Professor

Kazuya Watanabe, PhD
kw_at_kuchem.kyoto-u.ac.jp
ORCID record
Room 352, Graduate School of Scince Bldg. No. 6

Research Profile

Kazuya Watanabe is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Molecular Spectroscopy Laboratory. His research focuses on ultrafast spectroscopy of condensed matter, in particular surface and interfacial dynamics and optoelectronic properties of molecular assemblies. Actual target systems range from simple molecular adsorbates on metal surfaces under ultra-high vacuum conditions to organic semiconductor films prepared by vacuum evaporation. Watanabe uses optical nonlinear spectroscopic methods to probe elementary excitations at interfaces, focusing on second-harmonic and sum-frequency generation spectroscopy together with conventional pump-probe methods. He is also developing novel spectroscopic techniques to study rare events at surfaces and interfaces.

Scientific Background

Kazuya Watanabe studied at Osaka University, Japan, where he received his M.Sc. degree in Applied Physics in 1994. In 1997, Watanabe received his Ph.D. degree from the same university under the supervision of Professor Hiroshi Masuhara. His thesis focused on the transient absorption spectroscopy study of ultrafast exciton and carrier dynamics of organic solids. In 1997, Watanabe was appointed as an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Molecular Science (IMS) in Okazaki, Japan, with Professor Yoshiyasu Matsumoto, where he joined the surface science group and began to develop a time-resolved technique for well-defined surfaces under ultra-high vacuum conditions. In 1999, Watanabe moved to the Graduate University for Advanced Studies in Hayama, Japan, where he worked on the ultrafast dynamics of surfaces and succeeded in observing coherent nuclear motions of surface monolayer adsorbates. In 2004, Watanabe returned to the IMS and worked on time-resolved sum-frequency generation spectroscopy. In 2007, he moved to Kyoto University, Japan, where he was appointed as an associate professor and became a professor in 2019.