Atomic Switch

Masakazu Aono obtained his Ph. D from University of Tokyo in 1972 and then joined the National Institute for Research in Inorganic Materials (NIRIM). In 1986, he moved to RIKEN as a Chief Scientist and organized/operated the Surface and Interface Laboratory until 2002 (in the meantime, from 1996 to 2002, he worked as a Professor at Osaka University). In 2002, he moved to the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) as the Director of Nanomaterials Laboratory (NML). From 2007 to 2017, he organized/operated the International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) in NIMS as its Director. At present, he is an Executive Advisor of MANA and is also a Distinguished Chair Professor of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University (NTU). He is known as a pioneer of nanoscale science and technology, due to his various original achievements such as the initiation of impact-collision ion scattering spectroscopy (ICISS) for surface atomic arrangement analysis, the multiprobe STM/AFMs for nanoscale electrical conductivity measurements, reversible control of local nanochemical reactions and the invention and development of the "Atomic Switch" among others.