Research History

Masakazu Aono is highly recognized worldwide for his many distinguished research results over 35 years in the fields of surface science, nanoscience, and nanotechnology. His research is characterized by originality for making epochal advances and by surprising results. For reference, a letter of recommendation for Aono written by Dr. Heinrich Rohrer (Nobel laureate in Physics (1986)) is attached herewith. In the letter, Dr. Rohrer mentions "Masakazu Aono is now no doubt one of the world leaders in the field of NanoScience and Technology. He made with his group at RIKEN and later at NIMS pioneering contributions both with novel analytical instrumentation and in novel, advanced technologies and nanochemistry, demonstrating both astonishing scientific and technological depth and breath in "Nano".

1. Elucidation of the abnormally low work function of lanthanum hexaboride (LaB₆) and the practical use of this material as an excellent electron emitter in collaboration with Denka Corp.
2. Remarkable contribution to the development of angle-resolved photoemission (with and without synchrotron radiation) as an indispensable method in materials science research of today.
3. Development of a new mode of low-energy ion scattering spectroscopy that is called impact-collision ion scattering spectroscopy (ICISS), which is useful for the analysis of atomic arrangement in a few atomic layers of solid surfaces. This method was later refined as co-axial ICISS (CAICISS) and the CAICISS apparatus is commercialized by Shimadzu Corp. (the apparatus was selected as one of the top-ten Japanese industrial productions in 1991 by Nikkan-kogyo Newspaper).
4. In 1989, Masakazu Aono organized the Aono Atomcraft Project of the ERATO program led by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and conducted a study to develop nanoscale structures by means of atom manipulation through the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), thus taking the initiative in today's development of nanotechnology (which was almost 18 years ago).
5. Development of multiprobe STMs which use two, three, or four probes, instead of one, to enable the measurement of electrical conductivity of nanostructures by using the probes as nanoscale electrodes contacted with given points of a given nanostructure ("Nanotester").
6. Invention of an "atomic switch" which operates by controlling movement of a small number of atoms. The atomic switch has already progressed to a stage of study for practical application in collaboration with NEC Corp.
7. Development of a new technology that can induce chain polymerization by simple application of a stimulus to one point on a monomolecular film forming one polymerized molecular chain (conductive pi-conjugated polymer chain) at any position. Various applications of this novel phenomenon are being studied.
8. Development of a novel technology to enable the elemental analysis of nanostructures observed in the image of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) image through combination of energy-tunable synchrotron X-rays and STM.