Joost Frenken appointed as professor in ‘Nanoscale Surface Physics’ at VU and UvA

ARCNL director and group leader Joost Frenken has been appointed as professor in ‘Nanoscale Surface Physics’ both at the VU University Amsterdam and at the University of Amsterdam. The appointment strengthens the ties between ARCNL and the two universities that founded ARCNL together with other public and academic parties.

Surfaces and interfaces on the nanometer scale
Nanoscale Surface Physics concerns the physics (and chemistry) of material surfaces and the interfaces between materials, all the way down to the nanometer scale of atoms and molecules.

Surfaces and interfaces of materials play an important role in many phenomena in everyday life and in many practical applications. The behavior of the outermost atoms is often different from that of the atoms in the interior of a material.

Using highly sensitive instruments, such as custom made scanning tunneling microscopes, fundamental phenomena are investigated that are relevant to lithography technology employed in the semiconductor industry. For example, the formation of interfaces between different materials is followed closely, atom-by-atom, as well as the spontaneous build-up of materials with a thickness as small as a single atom. The fundamental origin of the unsought phenomenon of friction is also looked at and new strategies are explored to almost completely remove friction.

Teaching
As professor at the UvA and VU Frenken will teach several special courses in the Physics MSc. Program. In addition, he will supervise the internships of bachelor and master students and the research of the PhD students in his Nanolayers group at ARCNL.

Leiden University
Frenken will keep a 0%-appointment as professor at Leiden University, until the last of his PhD students at this university has finished and obtained a degree.

Websites: VU University Amsterdam & University of Amsterdam