Dr Carlos Garcia Nunez
- Lecturer (Electronic & Nanoscale Engineering)
email:
Carlos.GarciaNunez@glasgow.ac.uk
University Avenue, James Watt South Building, room 460, Glasgow, Scotland, G12 8QQ
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5518-6189Biography
Brief Bio
Dr Carlos Garcia Nuñez (BSc MSc PhD FHEA MInstP) is an experimental physicist with more than 13 years’ experience in the field of Semiconductor Nanowires & Thin Films for their application in Optoelectronics, Sensors, and Energy Systems. Dr Garcia Nuñez is Lecturer in Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering (ENE) at the University of Glasgow, where he currently conducts his investigations in the matter of Smart Materials for developing Sustainable Technology.
In 2009, Dr Garcia Nuñez received his BSc degree in Physics from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM) in Spain. One year later, he finished his MSc in Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at the Department of Applied Physics (UAM). In 2010, he joined the research group of Electronics and Semiconductors (ELySE) at UAM, and one year later he became a Research Fellow (Spanish FPI MINECO Fellowship) at ELySE group. Between 2012 and 2013, he carried out two secondments for three months at:
- University of Alabama under the supervision of Prof Patrick Kung, working on the characterization of GaAs nanowires by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman spectroscopy. Main project outcomes were published in Journal of Crystal Growth (DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2013.03.025).
- The Walter Schottky Institut (WSI) under the supervision ofDr Jose Antonio Garrido, working on the fabrication of functionalized ZnO nanowires based liquid gate field-effect transistors. Main project outcomes were published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces (DOI: 10.1021/am508752m).
In July of 2015, he obtained his PhD in Physics (summa "cum laude") entitled "Contribution to the Development of Electronic Devices Based on Zn3N2 Thin Films, and ZnO and GaAs Nanowires." Thesis document available in the online repository at UAM (see link).
In October of 2015, Dr Garcia Nuñez joined Bendable Electronics and Sensing Technologies (BEST) group at the University of Glasgow, as a Postdoctoral Research Assistant. During this period, he investigated contact-printing of semiconductor nanowires for flexible electronics and tactile sensitive electronic-skin (e-skin) for robotics. In December of 2017, he joined Micromanipulation Research Group at the University of Glasgow (led by Prof Steven Neale) to investigate in collaboration with Prof Lee Cronin the assembly of high dielectric nanostructures by optoelectronic tweezers for energy storage applications such as supercapacitors.
In August 2018, Dr Garcia Nuñez became Lecturer in Physics at the University of the West of Scotland and joined to the Institute of Thin Films, Sensors, and Imaging (TFSI) led by Prof Desmond Gibson. In 2020, he successfully obtained the post graduate certificate in academic practice (PgCAP) and was recognised as a Fellow by the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Since 2018, Dr Garcia Nuñez has been a Senior Member of the society of Spanish Researchers in the United Kingdom (SRUK) and an academic in the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA). Since 2020, he is member of Institute of Physics (MInstP) and Member of Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), the latter being the larger scientific community working in the detection and understanding of gravitational waves worldwide. In 2021, and as part of the IoP activities, Dr Garcia Nuñez joined the advisory group coordinated by Prof Martin Hendry for the Promotion of Photonics and Quantum Technology in Scottish Schools. In August 2023, he joined James Watt School of Engineering at University of Glasgow, as Lecturer in Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering (ENE).
Research Track Record
Dr Garcia Nuñez has a strong track record of publications with more than 100 articles – 19 as the first author – published in peer-reviewed Journal Articles and International Conference Proceedings, 1 Book, 1 Book Chapter and 2 Intellectual Properties (see Publications Tab). He has accumulated over 3,440 citations. In Google Scholar, he has reached a h-index in of 27 (i-10 index of 42).
Research interests
Research Interests
Dr Carlos Garcia Nuñez's primary research focus lies in the exploration of cutting-edge advanced materials, often referred to as SMART materials. These materials possess exceptional properties that have the potential to revolutionize existing optics, optoelectronics, energy systems, and sensors. His current endeavours centre around the synthesis of semiconductors, specifically utilizing nanowires and thin films as their structural forms. A key aspect of his work involves dissecting the influence of various growth parameters on the resultant material properties, and optimise the growth process, e.g., to improve the efficiency of energy harvesting devices, to increase sensitivity and selectivity of sensors, and to tune the interaction between the light and matter.
In pursuit of this research, Dr Garcia Nuñez pioneers the creation of metrology systems, encompassing both hardware and software components. These systems are designed to scrutinize the fundamental characteristics of materials, spanning attributes like piezoelectricity, triboelectricity, photo-responsivity, mechanical loss, optical absorption, band gap, and more. Complementing this experimental work, he also constructs intricate theoretical models utilizing finite element analysis (FEA).
Furthermore, Dr Garcia Nuñez delves into the practical application of these remarkable materials by integrating them into functional substrates. He employs innovative techniques such as dielectrophoresis and contact printing methods, which facilitate the alignment of nanostructures through pre-patterned electrodes. This multifaceted approach underscores his dedication to advancing the realm of materials science and its transformative potential.
Research Projects
The research areas where Dr Carlos Garcia Nuñez is currently working are as follows:
- Design and fabrication of energy harvesting devices, including triboelectric nanogeneators, TENG, and piezoelectric nanogenerators, PENG (read our Nano Energy publication @ link and our Advanced Materials Technologies paper @ link).
- Synthesis of semiconductor nanowires and their integration in functional substrates (read our Nano Letters paper @ link and Nature Microsystems and Nanoengineering @ link).
- Physical vapour deposition (PVD) of semiconductor thin films and nanostructures.
- Non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) gas sensors based on III-V deposited by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).
- Low-noise and high-reflectance mirror coatings for gravitational waves detection (read our Applied Optics publication @ link and listen our radio podcast @ link).
Publications
Selected publications
Ejaz, A., McKinlay, M., Ahmadzadeh, S., Garcia, M. P., Fleming, L., Mazur, P., Mazur, M., Gibson, D. and Garcia Nunez, C. (2023) Investigation and band gap analysis of pulsed Dc magnetron sputtered diamond‐like carbon to enhance contact‐electrification and durability of triboelectric nanogenerators. Advanced Materials Technologies, 8(16), 2300450. (doi: 10.1002/admt.202300450)
Keel, E., Ejaz, A., Mckinlay, M., Garcia, M. P., Caffio, M., Gibson, D. and Garcia Nunez, C. (2023) Three-dimensional graphene foam based triboelectric nanogenerators for energy systems and autonomous sensors. Nano Energy, 112, 108475. (doi: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2023.108475)
Garcia Nunez, C. et al. (2023) Amorphous dielectric optical coatings deposited by plasma ion-assisted electron beam evaporation for gravitational wave detectors. Applied Optics, 62(7), B209-B221. (doi: 10.1364/ao.477186) (PMID:37132933)
García Núñez, C. , Liu, F. , Navaraj, W., Christou, A., Shakthivel, D. and Dahiya, R. (2018) Heterogeneous integration of contact-printed semiconductor nanowires for high performance devices on large areas. Microsystems and Nanoengineering, 4, 22. (doi: 10.1038/s41378-018-0021-6) (PMID:31057910) (PMCID:PMC6220160)
García Núñez, C. , Braña, A. F., López, N. and García, B. J. (2018) A novel growth method to improve the quality of GaAs nanowires grown by Ga-assisted chemical beam epitaxy. Nano Letters, 18(6), pp. 3608-3615. (doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b00702)
García Núñez, C. , Navaraj, W. T., Polat, E. O. and Dahiya, R. (2017) Energy autonomous flexible and transparent tactile skin. Advanced Functional Materials, 27(18), 1606287. (doi: 10.1002/adfm.201606287)
Garcia Nunez, C. , Sachsenhauser, M., Blashcke, B., García Marín, A., Garrido, J. A. and Pau, J. L. (2015) Effects of hydroxylation and silanization on the surface properties of ZnO nanowires. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 7(9), pp. 5331-5337. (doi: 10.1021/am508752m) (PMID:25675135)
All publications
Grants
GRANTS (Total ~£1.78m PI & Co-I funding awards since 2018)
2023 CASE Plus - Industrial studentships (PI £0.5m)
2022 Royal Society Research Grant 2022 Round 1 (PI £20,000)
2022 SUPA Short Term Funding (PI £2,500)
2021 – 2024 UWS Chancellor PhD studentship 2022 (PI £61,542)
2022 SUPA Saltire Emerging Researcher Visits (PI £5,000)
2021 – 2024 UWS Chancellor PhD studentship 2021 (PI £61,542)
2021 – 2024 Science and Technology Facilities Council (Co-I Total £9.9m, UWS £317,297)
2021 – 2023 Innovate UK KTP – SME – Teer Coatings (Co-I £180,541)
2021 – 2023 Innovative and Collaborative Research Grant (ICRG) (PI Total £0.5m, UWS £251,17)
2020 – 2023 Innovate UK KTP – SME – Semefab Limited (Co-I £262,743)
2020 – 2021 Royal Society Short Industry Fellowships 2020 Round 1 (PI £24,359)
2020 – 2021 UWS Crucible 2020 (PI £5,000)
2020 Pools Engagement in European Research (PEER) fund, UK (PI £4,000)
2020 Carnegie Trust, Research Incentive Grant (PI £ 15,000)
2019 – 2023 CENSIS Studentship 2019 (PI £70,521)
2018 Pools Engagement in European Research (PEER) fund, UK (PI £2,150)
Supervision
Supervision of graduate students and researchers
Line Manager PDRA (Total: 2): (1) Dr Ammara Ejaz (Oct’21–); (2) Dr Lewis Fleming (Nov’21–)
First Supervisor PhD Student (Total: 4): (1) Matthew Dowhan (Oct’19–June’20); (2) Manuel Pelayo (Dec’20–Dec’23); (3) Greg McGann (Oct’21–); (4) Michael Mckinlay (Oct’22–);
Second Supervisor PhD Student (Total: 4): (1) Connor Douglas (Jan’21–Nov’21); (2) Sander Vervoort (Oct’19–); (3) Emma Keels (Sep’22–); (4) Connor Lindsay (Sep’22–);
Assessor PhD Student (Total: 4): (1) Jian Song (Oct’19–); (2) Sijia Cai (Oct’19–); (3) W.K. Adza (Feb’20–); (4) Sam Ahmadzadeh (Oct’20–)
MSc Students (Total: 5): (1) Siqi Hao (AY18-19); (2) Greig Oliver (AY19-20); (3) Xiao Meng (AY19-20); (4) Xiaoxiao Xie (AY19-20); (5) Jordan Hill (AY21-22)
Hons Students (Total: 9): (1) Greig Oliver (AY18-19); (2) Caitlin McGallagly (AY18-19); (3) Caitlin McKenzie (AY19-20); (4) Jordan Hill (AY19-20); (5) Marc Gill (AY21-22); (6) Ardiana Nela (AY21-22); (7) Connor Lindsay (AY21-22); (8) Marco Dicosta (AY22-23); (9) Cormac Smith (AY22-23)
- Shojaei Baghini, Mahdieh
Magnetoelectric Heterostructures for Low-to-High Frequency Wireless Power and Data Transfer
Teaching
Dr Carlos Garcia Nuñez uses his scientific research findings in all his teaching activities, accumulating up to 1,040 hours since 2018 and various international universities:
- At the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) in the UK: (PhD modules) SUPA Introductory to Data Analysis (AY18-19, AY19-20, AY20-21, AY21-22, AY22-23). (BS modules) Electromagnetism (AY18-19, AY19-20, AY20-21, AY21-22, AY22-23); Advanced Optics (AY18-19, AY19-20, AY20-21, AY21-22, AY22-23); Oscillations, Waves and Fields (AY18-19, AY19-20, AY20-21, AY21-22, AY22-23); (MS modules) Thin Film Devices and Applications (AY18-19, AY19-20, AY20-21); Theory of Thin Films (AY21-22).
- At Changchun University of Science and Technology (CUST) in China: (BS modules) Applied Optics (AY21-22, AY22-23); Thin Film Devices and Applications (AY22-23).
- At the University of Glasgow in the UK: (BE modules) Team Design Project 3 (AY15-16, AY16-17, AY17-18).
- At the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) in Spain: (BS modules) Electric Circuits - Boston University program (AY13-14, AY14-15); Digital Electric Circuits (AY12-13); Electric Circuits (AY13-14, AY14-15).
- At the Universidad de Oviedo: (Modules for Academics) Piezoelectric Materials (AY22-23).
Additional information
Commissions of Trust
Esteem:
2021- now Advisory Group: “Promoting Photonics and Quantum Technology in Scottish Schools”
2020 – now Member of the Institute of Physics (MInstP).
2020 – now Member of Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)
2019 – now Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
2018 – 2023 Member of Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA).
2018 – now Senior Member of the society of Spanish Researchers in the United Kingdom (SRUK).
2015 – 2018 Helping Hands. Student club established funding from The Chancellor’s Fund.
2011 – 2015 Institute of Electrical & Electronic Eng., IEEE (Student’11).
Editorship:
2022 – 2024 Review Editor of Frontiers Physics – Condensed Matter Physics
2020 – 2021 Guest Editor of the Frontiers in MDPI – Sensors journal.
2019 – 2021 Guest Editor of the Frontiers in MDPI – Applied Sciences journal.
2019 – now Assistant to the Editorial Board of IEEE Sensors journal.
Conference Chair:
2021 Spanish Conference on Electron Devices (CDE) Conference, Sevilla, Spain.
2017 IEEE Sensors Conference, Glasgow, UK (2017).
Refereeing Activities:
- External PhD Viva Examiner (3): (1) Mark Fletcher at University of Glasgow; (2) Sergio Catalan at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; (3) Fabiane Fantinelli Franco at University of Glasgow.
- Internal PhD Viva Examiner at University of the West of Scotland (4): (1) Alain Loh; (2) David Vine; (3) Ahmed Elhady; (4) Aamir Ghouri.
- Reviewer for scientific journals (2010-present) https://publons.com/researcher/1546175/carlos-garcia-nunez/
Institutional Administrative Responsibilities:
2019 – 2023 Erasmus coordinator: Division of Physical Sciences at University of the West of Scotland.
Invited Institutional Presentations
2023 Workshop “FleEnSys: Technology Perspective from Materials to Circuits” IIUI and CAEPE (Pakistan).
2022 Grant Accelerator Programme. Yellow Pathway - Session 2: “Developing your proposal” (UK).
2021 Workshop “Int. Energy Systems: Battery & Beyond” Int. Islamic University Islamabad (Pakistan).
2020 Pain Workshop and MS seminar at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid (Spain).
2020 Virtual Workshop 1D Nano APP, Unicamp and IFGW (Brazil).
2019 Pain Conference, Zaragoza (Spain).
2017 Graphene Innovation Entrepreneurship Summit, Wuxi (China).
Public Engagement and Outreach
Dr Garcia Nuñez conveys the importance of my research to the broader audience, similar to my previous public engagement activities: Live demo at SRPe Conference (2022); Live demo at 7th technology Summit and Annual Conference CENSIS (2022); “Meet the Expert” at Exhibition Centre, Glasgow UK (2017); Invited speaker at Pint of Science, Glasgow UK (2017); Live demo at IEEE Sensors, Glasgow UK (2017); Hosted Nuffield foundation high school students (2016); Participating European Researchers’ Night (Explorathon) at Glasgow Science Centre, Glasgow UK (2016); Live demo at TEDxGlasgow, Glasgow UK (2016).
