IAP News Archive 2006-2015

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2015-December-31

• After 9 years of service Prof. Herbert Störi ended his term as head (“Institutsvorstand”) of IAP as planned and handed over his office to Fritz Aumayr. From November 9th, 2006 until December 31st, 2015 he guided the institute through most difficult times and managed to expand the lab and office space of our institute considerably. During this period, two new Professors were hired and the measurable “output” of the institute increased tremendously both in quality and quantity. Herbert Störi will still continue his research work and teaching as a Professor.

Herbert, we all are very grateful for your work! Thank you very much!

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 animation and watch the water dance.

The paper
TU press release in English or German
APA der Standard

2015-Dec-1

• Effective of Dec 1st, 2015 Fritz Aumayr was appointed as a full professor of ion and plasma physics. He joined our institute in 1982. In addition to his highly successful research work Fritz Aumayr is since several years the head of research unit of the Austrian research program on nuclear fusion. To our students he is well known for his excellent introductory physics lectures.

Curriculum Vitae
Research Group of Fritz Aumayr
Fusion@ÖAW

2015-Nov-2

• In a short video the research activities of our faculty are introduced to a broader public.

"Follow me around video" (in German)

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-10

• Researchers of the IAP surface physics group nicely show how a prototype catalytic reaction works. They have studied a supported catalyst, platinum on magnetite (Fe₃O₄), and demonstrate the important role of the oxide support. CO oxidation 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 were published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition and provide the groundwork for improving catalysts.

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

2015-June-30

• Margareta Wagner of the Surface Physics Group 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.

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. With now three START awardees and one Wittgenstein laureate, Gareth also makes our institute one of the most successful institutions in this respect!

TU press release (German)

2015-April-21

• Since almost two decades, it was widely believed that tiny structures made of lipid molecules and proteins wander within the membrane of a cell. These so-called molecular rafts would be important for cellular processes. Now a team of researchers around Eva Sevcsik and Gerhard Schütz of the IAP biophysics group could show that it's all different! The results have been published in Nature Communications.

Article in Nature Communications
TU press release in English and German
Media coverage: Austrian Press Agency (APA) · der Standard

2015-March

• Founded in 1652, the Leopoldina is one of the oldest academies of science in the world. In the March 2015 elections the class of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Engineering elected 11 new members, one of them is Ulrike Diebold.

TU press release (German)

2014-December-22

• Mitochondria are essential for our cells, they produce the energy carrier ATP. Unfortunately, mitochondria are too small for scrutiny by conventional light microscopy. Using superresolution microscopy techniques, the IAP biophysics group has determined where the relevant proteins are located in mitochondria, which provides important insights into how mitochondria work. These results are published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

Article in PNAS
TU press release (German)
Media coverage: APA · der Standard

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-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-June-2

• Wolfgang Husinsky and his co-workers have demonstrated for the first time that an array of nanoantennas (central nanotips inside sub-micrometer pits) on an aluminum surface, fabricated using a specific double-pulse femtosecond laser irradiation scheme, results in a 28-fold enhancement of the non-linear (three-photon) electron photoemission yield. The results are reported in the latest issue of Laser Physics Letters.

Link to original publication.
Press release of the TU Wien (in German), Der Standard

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-April-18

• A bullet fired through a block of wood will slow down. In a similar way, ions are decelerated when they pass through a solid material: the thicker the material, the larger the energy loss will be. However, this picture breaks down in ultra-thin target materials, which only consist of a few layers of atoms. This was recently demonstrated by Fritz Aumayr and his group in collaboration with the Helmholtzzentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. The results are reported in the latest issue of Physical Review Letters

Link to original publication.
TU press release (in German), TU press release (in English), HZDR press release
APA article ORF.at Der Standard Silicon Saxony

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 APA article der standard die Presse

2014-Jan-31

• Read about the research work of Professor Gerhard Schütz on today's news page of TU Wien (in German).

2013-Nov-08

• 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-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: Article in Chemical & Engineering News ⋅der Standard (German) ⋅ ORF (German)

2013-Jul-04

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

TU press release

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 IAP 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
Media coverage: ORF ⋅ Chemie.de

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-Jan-16

• As of 1 January 2013 the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) has appointed Professor Friedrich Aumayr as “Head of Research Unit” of Association EURATOM-ÖAW. In this function he will coordinate the nuclear fusion research activities in Austria.
  Media coverage: press release of TU Wien (in German), APA Austria Presse Agentur, derStandard.at (online), EFDA newsletter

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-Oct-08

• Research activities of the Atomic and Plasma Physics Group of IAP in the field of nuclear fusion are prominently mentioned in this week's cover story of the Austrian weekly magazine PROFIL. Read the full story (in German).
  
  

2012-Sep-18

• In collaboration with the Helmholtzzentrum Dresden-Rossendorf Fritz Aumayr and his group could clarify, why under certain circumstances the impact of a slow highly charged ion produces a crater on the surface while in other experiments a nano-hillock is observed. Their results are reported in the latest issue of Physical Review Letters Phys. Rev. Lett. 109 (2012) 117602.
  Media coverage: Press release of the TU Wien (in German), Press release of Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Der Standard, APA, pro-physik.de
  

2012-Sep-04

• IAP graduate student Katharina Dobes (AG-Aumayr) and her QCM experiment are featured as “Picture of the Week” on the Top Page of the EFDA website. Read the full story on "The Physicist and the Pea"
  
  

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-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

• 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-Jul-01

• Professor Gerhard J. Schütz, formerly at the University of Linz, has been appointed professor of biophysics. He will establish a biophysics group at our institute. Due to technical and space limitations, for the time being, his labs will be in the building of the chemistry department.

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! Ulrike Diebold will work on pervoskites, Josef Redinger leads the theory part and Michael Schmid will study ultrathin zirconia films. See the TU Wien press release (in German) and the abstract of the SFB for more details.

2010-Sep-10

• In its latest issue ITER newsline #145 reports on fusion research in the Atomic and Plasma Physics Group at IAP
  
  

2010-Jul-14

• At last weeks ECAMP10 conference in Salamanca, Spain Fritz Aumayr has been elected as the new chair of the AMOP (atomic, molecular and optical physics) division of the European Physical Society (EPS). In this function he will also be the international chair of the next ECAMP11 meeting to be held in Aarhus 2013. For more infos see the TU press release (in German)
  
  

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-Feb-26

• Robert Ritter, PhD student in the Atomic and Plasma Physics Group has been awarded a prestigious DOC-Stipendium by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, which will allow him to pursue his studies on nanostructure formation due to impact of slow highly charged ions for the next 2.5 years. Austrian Federal Minister of Science and Research Prof. Dr. Beatrix Karl handed over the certificate to him in a celebration on Feb.26, 2010 at the Academy of Sciences in Vienna.
  
  

2010-Jan-08

• The Atomic and Plasma Physics Group has produced a PR-movie Deep Impact - Highly Charged Ion Research at TU Wien, which is now online on YouTube.

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.

2009-Oct-01

• After 34 years of service our well known trade mark name “Institut für Allgemeine Physik” has been changed by the university administration to “Institut für Angewandte Physik” (Institute of Applied Physics). Our acronym (IAP), however, stays the same, as will the quality of our research and teaching.

2009-Sept-01

• The Computational Materials Science group moves to the Makartvilla, the former studio of painter Hans Makart and an architectural jewel, which is now a building of the TU Wien. The street address is Gußhausstraße 25-25a/134, 1040 Wien, Austria (see the map).

2009-June-01

• Ayman S. El-Said, post-doctoral researcher in the Atomic and Plasma Physics Group has been awarded a prestigious “Humboldt Research Fellowship” by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. His fellowship will take him to Forschungszentrum Dresden in Rossendorf/Germany, where he will start his work in fall 2009. We wish him success for his future career and hope for fruitful collaborations.

2009-Mar-03

A major relaunch of the IAP/TU Wien webpages, replacing the decade-old design. You will still find a few legacy pages or pages under construction – sorry for the inconvenience!

We could not test everything with all web browsers. If you have problems with it or suggestions how to improve it, please send an email to Michael Schmid ([email address: lastname @ this server · enable javascript to see it]) or Wilhelm Hofer ([email address: lastname @ this server · enable javascript to see it]).

2008-Dec-01

• Ille C Gebeshuber leaves the Atomic and Plasma Physics Group of our institute and takes a new position as professor in a newly founded nanotechnology lab at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

2008-Oct-06

• In collaboration with Fronius International Corp. Herbert Störi und Johann Laimer from the Surface & Plasma Technology Group have developed a new portable plasma cutting system. See the press release.

2008-Jun-25

• The first Hannspeter Winter Prize of the TU Wien, named for the late head of our institute, was awarded to physicist Bianca Mladek. See the press release.

2008-Jun-16

• Fritz Aumayr and members of his Atomic and Plasma Physics Group demonstrate nanoscale modifications of surfaces by impact of slow highly charged ions. See the press release.

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-Nov-21

• In the ultra-short laser lab (Wolfgang Husinsky, Atomic and Plasma Physics Group) the Darwin principle is applied to optimize material modification with lasers. See the press release.

2006-Nov-08

• We sadly report that the head of the Institute, Hannspeter Winter unexpectedly passed away. Read our
  Obituary (in German), learn about his
  Curriculum Vitae, or browse through his impressive
  List of Publications.
  Wikipedia entry, Obituary of TU Wien (in German)

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.

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