Chief Scientist Laboratories Surface and Interface Science Laboratory

Chief Scientist: Yousoo Kim (D.Eng.)

Japanese Page

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

Jul. 10, 2025
Making excitons on demand in single molecules
Apr. 11, 2025
Simpler is better when it comes to terahertz time-domain spectroscopy
Jan. 27, 2022
Dissociation mechanism of oxygen molecules on a silver surface unveiled
Dec. 13, 2021
Swapping catalysts provides better targeted killing of cancer cells
Nov. 19, 2021
Acquiring spectra from single excited molecules
Dec. 11, 2020
Combined approach for probing interfacial electrochemistry in greater detail
Jun. 12, 2020
Hot holes are key in a plasmon-induced reaction of oxygen molecules on silver surfaces
Mar. 27, 2020
Just add salt to enhance the spatial resolution of single-molecule Raman spectroscopy
Jan. 24, 2020
On-surface cycloaddition reactions watched every step of the way
Aug. 9, 2019
Making chiral structures from achiral building blocks
Jun. 6, 2019
New mechanism allows lower energy requirement for OLED displays
Nov. 30, 2018
Probing structural changes in electroactive self-assembled monolayers
Jul. 6, 2018
Scanning tunneling microscopy reveals molecular dissociation induced by localized surface plasmons
Apr. 28, 2017
Interfering with graphene
Oct. 4, 2016
Energy jumps back and forth between molecules during transfers
Apr. 15, 2016
Catalysts hitting the right overtones
Oct. 23, 2015
Manipulating wrinkles could lead to graphene semiconductors
Dec. 12, 2014
Lining up for molecular memory devices
Jul. 11, 2014
Oxygen extends graphene’s reach
Apr. 19, 2010
How to split a water molecule

Annual research report

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
Maki Inagaki: Special Postdoctoral Researcher
Keita Tanaka: Special Postdoctoral Researcher
Yuzu Kobayashi: Postdoctoral Researcher
Shoma Tateda: RIKEN Student Researcher D
Yoshiko Shimizu: Technical Staff II
Chikako Kuramochi: Special Contracted Employee
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