Professor of Materials, Department of Materials, University of Oxford

Professor Martin Castell is a Professor of Materials in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of Linacre College and heads his own research group, the Castell Group: Surface Nanoscience.

His research interests include: Elevated temperature scanning tunneling microscopy of oxide surfaces and thin oxide films to identify atomic scale structure and defects relevant to catalytic processes and nanotechnology; Investigation of patterned oxide surfaces for use as templates in nanoelectronics; High resolution secondary electron imaging in the SEM of semiconductor nanostructures and devices to study local strain, dopant distributions, dopant diffusion and deactivation; Investigation of self-assembled molecular ordering using scanning tunneling microscopy; and High sensitivity molecular detection.

His research group investigates the atomic scale structure and properties of surfaces and nanostructures. Their main instruments are two ultra high vacuum scanning tunnelling microscopes that can image surfaces at atomic resolution. By characterising and processing surfaces on the nanoscale they aim to create new materials for applications in catalysis, gas sensing, microelectronics, and diverse areas of nanotechnology.

Professor Castell is a Member of the Institute of Physics (IoP) and holds Chartered Physicist (CPhys.) status. He serves on the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IoM3) Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology Committee.