Alfonso Cebollada Navarro

Research Professor

Research Professor at the Instituto de Micro y Nanotecnología (IMN-CNM) of the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) where he belongs to the FINDER Group.

Prof. Cebollada has more than 35 years of scientific experience focused on the deposition and study of ultrathin layers and nanostructures by means of vapor phase physical deposition techniques, mainly sputtering, thermal evaporation, and laser ablation.

Examples of his broad experience are his studies of magnetic coupling and magnetotransport phenomena in multilayers, magnetic anisotropies and magneto-optical activity in binary alloys, or the control by means of magnetic fields of the interaction between light and ferromagnetic materials. Within this last topic, in the last two decades, he has worked on the study of magneto-optical phenomena in thin films, various types of nanostructures and plasmonic systems (magnetoplasmonics) in the visible spectral range, with works that have been very well received by the scientific community. More recently, he focused most of his efforts in a novel and practically unexplored area of research dedicated to the control by magnetic fields of the light-matter interaction in the IR range. For this purpose, magneto-optical phenomena are substituted by magnetorrefractive ones, present in spintronic materials, specifically those that present Giant Magneto Resistance (GMR). This complex scientific approach has first included the development and optimization of spintronic materials suitable for these studies, which must possess adequate GMR values at low magnetic fields as well as good plasmonic properties in the IR. Next, the design and fabrication of resonant antennas in this spectral range had to be addressed, as well as the implementation of experimental systems with magnetic fields that would allow optical measurements in the IR with magnetic fields. Culmination and fruit of these efforts are a set of scientific and review articles that compile his accumulated knowledge on the subject. It is worth highlighting that the incorporation of spintronic nature in resonant plasmonic metasurfaces is a highly original, challenging and innovative approach because it requires combining two disciplines so, in principle, separated; few research groups in the world have the necessary background in both spintronics and plasmonics to be able to tackle the studies Prof. Cebollada has been part of.

In 2020, he joined the FINDER research group, focused on the development of functional materials and devices for energy harvesting. His contribution is based on his experience in the deposition of thin films for fabrication with physical techniques, whose use in the manufacture of thermoelectric materials is highly unexplored to date. He has mainly involved in adapting his previously available deposition infrastructure for the growth of thermoelectric materials, results of what are gradually being obtained, and in the design, commissioning and setting up of the new EUROPHAS deposition system.

In this regard, he has been involved in 33 funded projects: 3 at FINDER -1 as coprincipal Investigator- and of the rest, he has been Principal Investigator of 11 (S2018/BAA-4403, MAT2017-84009-R, FIS2015-72035-EXP, CSD2008-00023, MAT2005-05524-C02-01, 07N/0108/2002, MAT2000-1290-C03-02, MAT98-0974-C03-01, HF1999-0147, 2003-05691-C02-01, 07N/0056/1999).

As administrative responsibilities, in the IMN Prof. Cebollada was Vice-director and Head of the Micro and Nanofabrication Department during 2009-2011 and Director of the Department of Manufacturing and Characterization of Nanostructures during 2004-2005.

His scientific production metrics summarised: 172 publications with 5753 citations (Scopus); +194 presentations (invited, oral and poster) at national and international meetings, 18 invited; currently, member of 6 scientific committees (project evaluator of Salvador Madariaga; Junta de Andalucía y Comunidad Valenciana; ANEP, CM, FONCyT; UE; Complutense University of Madrid); positive evaluation of 6 sections of Component for Researcher Merit (five-year periods) and positive evaluation of 6 sections of Research Activity (six-year periods); his h-factor is 36 (Scopus).