Nanoscale Science Departement
Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany [Prof. Klaus Kern
Main Role in the Project: The research team at the MPI Stuttgart has considerable experience in the handling of nanostructures and nanoscience in general. Several variable and cryogenic temperature scanning tunneling microscopes (STM) are operated in ultra-high-vacuum to study atomic and molecular self-assembly and nanostructuring at surfaces. Particular research interest is dedicated not only on the merely imaging purpose of the microscope equipment, but also on the use as nanoscopic tool to manipulate and probe materials and nano-devices down to the single-molecular scale.
Principal Scientist: Prof. Kern is director at the Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung. He played a pioneering role in the fabrication of surface nanostructures by self-organized growth and assembly and their characterization on the atomic scale by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. The concept of atomic architecture at surfaces originally introduced for the fabrication of metallic nanostructures has been extended in recent years to molecular systems.