Surfaces and interfaces are locations where the interior of a material connects with the external environment in a discontinuous manner. Due to this unique property, new quantum phases and phenomena may emerge. Furthermore, they can be easily controlled from the outside and exhibit device functionality. This is why they are important for practical applications.
The goals of our group are to design and create two-dimensional quantum systems at surfaces and interfaces at the atomic and molecular levels, and to discover new physical properties and functionalities. We will achieve this using ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) techniques, state-of-the-art nanotechnology, and advanced instrumentation. Currently, we are working on atomic-layer superconductors, moiré superlattices, organic molecular arrays, and transition-metal dichalcogenides on surfaces. We are also conducting ultrafast spectroscopy on solid surfaces, developing diamond field-effect transistors (FET) and creating high-performance electron sources.
We welcome graduate students who wish to obtain a master or doctor degree. If you are interested, please visit the pages of Hokkaido University–NIMS/University of Tsukuba–NIMS Joint Graduate School Program linked below.
news
| Takashi Uchihashi was awarded the title of Fellow by the Japan Society of Vacuum and Surface Science. NEW | |
| Dwivedi Pawas, Kollipara Krishna Gopara Parthiv, Singh Uday, Josh Ayushman, and Vardhan Harsh joined our group as NIMS internship students. NEW | |
| Keisuke Sagisaka and Syunsuke Yoshizawa, permanent researchers at NIMS, joined our group NEW | |
| Nagisa Matsushita joined our group as an NIMS internship student. | |
| Yash Chauhan joined our group as NIMS internship students. | |
| Akash Kumar, a graduate student of Hokkaido University (M1), joined our group as a NIMS Junior. | |
| Julian Bernat, a graduate student from University of Groningen, have joined our group as NIMS internship student. | |
| Hsin-kai Chiang, a graduate student from National Yang Ming ChiaoTung University, joined our group as a trainee. | |
| Susumu Hirata, a graduate student from Kyoto University, joined our group as a trainee. | |
| Lilis Rachel Yohana, Yash Chauhan, and Valentina Watanabe have joined the group as NIMS internship students. | |
| Sonosuke Sasaki, Goki Sato, and Taisei Ito from National Institute of Technology (KOSEN), Sendai College joined our group under the supervision of Prof. Toshiyuki Kakunodate. | |
| Takahide Yamaguchi was promoted to Professor at University of Tsukuba-NIMS Joint Graduate School. | |
| Ryohei Nemoto won a Travel Award at The 8th Young Members Section Meeting & Kanto Chapter 10th Anniversary Symposium, JVSS Kanto. | |
| Takashi Uchihashi was promoted to Deputy Director of Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics. | |
| Koki Hino graduated from the master course of Tsukuba University and started working at Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation. | |
| Ryohei Nemoto moved to Institute of Science Tokyo as a assistant professor. | |
| Koki Hino won a Brilliant Poster Award at Hasselt Diamond Workshop 2025. | |
| Yu-chan Tai (Brian) won an AAPPS Award at 2025 Annual Meeting of the Physical Society of Taiwan. | |
| Ryohei Nemoto won a Young Researcher Prize at The 10th International Symposium on Surface Science (ISSS-10). | |
| Rika Kuramoto became the administration staff of our group. | |
| Yu-chan Tai (Brian), a graduate student from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University of Taiwan, joined our group as an intern. | |
| Mohhamad Monish joined our group as a NIMS post-doc researcher. | |
| Koki Hino, a graduate student of Tsukuba University (M1), joined our group as a NIMS junior. | |
| ChenYitao, a graduate student of Hokkaido University (M1), joined our group as an intern. | |
| Kenta Yokota graduated from Hokkaido Univeristy and started working at JX Nippon Mining & Metals. | |
| Tomonori Nakamura moved to Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST). | |
| Kenta Yokota received a PhD degree from Hokkaido University. Congratulations! | |
| Yosuke Sasama was employed as a ICYS (International Center for Young Scientists) Researcher. | |
| A book "Two-Dimensional Superconductors - Phenomena at Surfaces/Interfaces and Atomic Layers" by Takashi Uchihashi was published from Kyoritsu Shuppan CO., LTD. | |
| An original paper "Non-charge-transfer origin of Tc Enhancement in a Surface Superconductor Si(111)-(root7xroot3)-In with Adsorbed Organic Molecules" by Kenta Yokota was published in Journal of the Physical Society of Japan. | |
| Kenta Yokota received the CANON ANELVA Student Prize at the 22nd international vacuum congress (IVC-22). | |
| Kenta Yokota received the Outstanding Presentation Award of the Kanto Chapter of the Japan Society of Vacuum and Surface Science. | |
| Yosuke Sasama received the 51st Young Scientist Presentation Award of the Japan Society of Applied Physics. | |
| Taisuke Kageura moved to the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). | |
| An original paper "High-mobility p-channel wide-bandgap transistors based on hydrogen-terminated diamond/hexagonal boron nitride heterostructures" by Takahide Yamaguchi and Yosuke Sasama was published in Nature Electronics. | |
| Wenxuan Qian, a graduate student of Hokkaido University (M1), joined our group as an intern. | |
| Ryouhei Nemoto joined our group as a NIMS post-doc researcher (supported by Kakenhi, Specially Promoted Research). | |
| Taisuke Kageura was employed as JSPS Research Fellow for Young Scientists (PD). | |
| An original paper "Atomic-layer Rashba-type superconductor protected by dynamic spin-momentum locking" by Takashi Uchihashi and Kenta Yokota was published in Nature Communications. This is a collaborative work with Shunsuke Yoshizawa at Nanoprobe Group, Prof. Sakamoto at Osaka University et al. | |
| Tomonori Nakamura joined our group as a NIMS post-doc researcher (supported by Quantum Material Project). | |
| Yosuke Sasama was employed as a MANA post-doc researcher. | |
| Kenta Yokota, a graduate student of Hokkaido University-NIMS Joint Program, joined our group as a NIMS junior researcher. | |
| Yosuke Sasama received a PhD degree from Tsukuba University. Congratulations! | |
| Tomoko Kobayashi joined our group as a secretary. | |
| Yoshuke Sasama was selected for JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (DC2). | |
| Yoshuke Sasama received an Excellent Presentation Award at 32th Diamond Symposium. Congratulations! | |
| Katsumi Nagaoka received a Best Poster Award at International Vacuum Electronics Conference (IVEC 2019: Busan, Korea). | |
| Taisuke Kageura joined the group as a NIMS post-doc researcher. | |
| An original paper "Unsubstituted and Fluorinated Copper Phthalocyanine Overlayers on Si(111)-(√7 × √3)-In Surface: Adsorption Geometry, Charge Polarization, and Effects on Superconductivity" by Takashi Uchihashi and Ryuichi Arafune was published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. This is a collaborative work with Prof. Y. Yamada at Tsukuba University, Japan. | |
| Takahide Yamaguchi gave an invited talk at "Hasselt Diamond Workshop 2019 (SBDD XXIV)" at Hasselt, Belgium. | |
| An original paper "Structure determination of the Si(111)-√7×√3-In atomic-layer superconductor" by Takashi Uchihashi was published in Physical Review B (Rapid Communications). This is a collaborative work with Dr. Shirasawa at The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan. | |
| An original paper "High-mobility diamond field effect transistor with a monocrystalline h-BN gate dielectric" by Yosuke Sasama and Takahide Yamaguchi was published in APL Materials as a featured article. | |
| Yosuke Sasama received an Elsevier Gold Young Scholar Award at International Conference on Diamond and Carbon Materials, Dobrovnik, Croatia. Congratulations! | |
| Takashi Uchihashi gave a seminar talk at The 63rd Condensed Matter Physics Summer School. | |
| A review paper "Two-dimensional superconductors with atomic-scale thicknesses" by Takashi Uchihashi was selected as a "Highlights of 2017" collection of Superconductor Science and Technology. | |
| Satoru Ichinokura moved to Tokyo Institute of Technology as an assistant professor. | |
| Shunsuke Yoshizawa was employed as an senior researcher of NIMS. | |
| Takashi Uchihashi was appointed as a guest professor at Hokkaido-NIMS Joint Graduate Program. | |
| Takashi Uchihashi gave an invited talk at International Colloquium “25th International Colloquium on Scanning Probe Microscopy (ICSPM25) at Atagawa, Japan. | |
| Takashi Uchihashi gave an invited talk at International Workshop “Superconductivity in atomically thin materials and heterostructures" (SuperThin2017) at Lugano, Switzerland. | |
| Satoru Ichinokura received the Best Poster Award at The 8th International Symposium on Surface Science (ISSS-8). This is a double-award winning together with Mr. Sumi, an internship student from Sasaki-Yamada group at Tsukuba University. | |
| Yosuke Sasama received the Best Poster Award at Tsukuba Global Science Week 2017. | |
| Satoru Suzuki joins the group as an internship student from Tokyo Denki University for two weeks. | |
| An review article "Surface Atomic Layer Superconductors: Beyond Conventional Two-Dimensional Systems" by Takashi Uchihashi was published in AAPPS Bulletin (published by Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies) . | |
| The research on supramolecular motors are introduced in NIMS NOW. | |
| Takashi Uchihashi gave an invited talk at "Trends in Nanotechnology International Conference" (TNT2017) in Dresden, Germany. | |
| Ryuichi Arafune, Satoru Ichinokura, and Yosuke Sasama have joined the group. | |
| An original paper “Controlled Modification of Superconductivity in Epitaxial Atomic Layer-Organic Molecule Heterostructures” by Shunsuke Yoshizawa and Takashi Uchihashi was published in Nano Letters. | |
| Shunsuke Yoshizawa received an Excellent Poster Presentation Award at The 10th MANA International Symposium 2017 for his presentation of "Robust Superconductivity of Atomic-Layer Indium under In-Plane Magnetic Fields". | |
| Takashi Uchihashi and Shunsuke Yoshizawa received an Article Award from The Surface Science Society of Japan for the contribution of an introductory article "Electron Transport in Superconducting Silicon Surface Reconstructions". | |
| A topical review article “Two-dimensional superconductors with atomic-scale thicknesses” by Takashi Uchihashi was published in Superconductor Science and Technology. | |
| An original paper “Spin-induced anomalous magnetoresistance at the (100) surface of hydrogen-terminated diamond” by Takahide Yamaguchi was published in Physical Review B (rapid communication). | |
| A Close-up article “Observation of Josephson Vortices using a Scanning tunneling Microscope” by Shunsuke Yoshizawa was published in the September issue of Parity (Maruzen). | |
| Takashi Uchihashi attended “IBS Conference on Surface Atomic Wires” (Pohang, Korea) as an invited speaker. | |
| Ludovic Goffart returned to France. Thank you for staying with us for these three months! | |
| Takahide Yamaguchi attended “The 10th International Conference on New Diamond and Nano Carbons 2016” (Xi’an, China) as an invited speaker. | |
| Ludovic Goffart joined the group as an internship student from University of Grenoble Alps. | |
| Surface Quantum Phase Materials Group was officially started. |
