Chief Scientist Laboratories Surface and Interface Science Laboratory
Chief Scientist: Yousoo Kim (D.Eng.)
Research Summary

Our research focuses on describing details of the energy transport and conversion at the solid surfaces and interfaces in the nanoscale regime. In order to understand their basic mechanism at a single molecule/atom level, we carry out combined study of density functional theory calculation and scanning probe microscopy/spectroscopy on the well-defined solid surfaces under ultra-high vacuum condition. Part of our research is directed toward investigation of single-molecule chemistry on various solid surfaces. Another important part of our research focuses on self-assembled organic thin films aiming at understanding their microscopic structure and controlling their electronic properties. In addition, we also investigate energy conversion between electrons and photons of the nanometer scale materials.
Main Research Fields
- Chemistry
Related Research Fields
- Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering
- Engineering
- Surface science
- Physical chemistry
- Condensed matter physics
Keywords
- Surface
- Interface
- Scanning probe microscope
- Single-molecule spectroscopy
- nanotechnology
Selected Publications
- 1.
Q. Weng, W. Deng, S. Komiyama, T. Sasaki, H. Imada, W. Lu, I. Hosako, and Y. Kim
"Nanoscale thermal imaging of hot electrons by cryogenic terahertz scanning noise microscopy"
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 95 (2024) 063705, 1-8. - 2.
R. Wong, Y. Yokota, and Y. Kim
"Bridging electrochemistry and ultrahigh vacuum: “unburying" the electrode-electrolyte interface"
Acc. Chem. Res. 56 (2023) 2015-2025. - 3.
S. Yamamoto, H. Imada, and Y. Kim
"Atomic-scale photon mapping revealing spin-current relaxation"
Phys. Rev. Lett. 128 (2022) 206804, 1-5. - 4.
M. Imai-Imada, H. Imada, K. Miwa, Y. Tanaka, K. Kimura, I. Zoh, R. B. Jaculbia, H. Yoshino, A. Muranaka, M. Uchiyama, and Y. Kim
"Orbital-resolved visualization of single-molecule photocurrent channels"
Nature 603 (2022) 829-834. - 5.
H. Imada, M. Imai-Imada, K. Miwa, H. Yamane, T. Iwasa, Y. Tanaka, N. Toriumi, K. Kimura, N. Yokoshi, A. Muranaka, M. Uchiyama, T. Taketsugu, Y. K. Kato, H. Ishihara, and Y. Kim
"Single-molecule laser nanospectroscopy with micro-electron volt energy resolution"
Science 373 (2021) 95-98. - 6.
K. Kimura, Y. Morinaga, H. Imada, I. Katayama, K. Asakawa, K. Yoshioka, Y. Kim, and J Takeda
"Terahertz-field-driven scanning tunneling luminescence spectroscopy"
ACS Photonics 8 (2021) 982-987. - 7.
R. B. Jaculbia, H. Imada, K. Miwa, T. Iwasa, M. Takenaka, B. Yang, E. Kazuma, N. Hayazawa, T. Taketsugu, and Y. Kim
"Single-molecule resonance Raman effect in a plasmonic nanocavity"
Nat. Nanotechnol. 15 (2020) 105-110. - 8.
K. Kimura, K. Miwa, H. Imada, M. Imai-Imada, S. Kawahara, J. Takeya, M. Kawai, M. Galperin, and Y. Kim
"Selective triplet exciton formation in a single molecule"
Nature 570 (2019) 210-213. - 9.
E. Kazuma, J. Jung, H. Ueba, M. Trenary, and Y. Kim
"Real-space and real-time observation of a plasmon-induced chemical reaction of a single molecule"
Science 360 (2018) 521-526. - 10.
H. Imada, K. Miwa, M. Imai-Imada, S. Kawahara, K. Kimura, and Y. Kim
"Real-space investigation of energy transfer in heterogeneous molecular dimers"
Nature 538 (2016) 364-367.
Recent Research Results
Nov. 19, 2021
Acquiring spectra from single excited moleculesApr. 28, 2017
Interfering with grapheneApr. 15, 2016
Catalysts hitting the right overtonesDec. 12, 2014
Lining up for molecular memory devicesJul. 11, 2014
Oxygen extends graphene’s reachApr. 19, 2010
How to split a water molecule
Annual research report
Related Links
Lab Members
Principal investigator
- Yousoo Kim
- Chief Scientist
Core members
- Norihiko Hayazawa
- Senior Research Scientist
- Yasuyuki Yokota
- Senior Research Scientist
- Tohru Takarada
- Senior Research Scientist
- Masae Horinouchi
- Senior Research Scientist
- Reizo Kato
- Research Scientist
- Kensuke Kimura
- Research Scientist
- Miyabi Imai
- Special Postdoctoral Researcher
- Maki Inagaki
- Special Postdoctoral Researcher
- Keita Tanaka
- Special Postdoctoral Researcher
- Yuzu Kobayashi
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Shoma Tateda
- RIKEN Student Researcher M
- Yoshiko Shimizu
- Technical Staff II
- Chikako Kuramochi
- Assistant
- Yuki Hasegawa
- Research Part-time Worker I
- Yumi Kuramitsu
- Administrative Part-time Worker I
Contact Information
S304 Chemistry and Materials Physics Building,
2-1 Hirosawa,
Wako, Saitama
351-0198, Japan
Tel: +81-(0)48-467-4073
Fax: +81-(0)48-467-1945
Email: ykim@riken.jp