From April 19 to 21, INL – International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory had the honour to host the 2023 Annual INL Research Symposium. The event, an internal initiative, aimed at sharing and showcasing the research activities and accomplishments. The event also celebrates all our hard work and provides a forum for the breadth of activities being undertaken within each Research Group. 

During the three half-days, we had more than 200 participants each day, 11 Research and Engineering Groups showcased 26 demos, excellent scientific presentations, more than 90 posters and video flash talks, and very engaging coffee breaks and ‘happy-hour’ moments. This was a unique internal event and a great occasion to learn and experiment new technological developments.

Next year, INL will continue promoting this event as part of the strategic plan for internal research dissemination activities and for creating an environment that encourages, stimulates and promotes research and researchers.

Thank you all for your brilliant hard work!

Light-emitting diode chips, commonly known as LEDs, are semiconductor light sources that are used in smartphones for displays, automotive lighting, medical devices, sensors and optical communications. LEDs typically combine a large p-type doped semiconductor layer (layer with faulty conduction electrons; these lack of conduction electrons behave as positive charges called holes) with an n-type doped semiconductor layer (layer with abundant conduction electrons), forming a p-n junction. When a sufficient voltage is applied, electrons and holes move across the p-n junction and electrons recombine with holes releasing energy in the form of light.

The layered p-n junction structure is one of the most well-established semiconductor optoelectronic modern chip technologies that revolutionized the development of LEDs, lasers, and photodetectors. However, given the recent miniaturization of light-emitting and photo-detecting devices, such as nanoscale LEDs and nano-photodetectors, the use of p-type semiconductors adds significant complexity and associated costs to the device’s manufacture.

In this recent work, INL researchers in collaboration with the University of Lisbon, present a novel microLED chip that does not need p-type semiconductor layers. Furthermore, the developed microLED also has the astounding ability to work as both a light emitter and a detector, in the same circuit.

Bruno Romeira, the leader of this study, explains that “the architecture of the device provides a compact and low-cost microLED chip with seamless integration of multi-capabilities (electroluminescence, photoresponse and negative differential conductance – electrical on-chip gain), under identical operating forward voltage conditions”. 

The findings of this study pave the way for a wide range of low-cost applications in on-chip light-emitting and light-receiver systems, of key importance for imaging, sensing, signal processing, data communications and neuromorphic computing AI applications.

This study was funded by the European Union, Horizon Europe, under project 828841 – ChipAI, and project 101046790 – InsectNeuroNano. You can find the full article here: https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.476938.

Today you can meet Elvira Paz. Elvira is Staff Researcher in the Spintronics Research Group at INL – International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory. She obtained an MSc (2004) and a PhD (2010) in Physics from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid | UAM . Her current research focuses on magnetic sensors based on MTJs.

During her PhD, she focused on the growth of epitaxial iron and its structural and magnetic characterization, and afterwards, she performed the lithography of wire and antidot nanostructures to study their magnetic behaviour. She studied the influence of the iron’s magnetic biaxial anisotropy on the nanostructures’ magnetic properties, the combination of the crystalline and the shape anisotropies.

Her research is focused on fabricating and characterising magnetic sensors based on magnetic tunnel junctions. Her main objective is to decrease the sensitivity of the sensors as much as possible to achieve a very accurate measurement of low fields. This allows using sensors in a wider range of applications. During her work at INL – International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory she published more than 20 international papers, and two patents application and presented her work at several international conferences.

At INL since 2011, can you tell us a bit about your journey?

I joined INL – International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory in March 2011. This has been a long 12 years journey, and during all this time I had evolved professionally and personally. I had the luxury to work in a laboratory with state-of-the-art equipment that gave me the opportunity to study systems that are in our daily lives to try to improve the lives of people. Improving people’s well-being motivates me to keep going. And at the same time being surrounded by international colleges make you travel while working when we talk about different cultures.

How would you explain the importance of your work to a non-scientific person?

My research is focused on magnetic sensors. Magnetic sensors are present in everything that we have around us, from our mobile phones to our home appliances, and lately, there is a lot of research for the car industry to improve autonomous driving.

Recent trends in magnetic sensors are focused on miniaturization, the improvement of features and finding new operating principles based on fundamental studies of new materials and phenomena. Making better sensors and more efficient in terms of energy is a challenge that will be good for us and for the planet and future generations.

How do you feel the landscape will change for women in science over the next 5 years?

I think the landscape is changing, but it is changing faster in the biology area than the physics and electronics, and I don’t see a lot of young women in this area. I think we’ll need a lot more than 5 years to see a change. Diversity and collaboration are two things the scientific community lacks, and both are related to the poor experiences women have in physics.

The only way to have a change is to start to make the girls feel inspired by physics at smaller ages. There are a lot of studies that saw that the environment shapes girls’ interest and motivation in STEM and that female role-model sessions significantly increase the positive impact of expectations of success on STEM choices. We have to work hard on that to see a change in the landscape.

Efficient quantum algorithms can have a significant impact on important, broad-reaching problems, solving some mathematical problems faster than any classical approach. However, it still remains to be discovered how to harness the quantum systematically for computation.

Project FoQaCiA, jointly funded by the European Council and Canadian agency NSERC, aims to extend the theoretical basis for the design of quantum algorithms. The consortium’s view is that the future success of quantum computing critically depends on advances at the most fundamental level. Large-scale investments in quantum implementations will only pay off if they can draw on additional foundational insights and ideas.

The consortium FoQaCiA is a multi-disciplinary team of mathematicians, physicists, and computer scientists, with complementary areas of expertise. A unique feature of this project is the combination of top experts in the foundations of quantum computation from the two sides of the Atlantic, together with researchers capable of translating the insights gained into software for circuit compilation and classical simulation of quantum computers and into feasible demonstrations of the computational power granted by sequential quantum-mechanical measurements.

FoQaCiA researchers start from the very foundations of quantum theory and investigate how quantum programming techniques can arise from them. Within this project, scientists seek to identify one or two novel quantum programming techniques and validate them through applications.

The FoQaCIA consortium: INL (European coordinator), Stockholm University, Universidad de Sevilla, Universidad de Granada, Bilkent Universitesi, University College London, Uniwersytet Gdański, The University of British Columbia (Canadian coordinator), Simon Fraser University, University of Ottawa, and the University of Waterloo.

Efficient quantum algorithms can have a significant impact on important, broad-reaching problems, solving some mathematical problems faster than any classical approach. However, it still remains to be discovered how to harness the quantum systematically for computation.

Project FoQaCiA, jointly funded by the European Council and Canadian agency NSERC, aims to extend the theoretical basis for the design of quantum algorithms. The consortium’s view is that the future success of quantum computing critically depends on advances at the most fundamental level. Large-scale investments in quantum implementations will only pay off if they can draw on additional foundational insights and ideas.

The consortium FoQaCiA is a multi-disciplinary team of mathematicians, physicists, and computer scientists, with complementary areas of expertise. A unique feature of this project is the combination of top experts in the foundations of quantum computation from the two sides of the Atlantic, together with researchers capable of translating the insights gained into software for circuit compilation and classical simulation of quantum computers and into feasible demonstrations of the computational power granted by sequential quantum-mechanical measurements.

FoQaCiA researchers start from the very foundations of quantum theory and investigate how quantum programming techniques can arise from them. Within this project, scientists seek to identify one or two novel quantum programming techniques and validate them through applications.

The FoQaCIA consortium: INL (European coordinator), Stockholm University, Universidad de Sevilla, Universidad de Granada, Bilkent Universitesi, University College London, Uniwersytet Gdański, The University of British Columbia (Canadian coordinator), Simon Fraser University, University of Ottawa, and the University of Waterloo.