Surface properties and nano-sized objects become more and more important in everyday life, e.g. increasing the performance in microelectronics using ultra small and fast device architectures and effective reduction of pollution using catalytically triggered reactions, and is once more underlined by awarding the noble prizes in 2007 to physics  and chemistry.

The research group of Prof. Pfnür is interested in both fundamental properties and applications of nano-sized systems on surfaces. Relying on the well established concepts of surface science, ultra-low dimensional structures, e.g atomic wires, single molecules in between contacts, etc. are fabricated by using bottom-up as well as advanced top-down approaches. In particular electronic and transport properties of these systems are studied with respect to their morphology. The properties of these systems can be controlled on the atomic scale by using a variety of state-of the art techniques, e.g. SPA-LEED, STM, XPS, UPS, EELS, TDS, SEM, AFM.

The current research covers the following topics:

• Thin insulting films, high k materials

• Metallic wires and thin films, epitaxial graphene

• Molecular electronics 

• Altermatt, Brendel, Schmidt, Institut dür Solarforschung Hameln (ISFH)
• Karsten Horn FHI Berlin
• Michael Horn von Hoegen, Duisburg Essen
• Joachim Wollschläger, Osnabrück
• Hans Werner Schumacher, PTB Braunschweig
• Ulrich Köhler, Bochum
• Holger Butenschön, OCI Hannover
• Ingrid Mertig, Halle
• Thomas Bredow, Bonn
• Menzel, Braunschweig
• Karl Hofmann, Elektrotechnik Hannover

International cooperations

• Tadaaki Nagao, Tsukuba
• Takeshi Inaoka, Okinawa
• Haraold Zandvliet, Twente
• Bene Poelsema, Twente
• Shuji Hasegawa, Tokyo
• I. Vilfan (†), Ljubljana, Slovenia

Industrial cooperations

• K+S, Kassel

• Wacker Siltronic, Burghausen