About the Seminar:
In the first part of this talk, it will be shown that glancing angle deposition with magnetron sputtering is a user-friendly route to fabricate nanocolumnar thin films (NCTFs) of metals and metal-oxides in large areas of several square centimeters and above (scaling-up is feasible) in a single-step process. This is in clear contrast to nanolithography techniques. The development of the nanocolumnar morphology is the result of atomic shadowing, atomic diffusion, and surface relaxation. In the second part of the talk, several applications where NCTFs are of relevance will be described, discussing how and why these nanostructured materials can be used in functional devices. For energy and environment: as magnetic nanopillars with tailored properties, as nanostructured surfaces with photo-induced self-cleaning properties, as nanostructured layers to improve perovskite solar cells, and as black metal coatings in the visible range. For biomedicine: as antibacterial coatings in orthopedic implants, as bioelectrodes for electrical stimulation, as templates for chemical sensing by surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy, and as working electrodes in the electrochemical detection of molecules. Finally, for the aerospace industry: as nanostructured coatings that mitigate the undesirable multipactor effect (which can prevent the correct performance of radio-frequency devices or even damage them).

About the Speaker:

Dr. José Miguel García-Martín is a research scientist in the Spanish National Research Council, CSIC, and he works at the Institute of Micro and Nanotechnology (Madrid). He is also a co-founder of Nanostine, a spin-off company that fabricates nanoparticles and nanostructured coatings by sputtering. He obtained his PhD in Physics at Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 1999. He then spent about three years at the Solid-State Physics Lab at Paris-Saclay University (France) on an individual Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship. He joined CSIC in 2003. In 2017 he was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Northeastern University (Boston). Currently, he studies metal and metal-oxide nanostructures with applications in information and communications technology, energy, and biomedicine. He has coordinated several international projects with partners in the U.S.A., France, Greece, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, and Colombia. He led the Nanoimplant project, which in 2014 won the IDEA2Madrid Award, a partnership between the Madrid Government and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2023 he received the Award of The Royal Spanish Society of Physics (RSEF) and the BBVA Foundation for the best dissemination article. He has co-authored 110 articles, 7 book chapters and 3 patents, and has given about 50 Invited talks. He is the Past Chair of the Spain chapter of IEEE Magnetics Society, he is a member of the Administrative Committee of that Society and is its representative on the IEEE Nanotechnology Council. He is also a member of the Council of Advisors of the Nanotechnology Engineer Program at Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico).