Surface Modifications of Nanoscale Materials

Dear Colleagues,

At present, it could be asserted that condensed matter, specifically surface physics, represents one of the most prolific areas of research in physics. The fundamental reason is the mutual interdependence between surface science and nanotechnology that has become clear since the early 20th century. Around 100 years ago, Einstein (1921, photoelectric effect), Langmuir (1932, field of surface chemistry) and Davisson and Germer (1937, electron diffraction work) Nobel prizes had a direct bearing on the development of surface physics. Surface physics researchers study structural, electronics, magnetic and chemical properties of in situ and ex situ grown nanostructures, in the context of experimental and theoretical surface science. On the other hand, nanotechnology is based on the ability to convert the nanoscience theory to useful applications by observing, measuring, manipulating, assembling, controlling and manufacturing matter at the nanometer scale. Over the last 50 years, research efforts have explosively grown due to the tremendous potential of “nano” approaches that revolutionize the ways in which matter is fabricated, synthesized and processed.

Surfaces of solid materials represent low dimensionality systems of nanometric scale in the single dimension perpendicularly to themselves, offering a wide range of possibilities to create nanostructured systems. Relevant but yet-widely-unknown phenomena taking place at the surface of solid materials, such as the atomic-level control of surface chemical reactions, the bottom-up fabrication of 1D or 2D functional materials by self-assembly, and also the growth of novel layered materials with potential applications in technology devices have to be explored. The development of this multidisciplinary study of properties of surfaces at a nanometer length scale needs adequate tools. Experimental techniques in an ultrahigh vacuum such as scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, electron/microscopy diffraction, photoemission spectroscopy, and four-point probe methods are employed for studying the geometric, electronic structure and transport properties characteristic of these nanostructures. Likewise, the corresponding theoretical calculations would play a fundamental role in reaching the correct explanations of the experimental results.

Due to the breadth of the topic, this Special Issue does not claim to be exhaustive in addressing all the aspects mentioned above about nanostructured surfaces, but rather highlights recent and promising examples that cover some of these areas.

Prof. Dr. Pilar Segovia
Guest Editor

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• surface physics
• electronic structure
• metal/insulator phase transition
• low dimensional materials
• high resolution angle resolved photoemission (ARPES)
• low energy excitations near Fermi Level
• electron-phonon coupling
• Fermi liquids
• luttinger liquids
• surface states on vicinal surfaces