Surface: Pulsed Laser Deposition Combined with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy” shows what happens during the very initial stages of homoepitaxial growth. Our new toy works well and more exciting results are in the works. Stay posted!

2016-March

• The manuscript “Fe₃O₄(110)-(1×3) Revisited: Periodic (111) Nano-Facets” by Gareth Parkinson et al. will appear as a Letter in the journal Surface Science. We celebrate with beer and 'burgers.

2016-March

• We happily report that four manuscripts have been accepted recently. Each paper has resulted from an extended collaboration. The one entitled “Interplay between steps and oxygen vacancies on curved TiO₂(110)” by L. Alejandro Miccio et al., will appear in the journal Nanoletters. Former Post-doc Zhiming Wang is the first author of “Itinerant polaronic carriers in a SrTiO₃-based two-dimensional electron gas”, to appear in Nature Materials, and of “Transition from Tetrahedral to Octahedral Coordination for High TiO₂ Coverages of the (110) Surface of Strontium Titanate”, which is accepted for publication in Nanoletters. The group of Juan de la Figuera was leading the collaboration on “Co on Fe₃O₄(001): Towards precise control of surface properties”, published in The Journal of Chemical Physics. Congratulations to all co-authors!

2016-February-29

• Our excellent technicians help Michael with realizing his ingenious ideas. We warmly thank Rainer, Martin, Herbert, and Marie, and we eat lots of cake.

2016-February-19

• Our visitor from the prestigious Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Oleg Feya, gives one of our pizza talks. He entertains us with stories about the founding fathers of his university, and explains how the program package USPEX can be used to predict structures.

2016-January-28

• Each year our university celebrates its traditional ball in the fabulous Hofburg Palace. Some of us dress up in our finest and go out for a few elegant rounds of Viennese waltz. We meet up and, after a while, we also spot Jiri and his dancing partner prancing through the halls.

2016-January-26

• … to assemble an Ikea sofa?

2016-January-19

• Dr. Zbynek Novotny is one of two recipients of this year's Loschmidt Prize. This prize is awarded annually by the Austrian Chemical Physics Society for an outstanding PhD thesis. Zbynek received his doctorate in 2013 under the guidance of Prof. Ulrike Diebold; his thesis is entitled “The Fe₃O₄ Surface as an Adsorption Template”. He is currently a post-doc the Pacific Northwest National Lab in Washington State, U.S. Congratulations, Z!

TU Webnews (in German)

2015-December-22

• Our research on strontium ruthenate surfaces shows how water dissociates and strips off one hydrogen atom upon adsorption. Although the hydrogen atom and the remaining OH group are physically separated, the pieces continue to interact through a weak hydrogen bond. This interaction leads to an interesting dynamic behavior, where the OH group circles the stripped off hydrogen atom. The result were published in Nature Materials. Click twice on the gif file on the right and watch the water dance.

The paper
TU press release in English or German · Article in Der Standard

2015-Dec-2

• Martin Setvin and his wife Katja proudly announce the birth of their first baby.

2015-Nov-5

• We are playing soccer again. With support from chemistry it is even more fun.

2015-Oct-28

• The European Academy of Sciences established the Blaise Pascal Medal in 2003 to recognize an outstanding and demonstrated personal contribution to science and technology and the promotion of excellence in research and education. Up to six medals may be awarded in any one year. This year Ulrike Diebold was honored with the Blaise Pascal Metal in Materials Science.

2015-September-29

• With the start of the new semester, the Austrian newspaper "Die Presse" published an article on students doing research. Matthias Poglitsch described how he liked working with us during his bachelor thesis (in German).

2015-September-10

• Our “magnetite subgroup” around Gareth Parkinson and Roland Bliem, with the help of our guest Jessi van der Hoeven from Utrecht, could nicely show how a prototype catalytic reaction works. They find that CO oxidation on their model catalyst, tiny platinum clusters on magnetite, eats the oxygen from the magnetite support, and platinum helps to oxidize the support again. They could also investigate in detail what happens if hydrogen is oxidized with the help of the catalyst. These results provide the groundwork to improve catalysts and got published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

The paper
TU press release in English or German · "Die Presse" newspaper article

2015-September

• Many of us are swarming out this month, to learn new things and to report on our research results. Roland Bliem, Michele Riva, Daniel Halwidl, Michael Schmid, and Peter Varga attend this year's ECOSS in Barcelona. Margareta Wagner, Martin Setvin, Jake Choi, Ulrike Diebold, Stefan Gerhold, Jonas Gloss, Peter Lackner report at the joint meeting of the Austrian and Swiss Physics Societies. Gareth Parkinson lectures at the GRC Summer School on Characterization of Metal Oxides near Berlin. Oscar Gamba gives a talk at a catalysis conference in Colombia, and Martin Setvin travels to the Non-Contact AFM conference in France.

2015-August-28

• Roland Bliem attends the Suncat Summer School at Stanford and wins a best poster award. Congratulations!

2015-August-13

• This week, no less than four papers were accepted for publication in various journals. The picture shows our first authors: Stefan Gerhold's paper on NiO on SrTiO₃(110) was accepted in J. Phys. Chem. C, and so was Oscar's paper on formic acid on Fe₃O₄. Roland's work on the adsorption and incorporation of transition metals in magnetite was accepted in Phys. Rev. B. Another paper, on imaging TiO₂(110) in aqueous solution with STM, spearheaded our collaborators in Rome, was accepted in Advanced Materials Interfaces. Also, the weather has been really hot. Time for some beer!

2015-July

• Three students from Brno have been with us since February. Adam Zavodny took many interesting STM images of single adatoms on Fe₃O₄, Zdenek Jakub helped with our electrochemistry setups, and Michal Horky grew fcc-stabilized Fe films. It has been a pleasure and privilege working with them.

2015-July-15

• This year, we hike in the Wienerwald. We conquer the Anninger, stop at Ruine Mödling, and relax in Peter Varga's house in Maria Enzersdorf with lots of cold drinks.

2015-July

• Prof. Bilge Yildiz from the Departments of Nuclear Science & Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at MIT is spending her sabbatical year in our group. She is interested in materials development for energy conversion applications in harsh environments, and will be working with us on the perovskites project.

2015-June-30

• Margareta Wagner received a Hertha Firnberg Award for her research programme “Organic Molecules on Transparent Conductive Oxides: Fundamental studies”. The Hertha Firnberg programme of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) aims at boosting the career of extremely well qualified female scientists.

• Watch this Youtube video provided by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), showing an interview with Ulrike Diebold (in German) and scenes from our labs. Seems we are quite a photogenic group!

2015-June-15

• Jonas Gloss joins the group as a PhD student. He is working with Peter Varga and researchers from Ceitec in Brno on producing magnetic metamaterials with focused ion beams.

2015-June-10

• Peter Lackner successfully passes his final exam. His masters thesis deals with adsorption on In₂O₃(111) surfaces. Here he treats us to home-made cake. Peter will continue working with us as a PhD student.

2015-June-08

• Gareth Parkinson of the Surface Physics Group has received the START Prize, the highest Austrian award for outstanding young researchers. Congratulations! The prize money will enable him to pursue research on single-atom catalysis during the next six years. We have now two START awardees and one Wittgenstein and ERC Advanced Grant laureate in our group, almost the highest density of these prizes anywhere!

TU press release (German)

2015-March

• Matthias Müllner joins as a PhD student and Michele Riva, who visited with us from the Politecnico Milano previously, returned as post-doc. Matthias will work on our electrochemistry project, and Michele on the oxide PLD. Here the two of them are captured during our daily lunch in the Mensa.

2015-March-20

• Today we watched the solar eclipse. Here you can see Michael, the most professional hobby astronomer ever, catching it on camera.

2015-February-22

• Charged molecules can self-organise on a gold surface to form highly structured motifs. In an effort led by Stijn Mertens, it was demonstrated that, under electrochemical conditions, this principle can be extended from flat structures into the third dimension. The results have been published in the journals Angewandte Chemie and Chemical Communications.

Article in Angewandte Chemie
Article in Chemical Communications
TU press release (in German)
Media coverage: der Standard · Economy Austria · Chemie.de · Industriemagazin · Technologiewerte.de

2015-January-18

• Stijn Mertens co-organized the rather successful 583rd Heraeus Seminar. The meeting, which took place at the Physikzentrum Bad Honnef, was dedicated to the emerging field of electrochemical surface science. Ulrike Diebold gave a keynote lecture, and Jan Balajka presented a poster.

2014-December-05

• A team around Gareth Parkinson of the Surface Physics group has solved a long-standing mystery: No one could explain why the magnetite Fe₃O₄(001) surface behaves differently than all other oxides. It turned out that this surface has a very peculiar crystal structure, which requires a new way of thinking about oxide surfaces in general. The results have been published in the prestigious journal Science.

Article in Science
TU press release
Media coverage: ORF Science · Die Presse · der Standard · Salzburger Nachrichten

2014-December-12

• Bernhard Stöger successfully defends his PhD thesis entitled “Surface Defects and Adsorption on Strontium Ruthenates”. He was supported by the SFB 'Functional Oxide Surfaces and Interfaces (FOXSI)'. He is moved on to do good things at ZKW group in Wieselburg.

2014-November-21

• Ulrike Diebold was elected as a member of the European Academy of Sciences. She also received the 'Eminent Visitor Award' of the Catalysis Society of South Africa (CATSA). This award sponsors a tour to South African universities and companies.

TU press release.

2014-November

• Alejandro Miccio from the University of the Basque country in San Sebastian visits for a month to take STM data on curved TiO₂ crystals.

2014-October-1

• Michele Riva, who has spent the last seven months in our laser-MBE lab, is going back home to Politecnico di Milano to finish his Ph.D. thesis.
• Jan Hulva (aka 'Honza') who has already been with us with the ERASMUS program, returns as a new Ph.D. student.

2014-September

• This has been a busy month with presentations at various meetings
  • Gareth Parkinson, Roland Bliem, Martin Setvin, and Peter Varga talked at the ECOSS 30 in Antalya, Turkey
  • Daniel Halwidl presented a poster at a Training School organized by the COST Action Reducible Oxide Surfaces
  • Ulrike Diebold gave a talk at a workshop organized by the Fritz-Haber-Institut Schloss Ringberg, Bavaria
  • Martin Setvin and Margareta Wagner both gave invited talks at the EMRS Meeting in Warsaw, Poland
  • Daniel Halwidl, Margareta Wagner, Stefan Gerhold, Oscar Gamba, and Roland Bliem presented their work at this year's Austrian Physics Society Meeting in Pöllau, Styria

Luckily, some of us stayed home and got some work done.

2014-August-26

• Jessi van der Hoeven from the University of Utrecht, who has been visiting with us for the past half year, is returning to the Netherlands. As a farewell, she gives a presentation of her research to her advisor, Prof. Petra de Jongh, with the group listening in. Jessi shows us beautiful results on Pt nanoclusters and their role in catalysis. Watch out for papers to come!

2014-August-19

• Bernhard wins the jackpot of the group's soccer world cup bet, and is obliged to treat us all to beer. Also, his paper “A strong chemical reaction of CO with the surface of Sr₃Ru₂O₂” by B. Stöger et al. has been accepted in PRL. Time for a a little Happy Hour.

2014-August-10

• Several papers got accepted this week: “A direct view of polarons in TiO₂ rutile and anatase” by Martin Setvin et al. in PRL; “Reducing the In₂O₃(111) Surface Results in Ordered Indium Adatoms” by Margareta Wagner et al. in Advanced Materials Interfaces; “Stabilizing Single Ni adatoms on a Two-dimensional Porous Titania on SrTiO₃(110) Surface” by Zhiming Wang et al. in J. Phys. Chem. C; and “Identification of Adsorbed Molecules Via Tip Manipulation: CO, H₂O, and O₂ on TiO₂ Anatase (101)” by Martin Setvin et al. in PCCP. To top it off, all this happened while the boss was vacationing in Croatia.

2014-July-11

• We see RHEED oscillations with our new laser MBE system. Michele is excited.

2014-July-8

• The group enjoys an outing. We hike up the Hohe Wand.

2014-June-28

• Bernhard and Maria got married today. Warmest congratulations! (Bernie, who has spent the last three years cleaving single crystals, also has to cleave his wedding present.)

2014-June-27

• Our paper “Cluster Nucleation and Growth from a Highly Supersaturated Adatom Phase: Silver on Magnetite” by Roland Bliem et al. is published in 'ACS nano'. We celebrate with a bottle of excellent wine from Grenoble.

Link to original publication (subscription may be required)

2014-June-21

• Ulrike entertains pupils with surface science, including experiments such as igniting methanol by platinum catalysis. The lecture is part of the Wittgenstein-Akademie.

Press release, TU Wien

2014-June

• Our post-docs Zhiming Wang and Xianfeng Hao leave the group. Zhiming is joining the ARPES group of Felix Baumberger in Geneva, Switzerland, and Xianfeng returns home to his university in China. We had a productive time together, and a lot of fun. All the best to both of them!

2014-June-06

• Scott Chambers from Pacific Northwest National Labs visits the TU and gives guest lecture for our doctoral college Solids4Fun. He also joins us for a hike in mountains.

2014-June-04

• Today Daniel Halwidl successfully defended his Masters thesis. Here he proudly presents the molecular beam, which he designed, built, and tested in his thesis work.

2014-June-02

• Our paper “Surface preparation of TiO₂ anatase (101): Pitfalls and how to avoid them” by Martin Setvin et al. made it on the front page of the newest issue of 'Surface Science'.

Link to the paper

2014-May-11

• The Austrian Academy of Sciences ÖAW has different levels of membership. Ulrike Diebold has been a 'corresponding member' since 2012, and was elected a 'full member' in April 2014.

List of all new ÖAW members.
der standard

2014-Apr-26

• Congratulations to Martin and Katja!

2014-Apr-22

• The surface physics group gets additional help. Our new “UHV Technician”, Martin Leichtfried, joins us.

2014-Apr-11

• Excess electrons in TiO₂ anatase are usually delocalized and behave as quasi-free particles. They are trapped, however, at defects such as steps. This is undesired in applications where a high electrical conductivity is essential, such as the Graetzel cell. On the other hand, electron localization can be beneficial in chemical applications. For example, oxygen prefers to adsorb close to surface steps. These effects are clearly seen in STM and NC-AFM images taken by Martin Setvin and other members of the surface physics group. The experimental results have been confirmed in theoretical calculations by Xianfeng Hao, Cesare Franchini, and Geoerg Kresse from Computational Materials Physics, University of Vienna.

The results were published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Link to original publication · TU press release

2014-March-25

• Three students started in our group this month. The photo shows (from left to right) Jakub Piastek from Brno, Czech Republic; Jessi van der Hoeven from Utrecht, Netherlands; and Michele Riva from Milan, Italy. Our new friends will be staying with us for 6 months and will participate in various research projects. Jessi and Jakub are supported by the Erasmus program.

2014-Mar-14

• Our group helped organize the 27th '3S conference in St. Christoph/Arlberg. With more than 80 participants, excellent science, and enjoyable outdoor activities the conference was a success.

2014-Mar-04

• The SrTiO₃(110) surface forms a reconstruction that consists of a monolayer TiO₂, but in a special, rather unreactive - tetrahedrally coordinated - form. When oxygen vacancies are created in this layer, they move to the SrTiO₃ interface, where the resulting excess electrons form a two-dimensional gas (2DEG). Zhiming Wang, Stefan Gerhold and Bernhard Stöger from the surface physics group have measured the electronic structure of this electron gas at the synchrotron Bessy in Berlin. (There they also took the happy photo at the right.) Different from other, known 2DEG's, this system shows a pronounced anisotropy that is depends on the doping level. The experimental results are complemented by theoretical calculations by Zhicheng Zhong and Karsten Held at the Institute of Solid State Physics, and Xianfeng Hao and Cesare Franchini, Computational Materials Physics, University of Vienna.

The results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Link to original publication
TU press release · Der Standard · die Presse

2014-Nov-27

• We have been challenged to play soccer ('football' for the Brits amongst us) by the Solid State Theory group. So we have been practicing. The first time, the old people won against the young'uns. The second time the Österreicher against the Ausländer.

2014-Nov-12

• This year's Lise Meitner Lecture is given by Prof. Jocelyn Bell Burnell (Oxford University) on Tuesday, November 12, 2013, 17h at the Prechtl Saal of the TU. Prof. Bell Burnell will be talking about her breakthrough discovery - pulsars. The Lise Meitner Lectures are public talks held by famous female physicist in memory of the great Lise Meitner. The event is sponsored by the Austrian Physical Society and organized by our institute.

2013-November-05

• This month we are welcoming two esteemed visitors. Prof. Patricio Haberle from Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María in Valparaiso, Chile, will work with us for one month. Prof. Jiang-Li Cao from the the University of Science and Technology Beijing will be participating in our research project on perovskite thin films and surfaces.

2013-October-21

• After a post-doc with Mike Crommie at UC Berkeley, Alexander Riss re-joins our group. He is supported by a Schrödinger Stipendium from the FWF.

2013-October-11

• Vera Mansfeldova, from the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry visits us for three months. Her stay is sponsored by the COST Action Reducible oxide chemistry, structure and functions.

2013-September-3

• Zbynek Novotny successfully defends his dissertation entitled 'The Reconstructed Fe₃O₄(001) Surface as an Adsorption Template'. Prof. Igor Shvets from Trinity College, Dublin, serves as the second examiner. After the successful defense, Zbynek throws a great party with lots of Czech beer. Well, done, Z!

2014-Sep-02

• Anatase, a form of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is used in (photo)catalysis and many other applications. The interaction of oxygen molecules with this material is of central importance. How this happens on the atomic scale was investigated in experiments by Martin Setvin of the Surface Physics group and calculations by Annabella Selloni (Princeton University) and coworkers. It was found that O₂ interacts with oxygen vacancies in the material, resulting in O₂ (peroxo) molecules incorporated in the surface.
  These results were published in the prestigious journal Science.

Abstract with link to full text
TU press release ⋅ Princeton press release ⋅ youtube video
Articles in the media: Chemical & Engineering News ⋅ der Standard (German) ⋅ ORF (German)

2013-Aug-1

• Jan Balajka joins our group as a PhD student. Together with Stijn Mertens, he will work on electrochemical studies of oxides.

2013-Jul-25

• Last week, Gareth was selected as the winner of the US Department of Energy Postdoctoral Researcher Competition at the EFRC PI meeting in Washington DC. There he gave a talk entitled “Adsorbate Induced Adatom Mobility in a Model Catalyst: Pd/Fe3O4.”

2013-Jul-04

• Today, our group was honored by a visit of the Austrian Federal Minister for Science and Research, Prof. Dr. Karlheinz Töchterle. He visited our labs and discussed ongoing and planned research with group members.

TU press release

2013-Jul-1

• Margareta Wagner joins the group as a post-doc. She graduated from the University of Graz, where she worked with Falko Netzer and Mike Ramsey.

2013-Jun-17

• Ulrike Diebold is awarded this year's Wittgenstein Prize, the highest science prize of Austria. The 1.5-million EUR prize is awarded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and sometimes referred to as “Austria's Nobel Prize”. The prize money will boost research in the Surface Physics group.

Press releases: FWF english ⋅ german

Media coverage: ORF ⋅ der Standard ⋅ die Presse ⋅ Kurier ⋅ Wiener Zeitung

2013-Jun-10

• Metals such as gold or palladium are often used as catalysts to speed up certain chemical reactions. When the atoms ball together, most of them do not get into contact with the surrounding gas any more and the catalytic effect diminishes drastically. The mechanism of clustering is not well understood, however. In an article published in the prestigious journal Nature Materials, Gareth Parkinson and co-workers report on a detailed study of this issue; they have followed the fate of each surface atom and analyze how they are affected by different gas atmospheres. They find carbon monoxide to bind strongly to palladium atoms, helping them to move across the surface.

The article in Nature Materials (subscription required)
TU press release english ⋅ german ⋅ youtube video

2013-May-22

• Prof. Zhiqiang Mao, Tulane University, visits the group and gives a joint IAP/FOXSI seminar entitled 'Novel Quantum Phenomena in Perovskite Ruthenates'

2013-May

• Ulli, Martin and Margareta (a prospective new group member) attend the Gordon Research Conference on “Chemical Reactions at Surfaces” in Diablerets, Switzerland for a week of great talks in a spectacular setting.

2013-Apr-9

• Ulrike Diebold was awarded the 2013 Arthur W. Adamson Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Surface Chemistry from the American Chemical Society (ACS) for “significantly advancing the fundamental understanding of the surface chemistry of metal oxides, in particular TiO₂, through excellent research, writing, and lecturing.” She received the award during the 245th National ACS Meeting in New Orleans, USA, April 7-11, 2013. At the meeting, a five-session symposium was held in her honor, with contributions from more than 40 scientists from the US, Europe, and Asia.

Adamson Award · TU press release (in German)

2013-Apr-17

• Stefan Gerhold successfully defends his diploma thesis on SrTiO₃ surfaces. Here you can see him, happy and proud, with his girlfriend Birgit. Stefan continues working with us as a PhD student.

2013-March

• Lots of traveling this month: Bernhard, Stefan, Jake, and Zbynek present their research results at the German Physics Society's Spring Meeting in Regensburg. Many of us attend the PhD-Seminar of the Special Research Programme FOXSI at Hochkar, and receive valuable instructions in science and skiing. Some stay home and deal with a scheduled power outage.

2013-March

• Roland Bliem joins the group. He will be working with Gareth and Oscar on the Fe₃O₄ project.

2013-February-04

• We welcome Jonas Gloss, Jan Hulva, and Petr Mares, physics students from Brno University of Technology. They will be working with us for the next 6 months.

2013-Januar-29

• Ulrike, Zhiming, and Stefan attend a course at Twente University on 'Advanced Laser Deposition of Complex Oxides'. It included changing the filament in the RHEED gun and watching how SrRuO₃ grows on SrTiO₃.

2013-January-07

• Ilaria Valenti from the University of Modena visits our group. Her extended stay is supported by the COST Action on 'Reducible Metal Oxides'

2012-November-29

• Philipp Scheiber successfully defends his dissertation entitled 'Defects and Adsorption at Titanium Dioxide Surfaces'. Here is Philipp, with outside examiner, Prof. Vladimir Matolin from Charles University in Prague, enjoying a well-deserved drink.

2012-November-26

• Oscar Gamba Vasquez, a PhD student from Colombia, and two Master's students from Austria, Daniel Halwidl and Benjamin Daniel, join the group.

2012-November-01

• We extend a warm welcome to Dr. Stijn Mertens, who joins us from the KU Leuven. He will spearhead our new efforts in electrochemical STM.

2012-October-01

• At the institute outing in Carnuntum.

2012-October-02

• Several group members attended the annual project meeting of our SFB FOXSI at Burg Schlaining, where Zhiming Wang, Bernhard Stöger, and Stefan Gerhold presented their latest results.

• Other members of our group went to Prague to attend a COST Action meeting. Martin Setvin, Zbyněk Novotný, and Jiří Pavelec gave presentations.

• The rest of us stayed home and worked in the lab.

2012-September-21

• Our group visited the Annual Meeting of the Austrian Physics Society at Graz. Talks were given by Bernhard Stöger, Jake (Joong-Il) Choi and Zbyněk Novotný. Stefan Gerhold and Jiří Pavelec presented posters.

2012-September-10

• Zhiming Wang, Martin Setvin, Jiri Pavelec, Zbynek Novotny, and Bernhard Stöger attend this year's ECOSS conference.

2012-August-27

• Ulrike Diebold and Gareth Parkinson gave invited talks at the 224th American Chemical Society Meeting in Philadelphia (Aug. 20 - 24), and at the SPIE Conference in San Diego, respectively. Both spoke about our newest results on Fe3O4.

2012-August-15

• Gareth and Zbynek spent one week in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Together with Juan de la Figurea, they did SP-LEEM experiments on Fe3O4.

2012-July-30

• Our article “Pt₃Zr(0001): A substrate for growing well-ordered ultrathin zirconia films by oxidation”, Phys. Rev. B 86, 035451 (2012), was selected Editor's Suggestion, indicating that the editors and referees find the article of particular interest, importance, or clarity.

• Gareth Parkinson has been awarded nearly 200k by the FWF to investigate the surface chemistry of Fe3O4 surfaces.

2012-July-10

• Iris Dorner, who is doing her Bachelor thesis in our group, wins our Euro-cup bet hands down with 33 points. She receives the jackpot and treats us all for beer!

2012-July-04

• From 1 to 6 July 2012, more than 25 Nobel Laureates and more than 580 young researchers from all over the world met at Lindau, Germany, to exchange ideas, discuss projects and build international networks. IAP graduate student Zbynek Novotny was selected to attend this meeting, which was dedicated to physics.

Click here for more information about the Lindau meetings

2012-June-26

• Prof. Annabella Selloni of Princeton University vists our group during the week of June 25. She gives a joint IAP/SFB FOXSI seminar and we discuss our joint research on anatase surfaces.

Selloni's homepage

June 2012

• Jonas Gloss and Jan Hulva, physics students from Brno, are joining our group for the summer months. They are helping Jiri setting up a new chamber. Here is a picture:

2012-May-07

• The Austrian Academey of Sciences elected Ulrike Diebold as a 'corresponding member' in the class of natural sciences, exact sciences, and medicine.

Press release of the ÖAW
Press release of the TU Wien

Ulli is being warmly welcomed into the ranks of the ÖAW:

• In the latest issue of Physical Review Letters [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 216103 (2012)], Zbyněk Novotný and colleagues describe the discovery of highly stable single gold atoms on a magnetite (Fe₃O₄) surface. This observation is expected to facilitate catalysis research: On the other substrates studied so far, gold atoms don't stay alone but easily form large clusters, which are considered less active catalysts than single atoms.

Press release of the TU Wien
APS Physics article
Chemical&Engineering News article
Articles in the media: ORF Science, Wiener Zeitung, der Standard, Deutschlandradio, phys.org, nanowerk, …

• Ulrike Diebold has received a prestigious ERC Advanced Grant for her project OxideSurfaces, which will be funded with up to 2.5M Euro, and will run over 5 years. The project focuses on metal oxides. These materials have an extremely wide range of physical and chemical properties, and are used in catalysis, solar cells, batteries, gas sensors, and many other technical areas. Research topics are the interaction between bulk and surface defects, complex oxides, and she will also aim at scanning probe microscopy of oxides with atomic resolution in an aqueous solution.

Press release of the TU Wien
Newspaper article in "Der Standard"
Newspaper article in "Die Presse"
Further online article

2012-Jan-13

• Ulrike Diebold received an invitation to join the editorial board of Physical Review Letters (PRL). She will act as an associate editor for the Material Physics Division from 2012 - 2014. PRL reports on the 'hottest and newest' in all of physics, from high-energy to solid state to astrophysics. It is the most highly-respected journal in physics, and serving on its board is a true honor.
  

2012-Jan-12

• The Austrian Fund for (FWF) has approved a new doctoral program 'Building Solids for Function' 'SolidFun'. The program will be providing students with the opportunity to pursue interdisciplinary research. Groups from chemistry, physics, and electrical engineering departments at the TU are participating. The Surface Physics Group at IAP, headed by Ulrike Diebold, will also be part of this new doctoral program. The application process will start this Spring.

2011-Sep-30

• With his retirement as professor at the TU Wien, Peter Varga took a new position at the Brno University of Technology, and at the Central European Institute of Technology, CZ . Although he had a farewell party at the TU, he will continue giving courses here. He also continues to be a member of the Surface Physics Group.

2011-Sep-01

• In an unusual location, the Opera House of Wrocław, Poland, Professor Ulrike Diebold gave a plenary talk at Europe's largest conference on surface science, ECOSS-28. The topic of Ulrike's talk was the Surface Science of Metal Oxides; she discussed recent progress, challenges, and opportunities in this area. The ECOSS-28 conference was attended by more than 650 participants, including IAP members Michael Schmid, Zbyněk Novotný, Philipp Scheiber, Gareth Parkinson, Peter Jacobson, and Sameena Shah Zaman, who also gave presentations on their recent research.

2011-Mar-15

• Today is the official start of the Sonderforschungsbereich (SFB) “Functional Oxide Surfaces and Interfaces”. Results of this four-million-Euro research program are expected to have an impact on applications in catalysis, gas sensing, fuel cells and microelectronics. The SFB unites researchers from the TU Wien and the Universities of Vienna, Innsbruck and Siegen (Germany). Three of the ten project leaders in the SFB are members of our institute, two of them in Surface Physics group! Ulrike Diebold will work on pervoskites, Michael Schmid will study ultrathin zirconia films, and Josef Redinger (CMS group) leads the theory part and. See the TU Wien press release (in German) and the abstract of the SFB for more details.

2010-May-28

• In the Cathedral of Lund, in a grand ceremony, Peter Varga was conferred an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Lund, Sweden. The degree was awarded for his outstanding contributions to materials science on the atomic scale.
  
  

2010-May-14

• Newly appointed professor Ulrike Diebold has discovered that hydrogen bonding plays a key role in the diffusion of organic molecules across solid surfaces. By gaining and losing hydrogen atoms, catechol molecules rotate in a dance-like motion along the titanium rows of a TiO₂ surface. These results have been published in the prestigious journal Science [Li et al., Science 328, 882-884 (2010)]. The work was also featured in Chemical and Engineering News [C&EN 88, 29 (2010)].
  
  

2010-Jan-04

• Prof. Ulrike Diebold has moved from Tulane University (New Orleans, LA, USA) to TU Wien and started her position as full professor of surface science at our institute. Welcome to the Surface Physics group!

2007-Dec-14

• Michael Schmid is appointed member of the Junge Kurie ('Young Acedemy') of the Austrian Acedemy of Sciences.

2007-Jul-16

• By scanning tunneling microscopy Peter Varga und Michael Schmid and members of their Surface Physics Group have revealed the atomic structure of oxides used in catalysts. See the press release.

2006-Jul-28

• The Surface Physics Group celebrates its 25^th publication in Physical Review Letters. Congratulations!
  The 25^th PRL isn't about silver; although one might expect this for a silver jubilee; oxidation of silver happened to be the topic of the 24^th PRL of this group.