Table of Contents

News

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

Saeed Rasouli joins the group

 Saeed Rasouli 2023-Nov-06 This fall the new funding period for the TU-D doctoral school is starting, and with it come the new students. First to join is Saeed Rasouli on the sub-project “Probing and manipulating atomic-scale defects on surfaces of 2D materials”, seen here trying to achieve this with noncontact atomic force microscope on a PtSe2 surface. Welcome!

European Reseacher's Night

The joint forces of TU Wien and Uni Wien presenting their research at the ERN 2023. From left to right: Ivonne Ventura Rosales, Moritz Eder, Stefan Uttenthaler, Alexander Imre, Florian Buchner, Moritz Zelenka, Martin Unzog, Carolin Faller, Marco Corrias and Michele Riva (kneeling). Not on the picture, but equalliy involved: Andrea Angeletti, Niraj Kushwaha, Lorenzo Celiberti, Luigi Ranalli, Michele Reticcioli, and Thomas Ruh. 2023-Sep-29

Together with our colleagues from the University of Vienna, we had a booth at this year's European Researcher's Night in Vienna at the University of Applied Arts, representing TACO and SCI-PHI. From 3 PM to 11:59 PM, we did experiments, explained methods, answered questions, and entertained curious visitors with science!

Erik Rheinfrank Wins Poster Prize at NCAFM 2023!

A visibly happy Erik receiving his well-deserved poster prize 2023-Sep-28

Keep'em coming! Erik Rheinfrank has won the poster prize at the 24th International Conference on Non-Contact Atomic Force Microscopy (NCAFM2023) in Singapore. Apart from fame and honor, there is some prize money involved: 200 Singapore dollars (~140€) for Erik. Just in time for his birthday a few days later!

Joint TACO-Nanocat Conference 2023 in Vienna

The attendees of the TACO 2023 conference on the terrace of TUtheSky - one of the best views over the city! 2023-Sep-24-27

In a joint effort by the subgroups of TACO and Nano-CATalysis, the 2023 TACO conference was hosted in TUtheSky in the centre of Vienna. With a program full of top notch speakers, we had a great time over the rooftops of Vienna with plenty of discussions, coffee, and picturesque posters. Thanks to everybody who made this conference a big success, lots of fun, and a great scientific experience!

Igor Sokolović Wins ÖPG Dissertation Prize

Igor Sokolović (third from the left) has won this year's ÖPG dissertation prize. 2023-Sep-05

We are proud to announce that Igor Sokolović has won one of this year's three ÖPG dissertation prizes for his PhD thesis "Complex oxide surfaces studied at the atomic scale with AFM/STM and DFT". Hats off, Igor! With the prize come several rewards: an invitation for a talk (went well with a diverse audience) and an award ceremony (Prof. Christian Teichert hands out the award as the president of the ÖPG) at this year's annual meeting held in Basel, Switzerland, a cash prize (spent with friends and colleagues on food and drinks), an award certificate (safe in a drawer), and an ÖPG-decorated mug: guess which one gets the most exposure!

David Kugler Joins the Group

David Kugler is ready for some exciting stuff at the low temperature apparatus. 2023-Sep-01

David Kugler, who had been working in our group as Erasmus student some months ago, has returned to do his PhD with us. Together with Jan Balajka, he will be working on the structure of metal oxide surfaces and their reactivity to water. Welcome to the team, David!

Surface Science for Quantum Computing

Christian Flasch (left) and Matthias Preidl (right) after their successful defenses with their proud supervisors Ullu and Margareta. 2023-Aug-23

Christian Flasch and Matthias Preidl did their masters theses at a company, where they applied surface science methods to improve technology for quantum computing. Their work was co- co-directed by Margareta Wagner, and both successfully defended their theses today. Congratulations!

Faith Has Joined the Group

Faith has arrived in the lab and is ready to go!. 2023-Aug-14

We are happy to welcome our new colleague Faith Lewis. Having finished her Master's degree in Chicago, she came all the way across the great lake to join the SAC crew. Welcome to the team, Faith!

VACOM Nachhaltigkeitspreis for Moritz!

We spared no effort for maximum knwoledge transfer. 2023-Jul-21

The German Vacuum Society has awarded Moritz the VACOM sustainability prize (Nachhaltigkeitspreis) for his PhD thesis on Alcohol Photocatalysis on Titania in UHV. As a research stimulus, it comes with 15.000€ earmarked prize money for equipment. The generous support is happily received. Nice!

KinderUni Workshop on Energy

We spared no effort for maximum knwoledge transfer. 2023-Jul-11

At this year's KinderUni, Alex, Stefan, Moritz and another Moritz from Ellen Backus' group at Uni Wien gave a workshop on energy for the kids. Needless to say, scientific principles are most adequately explained by hands-on experiments. It was a morning full of Tesla coils, lightning discharges, making ice cream from liquid nitrogen, and burning gummi bears, also documented here, here and here.

Group Barbecue at Donaulinsel

Margareta is now officially an associate professor! 2023-May-15

With the weather being much nicer than predicted, we enjoyed ourselves at one of the barbecue spots at the Donauinsel. After the group kebab and the group barbecue, what will the next exciting culinary excursion be…?

Margareta Becomes Assistant Professor!

Margareta is now officially an associate professor! 2023-May-8

We are more than happy to announce that Margareta Wagner has been appointed to assistant professor in our group. Congratulations to your well-earned position, Margareta!

Kebap Time is Quality Time

The legendary photographer D. Rath (front) is taking a picture of the group (back) 2023-May-4

As it is tradition, we officially celebrated the warm spring weather with a hearty Kebap from the Naschmarkt.

ICSOS Surface Structure Prize for Michael Schmid

Prof. Dr. Michael Schmid 2023-May-2

For his outstanding achievements in the development and application of methods to elucidate the structure of the surfaces of metal alloys, surface oxides, bulk oxides and single atom catalysts using scanning probe microscopies and complementary DFT and quantitative LEED methods, the 2023 ICSOS Surface Structure Prize will be awarded to Michael Schmid at this year’s ICSOS conference in Badersee. Judging from the list of previous prize winners, Michael has been admitted to the Hall of Fame of Surface Science. Congratulations, Michael!

Lena on Parental Leave

Last group Lunch for Lena (blue arrow). Middle: Alex (standing) is wishing her the best from our group, along with emotional as well as financial support.

2023-Apr-14

Our treasured group member Lena Puntscher (née Haager) will temporarily leave our group as she is expecting a young daughter to see the light of day soon. We are looking forward to welcoming her back and saying hello to her firstborn child. All the best wishes to the Puntscher family!

Giada wins Peter Varga Poster Prize

Giada receiving the well-earned prize.

2023-Mar-17

Some of us visit the famous Symposium on Surface Science (3S) conference which took place in Courmayeur, Italy. We learn much about on-surface synthesis and other latest news in our field, and enjoy outdoor discussions with colleagues. To top it off, Giada wins the Poster Prize that has been instigated in memory of Peter Varga. Congratulations, Giada!

Ulli awards the prizes for this year's Physikolympiade

From left to right: Alexander Friedrich (organizer), Saya Ahmad (district manager), the winners Luca Kummer, Donata Giulini, Elias Hummer, and Ulli Diebold.

2023-Mar-03

In order to foster Austria's future scientists, Ulli Diebold awarded the prizes to this year's winners of the Viennese Physicist Olympics (”Physikolympiade Landeswettbewerb Wien”). Congratulations to the winners!

Marie Curie Fellowship for Moritz!

Moritz just received the good news.

2023-Feb-13

Moritz (see picture) is visibly happy about the good news that his MSCA proposal for a prestigious European postdoctoral fellowship has been accepted. Going by the catchy acronym SCI-PHI, the EU will provide generous funding for two years of research with Gareth on Single-atom Catalysis in Photocatalytic Investigations. Congratulations!

Atomic details of muscovite mica

Atomic-scale details of muscovite mica cleaved in UHV.

2023-Jan-13

Mica is a naturally occurring 2D mineral that has been around for ages in the scientific community. Its perfect cleavage planes have been exploited for numerous surface and interfacial studies. Despite the popularity of mica, some questions about the system still remain - for instance, what is the distribution of its surface K ions? In a recent paper in Nature Communications by Giada Franceschi et al., we show clear nc-AFM images of muscovite mica cleaved in UHV, which unveil the arrangement of its surface K ions. We rationalize the distribution with the help of DFT and Monte Carlo simulations. The work is part of our ERC project 'WatFun'. More details can be found at the TU press release, at idw-online.de, and at orf.at.

New funding for doctoral school TU-D

Graphene is the most famous 2D-material.

2022-Dec-02

The Austrian Science Fund FWF has officially accepted the proposal TU-D, co-authored by Ulrike and Gareth. The FWF will continue to fund an interdisciplinary doctoral school with 2 mio. € at the TU Wien, which focuses on so-called two-dimensional materials - compounds which consist of a single atomic layer and bear immense potential for various technical applications.

Gareth elected as AVS fellow

Gareth Parkinson at the award ceremony, accompanied by AVS Trustee Lara Gamble and AVS President Timothy A. Gessert.

2022-Nov-09

Gareth Parkinson has officially been elected as Fellow of the American Vacuum Society (AVS) at the AVS conference in Pittsburgh. Only 0.5% of AVS platinum members “who have made sustained and outstanding technical contributions in areas of interest to AVS” receive this prestigious award. Hats off, Gareth!

Hao Yin has joined our group

Hao Yin has arrived at his office desk and is looking forward to diving into the lab work.

2022-Nov-03

Our new PostDoc Hao Yin has joined Gareth's single-atom catalysis group. As a Marie Curie Fellow with his project Adv-SAEC, he's up to some serious single-atom electrochemistry. We're happy to have you on board, Hao!

Sebastian's successful diploma defense

Dipl.-Ing. Sebastian Brandstetter in his home base, the RT STM lab.

2022-Oct-18

Sebastian Brandstetter has successfully defended his diploma thesis today. Congratulations, Mr. Diplomingenieur!

Andrea is back!

Andrea Conti has returned

2022-Oct-17

After the successful defense of his master's thesis, Andrea Conti has started his PhD thesis in our group. Happy to have you back, Andrea!

Microscopy Today Innovation Award for measuring the acidity of individual surface atoms!

The proud winners Ulrike, Margareta and MichaelThe microscopy award, nice and shiny

2022-Oct-17

Margareta, Ulrike and Michael have won this year's Microscopy Today Innovation Award, together with Bernd Meyer and Martin Setvín. They invented the non-contact AFM technique ARPAS, which allows the atomically-resolved determination of proton affinity of surface atoms. Kudos to the winners!

Laurea for Andrea

Andrea is receiving his degree

2022-Sept-29

Andrea Conti has successfully defended his master's thesis at Universita' degli studio di Milano. He will join us soon for his Ph.D. Congratulations!

Florian Kraushofer wins best dissertation 2022 from the Austrian Physical Society

Florian receiving his award at the ÖPG annual meeting in Leoben

2022-Sep-28

Florian Kraushofer's PhD thesis was judged to be the best dissertation in physics produced in Austria during 2022 by the Austrian physical society (ÖPG). In recognition he received an invited talk at the ÖPG annual meeting, a fancy certificate, and a check for 1000 euros. Not bad!

Lena Puntscher wins best student presentation at the IVC meeting in Sapporo!

Lena pictured with her prize certificate after the presentation ceremony

2022-Sep-15

Serial prizewinner Lena Puntscher was at it again in Japan earlier this month, winning the prize for best student presentation at the IVC (International Vaccum Congress) annual meeting in Sapporo. Congratulations Lena, but to be honest we have come to expect nothing less!

SAC: Everything you always wanted to know, yet were afraid to ask

2022-Sep-09

Single-atom catalysis, or SAC for short, is one of the prime research areas in our surface physics group. Florian Kraushofer and Gareth Parkinson have now published a review article in Chemical Reviews that summarizes the current knowledge derived from well-characterized model systems.

Igor Wins Prize for Best Oral Presentation

2022-Sep-02 Prize ceremony at ECOSS-35

Igor Sokolović wins the Prize for Best Oral Presentation, for his talk entitled “Two distinct two-dimensional electron gases appearing at truly bulk-terminated, cleaved SrTiO3(001)” at the ECOSS 35, the European Conference on Surface Science in Luxembourg. Congrats, Igor, well done!

Electron Physics on Polar Surfaces

2022-Jul-25

The special properties of polar oxide surfaces have been fascinating us for a while. A recent paper in the journal Nature Communications describes the many configurations electrons can assume on the as-cleaved surface of KTaO3, which is an intrinsically polar material. . The paper is based on a collaboration with our friends from Uni Wien, within our SFB TACO.

More detailed descriptions can be found here and here.

Lena Puntscher

2022-Jul Lena with her surface

We congratulate Lena, now with last name Puntscher, to her recent wedding. She immediately recognizes the special surface that the group created as our wedding gift.

Master Thesis Michael Brunthaler

2022-Jun-21 The LSMO crew

After successfully growing high-quality LSMO(001), identifying an interesting surface structure, writing up the results in his thesis, and surviving being grilled by three physics professors, Michael receives his well-deserved degree. Erik, Michele, and Giada were always happy to help, and now they are happy to congratulate our new graduate.

Gareth Parkinson is AVS Fellow

2022-Jun-08 AVS logo

Gareth Parkinson is elected to Fellowship in the AVS, the professional society for the Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing. Amongst many of the most esteemed heroes in our field, his name appears now in this list. Congratulations, Gareth - well deserved!

STO and Pizza

2022-Jun-02 Pizza with the Italians

Every good, in-depth discussion about surfaces should ideally start with a tasty lunch. Like this one, which lead to a lively exchange on SrTiO3 (or, short, STO) with our collaborators at Uni Wien in our TACO project.

An Italian Wedding

Much rice for much happiness

2022-May-27

Giada Franceschi and Michele Riva tie the knot in a fabulous wedding close to Milan, Italy. We wish them all the happiness in the world!

Play Hard, Work Hard

2022-Mar-30

We very much enjoy the IAP's Spring Fest, and celebrate the 'Fritz' we receive for our group's movie entry. The following day, we spring-clean the lab. With everyone pitching in, all vacuum parts are now neatly organized.

It's Spring. It's Kebabtime...

Spring 2022

2022-Mar-24

… and, yet again, we enjoy the nice, warm weather and the food from Naschmarkt.

Medals for Surface Physics

2022-Mar-18

As described on our institute's news page, the 3S'22 was a big success. Several group members gave well-received scientific contributions. And we proudly present the winners of the gold and silver medals of this year's giant slalom race: Current PhD student David Rath and former PhD student Roland Bliem, respectively. (Group leader Ulli also received a medal, albeit in the not-quite-so competitive category of 'senior females'.)


Moritz is Back!

2022-Feb-15

Moritz Eder, who visited our labs a while ago, has finished his studies at TUM. He joins Gareth's Single-Atom Catalysis task force as a post-doc, enhancing our group with valuable chemistry expertise.


How to Create Flat Oxide Surfaces

2022-Feb

Achieving flat morphologies on oxides is a key ingredient for thin film growth and for high-quality surface science experiments. In a recent paper in JVST, Giada Franceschi, Michele Riva et al. summarize our experience with a variety of oxide materials. We find that the surface reconstructions, and switching between reducing and oxidizing conditions, play a major role. The paper is featured in an AIP Scilight.

Erasmus 2022

2022-Feb

We warmly welcome international students supported by the Erasmus program. As seen in the photo, they started to work on their respective projects right away. (A) Andrea Conti, Università degli Studi di Milano; (B) Dominik Hrůza, VUT Brno; (C) David Kugler, VUT Brno; (D) Vojta Mikerásek, VUT Brno in the office and (inset) in the lab.

Why and How Savitzky-Golay Filters Should be Replaced

2022-Feb

Noisy data? Smoothing giving you artifacts? Doesn't work near the boundary of your data set? In a recent paper with this catchy title, Michael Schmid has analyzed common smoothing routines. Notably, he has created a new filter kernel based on a modified sync function (and appropriately named 'MS'). He provides the solution to your problems, as well as convenient plug-ins for all sorts computer codes.

Florian Kraushofer says good-bye

2022-Jan-30

Florian Kraushofer has spent many productive years in our group and has become a friend to many of us. Now he is off to assume a post-doc position at TUM in Munich. We are sad to see him go but wish him the best in his new position.

Chunlei Wang joins us from Sweden

Chunlei in TPD lab

2021-Nov-20 . A new post-doc, Chunlei Wang joins the group. With experience from his Ph.D. at UTSC in China and post-doc at KTH in Sweden, he brings valuable expertise in catalysis. And, as you can see from this photo, he also does not shy away from UHV work. Welcome, Chunlei!

Lena Wins AVS Student Prize

The Platinum Award!

2021-Nov-17

Congratulations to Lena Haager, who won the prize for best student presentation in the “Fundamental Discoveries in Heterogeneous Catalysis” focus session of AVS 67.

Luca's first day on the job....

One the way up and at the very top.

2021-Oct-01

.. coincides with our annual group hike. We sweat our way up to Hochwechsel. What a splendid location to welcome to our group Luca Lezuo, a new Ph.D. student.

TACO shows its colors

2021-Sept-27

Our new SFB project 'TACO' finally holds its first in-person meeting at TU Wien on September 27-28, 2021. We hear about first results and future plans from TACO members, and get inspired by outside speakers Bjørk Hammer (Arhus U. Denmark), O. Anatole von Lilienfeld (University of Vienna), and Stefan Freunthaler (IST Austria).

See also this press release by TU Wien

September was a good month!

2021-Sept-24

Florian Kraushofer defends his Ph.D. thesis entitled “Iron Oxide Surfaces as Support Materials for Single Atom Catalysis”. The picture shows Florina in the RT Lab, where he spent many happy hours taking data, together with his advisor, Gareth Parkinson. Congratulations!

September 15 was a good day (2/2)

Igor and Maya

2021-Sept-15

Igor Sokolović defends his Ph.D. thesis entitled “Complex oxide surfaces studied at the atomic scale with AFM/STM and DFT“. In the photo, you can see how happy he is, and how proud Maja is. Igor will continue working with Martin Setvin as a post-doc, supported by Martin's FWF project SUPER.

September 15 was a good day (1/2)

Alex

2021-Sept-15

Alex Imre, who did his Bachelor work with us some time ago, re-joined the group as a Ph.D. student. He will be working on our ViPErLEED project, supported by SFB TACO. Welcome back, Alex!

Lena wins Best Poster Prize

2021-July-23

Some of us attend the first real, life, in-person conference in a long time. It takes place in Prague and we learn a lot about clusters on and off surfaces. It is very nice to meet colleagues face-to-face. And, to top it all off, Lena Haager wins a Best Poster Prize!

3G

Happy!

2021-July-10

It has been exactly three weeks since all group members had a chance to receive their first vaccination shot. According to Austria's 3G rule, we can finally celebrate all our achievements from this past year. Our outdoor group meeting lasts well into the starry night.

Build the Wall! Build the Wall!

2021-July-07

In order to keep those voices out, we have been demanding a solid wall for a long time. Finally, it is being built!

Johanna is Joining

2021-July-01

We welcome a new PhD student to the group: Johanna Hütner. Together with Jan Balajka, Johanna will work on our ERC project WatFun.

American Academy of Arts & Sciences

2021-May-06

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1780. According to its webpage, the Academy “honors excellence and convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor…”. Amongst its newest members, elected in 2021, is Ulrike Diebold.

TACO: Science Manager

2021-May-03

Stefan Uttenthaler joins as the Science Manager of our SFB TACO. Stefan uses his first lunch break to explore the culinary neighborhood of Freihaus and, indeed, finds the perfectly suitable take-out dish. Welcome to TU and to the surface physics group!

How to access the acidity of individual atoms

2021-April-28

The Brønsted acidity is a fundamental chemical quantity, well-understood and tabulated for molecules. The surface physics group has now devised a novel method to determine the acidity of solid surfaces, atom-by-atom. Margareta Wagner et al. used the functionalized tip of a non-contact AFM how probe individual hydroxyls on an In2O3 surface. In conjunction with DFT-based modelling by Bernd Meyer from the FAU Erlangen, proton affinities can be assigned to individual surface atoms on oxides. The paper appeared in the journal Nature and was featured in Physics Today.

Link to TU Wien Press release Austrian Press Agency APA (in German) die Presse (in German)

Florian's Paper Selected for Cover of SAC Special Issue

2021-April-27 Florian Kraushofer's recent paper about Rh atoms on Fe2O3 has been selected for the cover of the Advanced Materials Interfaces “Single-Atom Catalysis” special issue in which it will appear. The paper can be found here

Analyzer Merry-Go-Round

2021-April-26

With lots of help by many group members:

(A) New SPECS Phoibos 150 arrives. (B) SPECS Phoibos 100 moves to q+. (C) Old SPECS Phoibos 150 moves to Omega. (D) New SPECS Phoibos 150 moves on TPD machine.

Bakeout will commence, and hopefully, we will have spectra from all chambers real soon.

Stealth Post-doc Revealed: Dr. Paul Ryan

2021-April-23

Paul Ryan has joined our group already last Fall. But now it is official: having received his PhD degree from Imperial College London, Paul can finally be employed as a post-doc by our university. He is working on our ERC project WatFun.

Review Article on Polarons in Materials

Polaron schematics

2021-March-23

In our long-standing collaboration with Cesare Franchini's group at the University of Vienna, we have often found that polarons contribute to the surface properties of metal oxides in profound ways. In a recent review article, we have taken an even broader view. The article was published this month in Nature Review Materials; a read-only version can be accessed here.

When, out of the blue, you receive an email, informing you that you have won....

Manuel and his Diplomarbeit

2021-February-26

… it could be spam. Or, it could be that you have been awarded the ÖPG Student Prize 2020. Which is what happened to Manuel Ulreich for his masters thesis entitled “Surface Science studies of Hydroformylation on a Model Single-Atom Catalyst”. Congratulations, Manuel, well-deserved!

Dr.techn. Matthias Müllner

Matthias in front of the Omega Chamber, where he has spent many hours preparing and characterizing samples. 2021-February-17

Matthias Müllner successfully defends his PhD dissertation entitled “Oxides in Aqueous Solution: Stability and Acitivity at the Atomic Scale”. This topic is at the interface between electrochemistry and surface science, and in his research, Matthias addressed scientific aspects of solving the energy problem. Congratulations, Matthias, and much success for your future endeavours!

Successful Recent Graduate: Zdenek Jakub Wins Marie Curie Individual Fellowship

2021-Feb-10

Jan Cechal and Zdenek Jakub

This past June Zdenek Jakub received his PhD. After a few more months with us, he joined CEITEC in Brno as a post-doc. With his proposal entitled “Indirect Magnetic Interactions: Tuning by Electric Fields (IMAGINE)”, Zdenek has won a prestigious Marie Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellowship. In the photo you can see him in celebratory mood with his advisor at CEITEC, Jan Cechal. Congrats, Zdenek - we are very proud of you!

Gareth Parkinson Promoted to Full Professor

Gareth S. Parkinson

2021-Feb-01

Gareth Parksinson joined our institute in 2010. Since then, he has done real well: he has published great scientific results (some of them featured on this webpage), he has acquired an FWF Start and and ERC Consolidator grant, and he has established himself as an international leader in the emerging field of 'single atom catalysis'. On top, he has been a wonderful advisor, teacher, and colleague. We are extremely happy that his achievements have now been honored with promotion to 'University Professor'. Congrats, Gareth - well deserved!

New Paper Published in Science

Paper celebrations in 2021

2020-Jan-21

*Article: Science 371, 375-379 (2021) DOI: 10.1126/science.abe5757


Job Opportunity: Science Manager for New SFB

2020-Jan-13

More details can be found here: job_ad_science_manager_sfb_taco.pdf.

Applications and inquiries should be directed to the coordinator, Ulrike Diebold, preferably before February 15, 2021.

New SFB Project

2020-Dec-16

The project is coordinated by Ulrike Diebold from our institute, and Gareth Parkinson, Michele Riva, and Michael Schmid are members of the consortium.

TU Press release (in German)

Loschmidt Prize for Peter Lackner

Loschmidt Prize Certificate

2020-Dec-15

At today's meeting of the Chemisch-Physikalische Gesellschaft (Chemical-Physical Society Vienna, CPG), a Learned Society founded 1869, Peter Lackner of the Surface Physics group will be awarded the Loschmidt Prize of the CPG for his PhD thesis Surface Science Studies on Zirconia Thin-Film Models Systems. With his PhD thesis, Peter has developed a model system to make the surfaces of ZrO2 accessible to surface science analysis methods and he could solve many open questions, e.g. why ZrO2-supported metal catalysts display the SMSI (strong metal-support interaction) effect. Congratulations!

Giada Competes for Nottingham Prize

Giada gives her talk

2020-Dec-8

The Annual Physical Electronics Conference is the oldest meeting in surface science - it was held for the 80th time this year. As part of the conference, the top students in our field compete for the Nottingham prize. This year this was particularly tough – not only was the whole conference online, but already the selection of the runner-ups was highly selective. Giada Franceschi was amongst the four finalists, gave a fantastic talk on her PhD thesis results, and was shining in the Q&A session.

Ulrike Diebold Wins 2020 Gerhard Ertl Lecture Award

Prof. Gerhard Ertl

2020-Dec-8

The Ertl Lecture Award was established in 2008 by the three Berlin universities (Humboldt University, Technical University and Free University) and the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society to commemorate the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Gerhard Ertl in 2007. The prize includes a one-week research stay at the participating Berlin institutions and a festive evening lecture. This year the prize goes to Ulrike Diebold from our Institute.

The award ceremony and the lecture entitled “Oxide Surface Chemistry at the Atomic Scale” was streamed on Thursday, 10 December 2020.

A video can be viewed here.

Announcement by the Fritz-Haber-Institute Press release TU Wien

When Human and Computer Agree

The unexpected surface structure of IrO2

Iridium oxide is an excellent catalyst for electrochemical reactions, and used for the production of hydrogen from water by electrolysis. Members of the IAP surface physics group and the Technical University of Munich have discovered that its surfaces – where catalysis happens – are quite different from what scientists have previously thought. The atoms in the near-surface layers rearrange, stabilizing otherwise unfavorable surface orientations. These structures have been found by machine learning and perfectly agree with experimental findings. The results are published in Physical Review Letters.


Retirement

Old and new. 2020-October-01

After a grand total of more than 26,400 coffees, our espresso machine is gracefully sent into retirement. It is replaced with the same model, just a bit more chic and sleek-looking. Our coffee experts calibrate it with the appropriate care and scientific accuracy, and the outcome is excellent: Note the crema!

Moritz from Munich and Ali from Mashhad

Ali and Moritz at work 2020-September-24

Two new people in our group: Moritz Eder, a PhD student at TU Munich, visits us for several months to learn a bit of STM. Ali Rafsanjani-Abbasi comes to us from Mashhad, Iran, and starts his PhD work with Gareth. We welcome them warmly and, as you can see in the picture, immediately put them to work.

Giada on Top of the World

Giada celebrates on top of TU Freihaus 2020-September-24

Giada Franceschi successfully defends her PhD dissertation entitled “Pulsed Laser Deposition of Functional Oxides with Atomic Scale Control”. Her thesis is brilliant, and she sparkled in her defense. Time for a celebration on top of TU Wien Freihaus. Congratulations!


Annual Group Hike

Hiking map and vie from the top 2020-September-8

On a glorious day with perfect weather for the outdoors, and under the competent leadership of our expert tour guide, Michael Schmid, we set out on our annual group hike. We conquer a respectable 1000 m in altitude, and we are rewarded with a great view and tasty Käsespätzle.

Creating a Group Picture During a Pandemic

Figure 1 2020-July-6

It has become a tradition to shoot a group photo at the 3rd floor of Freihaus, right across the Stephansdom, around July. This year we tried to honor not only this tradition but also social distancing rules. The figure shows how this involved: (A) Our professional photographer, David, moving his camera even further back than usual and (B) taking positions while staying safely away from each other. (C) Shows the - already edited - outcome after much running back and forth by David, who luckily shows considerable athletic in addition to artistic skills. The final photo, after some additional editing, can be admired by clicking on Group Members at the upper left of this page.

Prof. Martin Setvin, Charles University, Prague

2020-June-30

After more than eight, highly successful years in the surface physics group of our institute, Martin Setvin follows a call to Charles University in Prague, where he assumes a professorship. He will be the head of the Thin Films Group at Departement of Surface and Plasma Physics. For the next two years he will still conduct some research at our institute, however, supported by his FWF grant SUPER.

We extend our warmest congratulations!

Lena Joins the Group

Lena Haager

2020-Jun-15

Lena Haager, freshly graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry of TU, joins us as a PhD student. A warm welcome!

Dr. Zdenek Jakub

Zdenek during his online defense, in discussions with external examiner Prof. Friedrich Esch from TU Munich, and later, with drinks with advisor Gareth Parkinson (right) and co-advisor Ulrike Diebold

2020-Jun-17

Zdenek Jakub defends his thesis in digital form. Luckily, the celebration afterwards takes place the old-fashioned way, with analog champagne. Congratulations, Zdenek, on a great dissertation and excellent defense!


Molecules: How to be Gentle

Oxygen configurations on TiO<sub>2</sub> and Martin Setvin (l) and Igor Sokolovic in the lab 2020-June-09

For some molecules it is quite challenging to take images without altering them. O2, for example, dissociates into two atoms when hit with the electrons that are used in traditional imaging techniques that provide the necessary resolution. Using non-contact AFM with and a tip with one single oxygen atom at the very end, the surface physics group has managed to provide undisturbed images of O2 adsorbed on TiO2. This system has been investigated by many research groups throughout the years, and the new images have resolved several mysteries. The results were published in the journal PNAS.

TU Wien press release (in German) Eureka Alert (in English) ORF News

Original Publication: I. Sokolovic et al., Resolving the adsorption of molecular O2 on the rutile TiO2(110)-(1×1) surface by non-contact atomic force microscopy, Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences (2020)

New PhD Student Erik Rheinfrank

Erik Rheinfrank

2020-Jun-02

We welcome Erik Rheinfrank, who has joined to group as a new PhD student.

Back! (More...)

A tour through the labs

2020-Jun-02

Next phase in opening the university. A tour through the labs shows more group members at work in the Freihaus, obeying social distancing rules.

Back! (Cautiously...)

Margareta with mask

2020-May-08

The university is slowly opening up again, and we can start our experiments. Margareta, who has now re-joined our group with her Richter project, is back in the lab.

Second ERC Advanced Grant for Ulrike Diebold

ERC

2020-March-31

Ulrike Diebold is awarded an ERC Grant. In her project “Water at Oxides: A Fundamental Approach” or, in short,WatFun, she and her team will develop novel techniques to investigate 'wet' oxide surfaces at the atomic level. The project relies heavily on the surface physics' group capability of combining liquid water with UHV-based measurements, in particular with non-contact AFM. The planned reserach also builds on results from her previous ERC Advanced Grant 'OxideSurfaces'.

ERC 2019 Advanced Grant Results TU press release (in German) ORF der standard

Zoom! Celebration

2020-March-20 Zoom

As is tradition in our group, we celebrate happy news. What, exactly, we celebrate today is embargoed for the time being. Also, we are under lock-down because of coronavirus. Neither of these things stops us - cheers!

3S*20 a Big Success

2020-March-06

The IAP crew at 3S'20

Every two years, members of our institute organize the legendary Symposium on Surface Science 3S in St. Christoph am Arlberg, Austria. This year we are represented by a particularly large delegation. We discuss and present cutting edge science (including 2 lectures and 6 posters from the surface physics group) and we are having a great time skiing in the Austrian Alps.


Iris Has a Baby

2020-Feb-12


Visiting Professor from Chile

2020-Jan-15


Open Position in UHV ncAFM

2020-Jan-09

ad_tuwien_surfacescience.pdf


IWOX-12 Poster Prize to Giada

2020-Jan-09 Dario Stacchiola, Giada Franceschi and Zdenek Dohnalek


Science: Board of Reviewing Editors

2020-Jan-01 Logo


Post-docs Give a Farewell Party

2019-Dec-18 At the party.


Merry Xmas

2019-Dec-11 The surface physics group & friends in the Kuppelsaal


Loschmidt-Prize for Jan Balajka

2019-Dec-10 Jan Balajka is receiving Loschmidt Prize. Water drop is seen in the background.


ERC Grant for Gareth Parkinson

2019-Dec-10 Gareth celebrating

Gareth Parkinson receives a prestigious 'Consolidator Grant' from the European Research Council, ERC for his project entitled “E-SAC: Evolving Single-Atom Catalysis: Fundamental Insights for Rational Design”. He will utilise the tools of surface science to design and investigate systems, where the size of catalytically active nanoclusters is pushed to the ultimate limit: single atoms. Gareth has been working on this general theme for several years, funded by an FWF START prize that he received in 2015. In E-SAC, Gareth and his team will significantly expand the types of materials and reactions studied. They will devise experiments that connect ultrahigh vacuum surface science with 'realistic' conditions and environments.

Press release TU Wien (in German)


Science Prize of the City of Vienna 2019 goes to Ulrike Diebold

2019-Dec-06 Diebold

Since 1947, the City of Vienna has been awarding its Science Prize. The list of winners includes renowned scientists such as Lise Meitner, Erwin Schrödinger, and Viktor E. Frankl. This year the prize goes to Prof. Ulrike Diebold from our Institute of Applied Physics (Press release of the city of Vienna (in German)). During the award ceremony at Vienna's city hall, she was introduced with a short video (in Viennese German).

Press release TU Wien



Recognition, Cash, and Career Advancement for Martin Setvin

2019-November-15

For his outstanding habilitation thesis, Martin Setvin receives the 'Förderpreis des Kardinal Innitzer Studienfonds', which is awarded annually by the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Schönborn. Setvin is also a recent recipient of a prestigious GACR EXPRO grant, which supports excellence in fundamental research. His project “Ferroelectric Perovskites for Energy Conversion” was funded with 1.3 M Euros. He will use this money to build his research group when he assumes his professorship at Charles University in Prague.

Doctor Honoris Causa

Ulrike receives her honorary doctorate

2019-November-14

Ulrike Diebold receives an honorary doctorate from the Brno University of Technology (VUT), in a ceremony as part of the celebrations of the university's 120th anniversary. The ties between TU Wien and VUT have become even stronger!

Press release (in Czech)

Jesus comes from Prague

Jesus in the lab

2019-October

Jesus Ruben Lopez Redondo, a PhD student at the nanosurf lab in Prague, visits us for three months within the Erasmus+ program. He is working with Martin Setvin on the q+ machine.


Group Hike: Myrafälle

2019-September-27

We go hiking. Under the expert guidance of Michael Schmid, we take the train and, after a little bit of uphill and downhill, enjoy a relaxed lunch before we conquer the Myra Falls in Lower Austria.

Hao: New Life, New Wife

2019-September-25

Hao Chen, who spent the last year of his PhD studies with us, defends his thesis in Dalian. He will stay a few months in our group as a post-doc to wrap up his experiments on In2O3. Also, on his short trip back home to China he got married. Congratulations!

Academia Europaea

2019-September-18

Ulrike Diebold is elected to membership in the Academia Europaea

New Masters

David, Nico, and Sebastian

2019-Summer

This summer, three people got even more involved with the surface physics group: David Rath, who calculated the best configuration for an IRAS setup in his Masters thesis, is back to produce such a setup for real. Nico Resch starts his Masters thesis working with Gareth on single-atom-catalysis-related things. And Sebastian Brandstetter is excited to start a Masters thesis within an FFG-funded project joint with the Valtiner group and Berndorf Ges.m.b.H looking at stainless steel. (Well, not really: single crystals that have the composition of stainless steel, of course.)

Honza

2019-May-29


Triple Defense!!!

Drs. Gloss, Pavelec, and Lackner

2019-Apr-29


How to be precise

Editor's Choice TOC

2019-Apr-26


Grillplatz 11

2019-Apr-24


Spring Kebap

2019-Apr-17


Senior Scientist Michele Riva

Michele Riva

2019-Apr-15


International Brain Circulation

2019-Jan-Feb-Mar


Polarons Catch Editor's Eye

2019-Jan-10

The article: Reticcioli et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 016805 (2019)arXiv:1807.05859

Tableau Vivant Challenge

Our best effort 2018-Dec-20


Peter Varga 1946-2018

Peter_Varga 2018-Oct-27

His funeral took place on Monday, November 5, 2018 in Maria Enzersdorf (Romantikerfriedhof, Grenzgasse 7). The Institute of Applied Physics mourns the loss of a long-time colleague and a good friend!

Peter Varga: Obituary, Nachruf, List of Publications.

Stijn Mertens Moves to Lancaster

2018-October Stijn Mertens


Two New Group Members from China

2018-October Zhizhang WangHao Chen


Joint Project with CEITEC Brno

2018-Sept


ÖPG Students' Award for Sabrina Mayr

2018-Sept-12 Sabrina Mayr (right) at the Awards Ceremony


FWF turns 50, and IAP members (and many friends) help celebrating

2018-Sept-8 The Materials Pavillion at FWF Be Open Festival


New Post-doc: Francesca Mirabella

2018-September-03 Francescha


Jan Balajka Defends his PhD Thesis

2018-August-31 Jan Balajka and Miquel Salmeron


The Joys of Attending Conferences

2018-August Happy at AirBnB


The Importance of Trace Impurities and how to Avoid them

2018-Aug-24 The cleanest water drop comes from an icicle

The article in ScienceAbstract with access to full text
Perspective Article by Jeong Young Park
TU Press release in English and German
Media coverage: Der StandardORF ScienceSüddeutsche ZeitungDie WeltDie ZeitSternNew Scientistphys.orgwissenschaft.dechemie.deChemistry World, U.K.ChemEuropeLive Science, U.S.A.Index, HungaryNew Scientist, U.K.Sciences Avenir, FranceBBC Mundoc&en news

The Group Takes a Hike

2018-July-09 At Schneeberg


Visit from UK: Paul

2018-June Paul and Gareth at the RT


Building Bridges with Water Molecules

2018-June-27 Water, water everywhere!

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

Dr. Daniel Halwidl

2018-June-15


Habilitation Martin Setvin

2018-June-13 Dozent Dr. Martin Setvin


Bakeout

2018-May-09 Zhiyu with his signature sign


Spring Kebap: Record Turnout

2018-April-12 Lunch in the park


Vibration Isolation Patent

2018-March-20 High-resolution microscope suspended for vibration isolation

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

Visiting Professor from Chongqing, China

2018-March-09


Two Master Theses Defended

2018-March-19 Jakob and Sebastian with Giada and Michele

Congratulations to Jakob, Sebastian, and the PLD team!

DPG - Post-deadline Talk

2018-March-14 Melissa Hines during her post-deadline talk


DPG - German Physics Society Meeting 2018

2018-March-14 Room mates for a week


Gaede-Prize for Gareth Parkinson

2018-March-13 Gareth receives the Gaede Prize

Congratulations!

Three Group Members Placed Amongst the Top Three

2018-March-01 The Poster Presentation Winners


Erasmus!!!!!

2018-February-12 Erasmus students from Brno


Avoiding the Polar Catastrophe

The labyrinth is the way out 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 ScienceAbstract with access to full text
TU Press release in English and German
Media coverage: die PresseAPAWelt der Physik

"JSPS 141st Committee Award" for Peter Varga

Peter Varga 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!

Mandana Joins the Group

2017-December-1 Hanging meniscus.


Lighting Up the Library

2017-November/December Library Owl with


Flora: Mysteries of Tantalate

2017-November-27 Flora with well-deserved flowers


Sabrina: Caesar of Zirconia

2017-November-23 Peter, Sabrina, and Michael.


Kardinal Innitzer Award for Gareth Parkinson

Steven, Christine, Gareth, and Elena Parkinson at the Palace of the Austrian Arch Bishop 2017-November-11


Video: Vibration Isolation for High-Resolution Microscopy

Vibration Isolation for the QPlus High-Resolution Scanning Probe Microscope 2017-October-24


Visiting Professor from Cornell

2017-October-19 Prof. Melissa Hines


Featuring Polarons: PRX and Nature Reviews

2017-October-15 Nc-AFM of 1x2


How to Sputter-Deposit Ultrathin Films

2017-October-06 Sputter source glowing


Tenure for Gareth Parkinson

2017-September-01 Gareth and his research group


Erasmus Forever!

2017-July-31 Our Erasmus students at the group outing


Habilitation for Stijn Mertens

2017-July-10 Habilitationsschrift


Matthias Müllner Gets Married

2017-July-09 Matthias Wedding Band


Zhiyu Zou for Zirconia

2017-July-08 Zhiyu Zou


Group Outing

2017-July-04 Group Hike


Promotion "sub auspiciis" for Roland Bliem

2017-May-16 Dr. Roland Bliem

TU press release (in German) der standard Tiroler Tageszeitung


Intrepid in Inclement Weather

2017-May-03 Wet at Donauinsel


Florian: A Glorious Finish and A Fresh Start

2017-April-26 Gareth, Florian, and his significant other.


Vienna March for Science

2017-April-22 The surface physics group at the March for Science


Igor Joins the Group

2017-April-4 Igor builds new sensors


Traditional Spring Kebap

 Kebap at Naschmarkt  Erasmus students trying new maneuvers

2017-March-28


Switching Oxygen Molecules On and Off

2017-March-14 The qPlus sensor with the tip at the left

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


Tutorial Review on Surface Defects in Bulk Oxides

2017-March-03 photo


TU Ball 2017

2017-January-26 TU Ball 2017


Degree for Iris

2017-January-18 Iris Dorner celebrates her degree


Research Funding is A-Comin'

2016-December-23

Happy New Year!

“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!

Grp Goes Brno

2016-December-7 The Group in Brno


Oscar Defends his Dissertation

2016-October-21 Dr. Oscar Gamba with Gareth Parkinson


Habilitation Gareth Parkinson

Gareth Parkinson 2016-October-03


Bilge Returns to MIT

2016-August-31 Bilge and Michele


A Big Week for Roland

2016-July-29 Dr. Bliem and his new wife

We wish the beautiful couple much happiness and continued success.

The Pairing and Separation of Pt Atoms

2016-July-28 A Pt dimer at the Fe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> surface

Original Publication
TU press release · Der Standard · Tiroler Tageszeitung

Zdenek Jakub

2016-July-16 Zdenek


Making it Stick on the Cover of Nature

2016-June-30


The Group Bikes

2016-June-21 In Illmitz (Photo: Daniel Halwidl)


Christian Doppler Award for Roland Bliem

2016-June-17 LR Martina Berthold, Daniel Rettenwander, Roland Bliem (http://service.salzburg.gv.at/lkorrj/Index?cmd=detail_ind&nachrid=56686)

Salzburger Nachrichten
Aktuelles TU Wien


Dr. Stefan Gerhold

2016-June-10 Wolf Widdra, Stefan Gerhold and Ulrike Diebold

* 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.


Martin^3

Tech Martin, Martin Jr., and Czech Martin 2016-May-16


Visiting Prof Picks Up Local Traditions

Bilge serves champagne 2016-May-10


PRL Features 30 Years of STM (and we made the list)

2016-May-4


Jake is Done

Jake defends his thesis 2016-April-22


Clusters, Clusters, Everywhere...

TOC 2016-April-18


Spring has Sprung

Kepab at Naschmarkt 2016-April-5


Valuable Addition from Italy

Giada transferring a sample 2016-March-14


Martin Setvin: Ertl Award Finalist

DPG Spring Meeting 2016-March


Laser MBE has Arrived

PLD, STM and RHEEd 2016-March


More on Fe3O4

Burgers and Beer 2016-March


Collaborations are Paying Off

2016-March


Workshop Celebration

Workshop celebration 2016-February-29


Oleg Gives Pizza Talk

Oleg talks about his university 2016-February-19


TU Ball

The dancing part of the surface physics group 2016-January-28


How many physicists does it take...

Hard at work Physicists adsorbed on the sofas. 2016-January-26


Zbynek Novotny receives Loschmidt Prize

Zybnek Novotny (4th from left 2016-January-19

TU Webnews (in German)


Archive of Previous Surface Physics News (2006-2015)