Prof. M. Ricardo Ibarra‘s research activity has been developed in the fields of magnetism and the magnetic properties of nanostructured materials. Along the past few years his research activity is also focused on the application of nanotechnology in biomedicine. Significant contributions in the fields of: Magnetic anisotropy in rare earth intermetallics, colossal magnetoresistance in mixed valent magnetic oxides, giant magnetocaloric effect alloys, magnetic thin films, magnetic and superconductors’ nanostructures and magnetic nanoparticles and their application in life sciences. It is worth noticing the explanation of the intrinsic mechanism of the Colossal Magnetoresistance (published in Nature 1997) and the application of magnetic nanoparticles in biomedicine (published in Nano Today 2007) constituted scientific key advances in the area of basic and applied condensed matter physics.
He has been invited to give conferences in about 170 congresses, symposia, and workshops; it can be underlined: plenary talks in international (15) and national (5) conferences, Keynote speaker (15) and invited talks in international (26) and national (7) conferences, and Chairmen sessions in many relevant and prestigious Conferences as ICM, MMM, EPS-CMD.
He has coordinated 32 national and international R&D projects of infrastructures and research in the field of magnetism and nanotechnology and its applications, with an overall financial support of €20,000,000.
He has the copyright of 11 patents, 2 of them WO, 1 PCT and 2 in exploitation.
Head of the Magnetism Section of the European Physical Society 2000-2018, he has participated in more than 30 scientific committees.
Member of the scientific committee in the Institute of Applied Magnetism, Laboratory “Salvador Velayos”, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, ADIF, CSIC. Since 2017. Member of the Advisory Board in the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, University of Porto (Portugal); since 2018.
In the last years, he has been awarded with more than 10 prizes in academic and scientific research. Doctor Honoris Causa. AGH University. Krakow (Polonia). 2008. It is worth mentioning the Award ‘Aragón Investiga’ 2009 for Research Excellence; the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) tribute to the researchers who were awarded during the 2009-2010 academic year for their outstanding work in research and for their scientific excellence; the Plaque of Honour AEC-2014, awarded by the Spanish Scientists Association in November 2014; Institute of Nanoscience of Aragon: Award ‘Aragoneses del Año’ in the Science and Technology category, granted by El Periódico de Aragón, 2014; Academic elected by the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical, Chemical and Natural Sciences of Zaragoza, 2016; winner of the Salvador Velayos Magnetism Award 2022.
Main achievements
* Discovery and explanation of an unusual magnetoelastic effect in colossal magnetorressitence manganites (CMR) (Phys. Rev. Lett., 75 (19):3541-3544, 1995 (290 times cited en WoS; 353 in Google of Scholar)). This observation changed completely the view of the intrinsic mechanism of the colossal magnetoresistance (CMR), a phenomenon that is at the origin of the magnetic electronics (spintronics) technology.
* Discovery of the formation of magnetic polarons using small angle neutron diffraction allowed the observation of nanometric metallic regions in a paramagnetic insulator background as a new form of phase segregation. (Nature, 386, 256-259, 1997 (757 times cited in WoS; 998 in Google Scholar)). This work was recognized in the same issue of Nature (News and Views) by Prof. J.B. Goodenough pag. 229. “The realization that such dynamic phase segregation can occur in real systems is opening a new chapter in solid-state science, and is providing surprises that may yet prove to have great technical importance”.
* Explanation of the Giant Magnetocaloric effect in Gd5(Si2Ge2) effect was associated to the effect of the existence of a first order field induced structural transition (Phys. Rev. B, 58 (1998) R14721 (212 times cited in WoS; 381 times in Google Scholar) and, more recently, the mechanism for the transition involves the formation of a Griffiths phase. (Phys. Rev. Lett., 96 167201 (2006) (116 times cited in WoS; 135 in Google Scholar).
* Discovering of new phenomena in superconductor nanostructures: Observation of the melting of a two dimensional Abrikosov vortex lattice in a new W-C based amorphous superconductor (Nature Physics, 5, 651, 2009) and, recently, their dynamics (Phys Rev Lett, 106 (2011) 077001). This achievement was recognized by D. Charles in Physics Today, 62 (2009) 18. “. An enhancement of long-range correlations in a 2D vortex lattice by an incommensurate 1D disorder potential was also observed (Nature Physics, 10 (11), 851. (2014)). Discovery of the vortices confinement effects in superconducting nanowires (Nature Comm., 4, 1437 (2013))
* The application of magnetic nanoparticles to new therapies. This contribution summarizes the great impact of nanotechnology in therapy and diagnosis. This work as a whole constitutes a pioneer and seminal work in this research line (Nano Today, 2, 22 (2007)) (824 times cited in WoS; 1,195 in Google Scholar; THE MOST CITED ARTICLE 2016-2010), Current Nanoscience, 4, 1, 1(2008) (168 times cited in WoS; 281 in Google Scholar); Pharmaceutical Research, 29, 5, 1319-1327 (2012) (73 times cited in WoS; 99 in Google Scholar).
Highlighted publications
– Guillamón, I.; Suderow, H.; Vieira, S.; Sesé, J.; Córdoba, R.; de Teresa, J.M.; Ibarra, M.R. “Direct observation of stress accumulation and relaxation in small bundles of superconducting vortices in tungsten thin films”. Physical Review Letter, 106, 077001. 2011. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.077001. WoS; Q1. 15 citas (WoS). Impact factor: 7.37.
– Serrano-Ramón, L.; Córdoba, R.; Rodríguez, L.A.; Magén, C.; Snoeck, E.; Gatel, C.; Serrano, I.; Ibarra, M.R.; de Teresa, J.M. “Ultrasmall functional ferromagnetic nanostructures grown by focused electron-beam-induced deposition”. ACS Nano, 5 (10), 7781-7787. 2011. DOI: 10.1021/nn201517r. WoS; Q1. 61 citas. F. de impacto: 11.421.
–Córdoba, R.; Baturina, T. I.; Sesé, J.; Yuminorov, A.; de Teresa, J.M.; Ibarra, M.R.; Nasimov, D. A.; Gutakovskii. A. K.; Latyshev, A. V.; Guillamón, I.; Suderow, H.; Vieira, S.; Baklanov, M.R.; Palacios, J. J.; Vinokur, V. M. “Magnetic field-induced dissipation-free state in superconducting nanostructures”. Nature Communications, 4, 1437. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2437. 2013. WoS; Q1. 38 citas. Impact factor: 10.742.
– Marín, L.; Morellón, L.; Algarabel, P.A.; Rodríguez, L.A.; Magén, C.; de Teresa, J.M.; Ibarra, M.R. “Enhanced magnetotransport in nanopatterned manganite nanowires”. Nano Letters, 14, 423-428. 2014. DOI: 10.1021/nl402911w. WoS; Q1. 5 citas. Impact factor: 13.592.
– Guillamón, I.; Cordoba, R.; Sesé, J.; De Teresa, J.M.; Ibarra, M.R.; Vieira, S.; Suderow, H.“Enhancement of long-range correlations in a 2D vortex lattice by an incommensurate 1D disorder potential”. Nature Physics, 10 (11), 851-856. 2014. DOI: 10.1038/nphys3132. WoS; Q1. 22 citas. Impact factor: 20.147.– Marín, L.; Rodríguez, L.A.; Magén, C.; Snoeck, E.; Arras, R.; Lucas, I.; Morellón, L.; Algarabel, P.A.; de Teresa, J.M.; Ibarra, M.R. “Observation of the strain induced magnetic phase segregation in manganite thin films”. Nano Letters, 15 (1), 492-497. 2015. DOI: 10.1021/nl503834b. WoS; Q1. 8 citas. Impact factor: 13.779.
– M.C. Martínez-Velarte, B. Kretz, M. Moro-Lagares, M.H. Aguirre, T.M. Riedemann, Th.A. Lograsso, L. Morellón, M.R. Ibarra, A. García-Lekue, D. Serrate. “Chemical disorder in topological insulators: A route to magnetism tolerant topological surface states”. Nano Letters, 2017. Q1. DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b00311. Impact factor: 13.779.
– F.Fabris, E.Lima, E.DeBiasi, H.Troiani ,M.Vásquez , T.Torres, R.Fernández Pacheco,
M.R.Ibarra, G.Goya, T.Zysler, E.Winkler. “Controlling the dominant magnetic relaxation mechanisms for magnetic hyperthermia in bimagnetic core-shell nanoparticles”. Back cover page. Nanoscale. The Royal Society of Chemistry. Published 29 Nov. 2018. Impact factor: 7.233. WoS; Q1. DOI: 10.1039/c8nr07834c.
– T.E. Torres, E. Lima Jr., M.P. Calatayud, B. Sanz, A. Ibarra, R. Fernández-Pacheco, A. Mayoral, C. Marquina, M.R. Ibarra, and G.F. Goya. «The relevance of Brownian relaxation as power absorption mechanism in magnetic hyperthermia». Nature Scientific Reports. Published online: 12 March 2019. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-40341-y. Impact factor: 4.122. WoS; Q1.
– M. Moro-Lagares, R. Korytár, M. Piantek, R. Robles, N. Lorente, J.I. Pascual, M.R. Ibarra, D. Serrate. “Real space manifestations of coherent screening in atomic scale Kondo lattices”. Nature Communications, volume 10, article number 2211 (2019). Published: 17 May 2019. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10103-5.
Research codes
Scopus, 55664785300
Web of Science ResearcherID (Web of Science & Publons) K-1150-2014
Orcid, 0000-0003-0681-8260