Josep Fontcuberta

Josep Fontcuberta Griñó (born 1953) is a Spanish materials physicist and research professor who has worked on functional oxides, magnetism, multiferroics, and oxide electronics. He has been a senior scientist at the (ICMAB-CSIC) and has contributed to the development of oxide thin films for spintronic, ferroelectric, and energy-related applications.

Early life and education

Fontcuberta was born in Barcelona. He obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Physics in 1977 from the University of Barcelona and completed his Ph.D. in Physics there in 1982. Following his doctorate, he carried out postdoctoral research at the Laboratoire de Cristallographie of the CNRS in Grenoble, and later at the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory of the University of Oxford, where he worked in the research groups of Jean-Claude Joubert and John B. Goodenough.

Fontcuberta has also contributed to research on multiferroic and magnetoelectric oxides, particularly in epitaxial heterostructures designed to investigate coupling between electric and magnetic order parameters. His collaborative work has included experimental demonstrations of electric‑field effects on magnetic properties in oxide systems.

Another line of research has explored oxide‑based tunnel junctions and spintronic devices. In this area, Fontcuberta has been involved in studies of magnetic and ferroelectric tunnel junctions employing functional oxide barriers, examining their transport behavior and stability. An example is work on multiferroic tunnel junctions, which investigated the coexistence of ferroelectricity and spin‑dependent tunneling in oxide heterostructures.

His research has also included antiferromagnetic and multiferroic materials relevant to emerging memory concepts. Contributions to this field include experimental studies of antiferromagnetic oxide systems operating at room temperature, which have been discussed in relation to alternative approaches to magnetic memory devices.

Professional service and recognition

Fontcuberta has served as an editor of Solid State Communications and as a member of the editorial boards of Advanced Electronic Materials and Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials.

In 2016, he was appointed a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Magnetics Society.