Manuela Garnica graduated in Physics in 2008 and obtained her M.Sc. in Nanoscience and Molecular Nanotechnology in 2010 at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). During her Ph.D. (2010-2013) she developed her research at the Surface Science Laboratory in the UAM under the supervision of Amadeo L. Vázquez de Parga and Rodolfo Miranda and she also spent three months in Zurich at the Empa laboratories. After a brief postdoc in Madrid, she moved to Germany in 2014 where she was working as Marie Curie fellow at the Technical University of Munich. In February 2018, she joined IMDEA-Nanoscience as Junior Leader "La Caixa" fellow. Her research is focused in the synthesis of 2D materials on solid surfaces and the investigation of their fundamental structural, electronic and magnetic properties by means of scanning probe microscopies.

“Atomic-scale study of Type-II Dirac semimetal PtTe₂ surface” P. Casado Aguilar, F. Calleja, C-N. Kuo, C.S. Lue, B. Ghosh, A. Agarwal, A. Politano, A.L. Vázquez de Parga, R. Miranda, J.A. Silva-Guillén, M. Garnica*.  JPhys Materials 5, 044003 (2022).
Invited article in special issue “Women perspective in Quantum Materials”.

Fabián Calleja obtained his BSc (2001) and MSc (2002) in Physics from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He then joined the group of Prof. Rodolfo Miranda in the Surfaces Laboratory of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, where he obtained his PhD in 2007. Then he joined the group of Prof. Harald Brune in the Laboratory of Nanostructures at Surfaces of the Federal Politechnical School of Lausanne (EPFL) as a post-doctoral researcher. In January 2011 he joined IMDEA Nanoscience, where he is currently hired as a researcher. At present FC works in two independent UHV STM systems: The LT-STM laboratory (standard 4K bath cryostat) and the JT-STM laboratory (Joule-Thompson 1K cryostat and 3T superconducting magnet).

Our research career is devoted to the study of the electronic and magnetic properties of nanometric systems often based on graphene, ranging from isolated atoms or molecules to clusters of arbitrary size or networks. The main goal is to achieve a deep understanding of the interaction between the different nanostructures and graphene, and the corresponding modification of graphene’s intrinsic properties, an important milestone in the potential development of graphene-based spintronic devices. Current research lines are based on metal-supported graphene systems, and can be split in two main groups: The adsorption of organic molecules on metal-supported graphene (Nature Physics 9, 368 - 374, 2013) and the intercalation of heavy metal atoms between graphene and the underlying metallic substrate (Nature Physics 11, 43 - 47, 2015).

Amadeo L. Vázquez de Parga obtained his PhD in Physics1992 at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). He carried out a postdoc stay at IBM Research Laboratory in Rüschlikon (Switzerland) working on the characterization of the light emitted by the tunneling junction in a Scanning Tunneling Microscope. From 1999 Prof. Vázquez de Parga is Associate Professor in Condensed Matter Physics at the UAM and from 2008 Associated Senior Researcher at IMDEA Nanociencia. In 2002 and 2003 was a visiting researcher at the Radboud University, Nijmegen (The Netherlands), working on spin polarized STM. Dur- ing his career he made short research stays at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, California in 1990, Max Planck Institute in Halle (Germany) in 2000, the Gakushuin University in Tokio (Japan) in 2004 and the Chiba University (Japan) in 2015.

The group is working on the characterization by means of low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (LT-STM/STS) the surface of epitaxial 2D materials and topological insulators.

Chemistry on graphene
We have been exploring the covalent bonding of chemical species to the epitaxial graphene in ultra-high vacuum conditions. Another research line is the use of epitaxial graphene as a playground to study the interaction between individual molecules deposited on the graphene films (Science Advances 4, eaau9366 (2018)).

Tuning the electronic structure of graphene
We have been working on the growth of graphene on different transition metals and the resulting crystallographic and electronic properties. The intercalation of foreign atoms between graphene and the substrate opens the way for further tune the properties of the graphene overlayer (2D Materials 5, 035029 (2018)).

Superconductivity
We have been exploring the superconductivity on thin films and the interaction with electron acceptor molecules.

Integration of graphene in devices
Taking advantage of the clean room facilities of the Campus of Excellence UAM-CSIC located in the building of IMDEA Nanociencia, we have investigated the manufacture of electronic devices with graphene. (ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 10, 8190 (2018) & ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 10, 6805 (2018)).