I am a physicist at the University of the Basque Country. I work on the structure of solids, the thermal radiation of materials, and how physics is taught.

Full Professor of Physics at the Faculty of Science and Technology in Leioa, on its staff since 1988 and a doctor since 1994. Thirty years of diffraction, calorimetry and phase transitions in perovskites; a decade in the Thermomat group, which I co-lead, measuring the infrared emissivity of materials for energy with the HAIRL radiometer; and, every year since 2011, the course on thermodynamics and statistical physics, in Basque, with its notebooks, its simulations and its bachelor's theses.

Research lines·Publications·Theses·Teaching·Contact

Powder diffraction patterns of a solid solution, intensity against scattering angle, eleven compositions from the barium to the strontium end member — Powder diffraction across a Ba–Sr solid solution: eleven compositions, four space groups. Reading the symmetry of a crystal from where its peaks split is the thread that runs through my structural work. Figure from my own research documentation.

Now · Course 2026–2027

Thermodynamics and statistical physics, in BasqueTermodinamika eta Fisika Estatistikoa · 12 ECTS · third year of the Physics degree

The course I have taught every year since 2011–2012, and the subject I brought into Basque at this university with its first complete set of materials: a daily class log, short tests, a public rubric, Jupyter notebooks in Basque, and MinervaLab, the simulation laboratory for first-order phase transitions that grew out of a bachelor's thesis. The theses that come out of the course, those in progress and the proposals for the coming year live on their own site.

How the course works·Thesis proposals 2026–2027·Theses in progress·Preparation manual

Since 2011

Faculty of Science and Technology, Leioa

46 bachelor's theses directed · 2011–2026

Research

The five lines →

Four lines in the physics of materials, from adiabatic calorimetry through pseudosymmetry and double perovskites to infrared emissivity, and a fifth on how physics is learned. Nineteen experiments at European large facilities, forty-odd competitive projects and recognised groups, and the contracts with industry, all listed.

Structure and phase transitions in perovskites

Crystal structures and structural phase transitions of simple, double and triple perovskite oxides, and of ferroic crystals, by adiabatic calorimetry, Raman and infrared spectroscopy, X-ray and neutron powder diffraction and symmetry-mode analysis. A parametrised refinement protocol that makes laboratory X-ray data do work that used to need a synchrotron.

mode crystallography · AMPLIMODES · ILL, ESRF, SINQ · five doctoral theses

Thermal radiative properties of materials

Within Thermomat / HAIRL: high-accuracy, angle-resolved spectral emissivity over wide spectral and temperature ranges, uncertainty budgets, temperature control of the emissometer, FAIR reporting of the measurements and the EKHI open database, for concentrated solar power, fusion materials, advanced steels and coated surfaces.

HAIRL radiometer · EKHI · fer framework · two doctoral theses in progress

Computation in physics education

Jupyter notebooks as the laboratory notebook of a theory course, MinervaLab for phase transitions, teaching materials in Basque, and the analysis of how students actually perform: from the course's own data to the physics entrance examination across Spain.

CSEDU, GIREP, RSEF · MinervaLab · PAU Física

Recent publications

Full list →

research articles

102

indexed works

1605

OpenAlex citations

1991–2026

years publishing

EKHI: an open database of optical and thermal radiative properties of solid materials

Jon Gabirondo-López, Mireia Sainz-Menchón, Irati Tolosa-Lecea, Iñigo González de Arrieta, Telmo Echániz, Irene Urcelay-Olabarria, Iñaki López-Ferreño, Raquel Fuente, Gabriel A. López, Iñigo Arredondo, Josu M. Igartua, Scientific Data, 13 (2026).

doi:10.1038/s41597-026-07083-9 · Scientific Data

Open dataEKHIDatabases

Tuning infrared radiative properties using Direct Laser Interference Patterning

J. Gabirondo-López, M. Soldera, Josu M. Igartua, A. F. Lasagni, and G. A. López, "Tuning infrared radiative properties using Direct Laser Interference Patterning," Materials Letters 354, (February 2025): 138485

doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2025.138485 · Add to Zotero

Direct Laser Interference PatterningInfrared emissivityRCWA modelingSelective emissivitySurface modification

Temperature Control of Nonlinear Uncertain Systems via Model-Free Cascaded Controller: Application to an Infrared Emissometer

J. Gabirondo-López, I. Arredondo, and Josu M. Igartua, “Temperature Control of Nonlinear Uncertain Systems via Model-Free Cascaded Controller: Application to an Infrared Emissometer,” IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology 33, no. 1 (January 2025): 219–228

doi:10.1109/tcst.2024.3464111 · 3 citations · Add to Zotero

Cascade ControllersControl SystemsInfrared EmissometryModel-Free ControlNonlinear Systems

Framework for Experimental Results (fer): A Foundation for FAIR-Compliant Reporting of Traceable Data

Jon Gabirondo-López, Iñigo González de Arrieta, Iñigo Arredondo, Gabriel A. López, Klaus Anhalt, Josu M. Igartua, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 74, 1–12 (2025).

doi:10.1109/tim.2025.3588920 · 2 citations

Crystallography at non-ambient conditions and physical properties of the synthesized double perovskites, $\mathrm{Sr}_{2}\left(\mathrm{Co}_{1-x} \mathrm{Fe}_{x}\right) \mathrm{TeO}_{6}$

Zaraq, A., Orayech, B., Josu M. Igartua, El Bouari, A., Gregory, D.H., Gesing, T.M. (2023). Crystallography at non-ambient conditions and physical properties of the synthesized double perovskites, $mathrm{Sr}_{2}\left(\mathrm{Co}_{1-x} \mathrm{Fe}_{x}\right) \mathrm{TeO}_{6}$. Dalton Transactions, 52, 4086-4100,

doi:10.1039/d2dt03543j · 1 citations · Add to Zotero

Crystal StructureDouble PerovskitesMössbauer SpectroscopyPhase TransitionsRaman Spectroscopy

Theses

Theses directed →

Five doctoral theses completed between 2003 and 2019, two more in progress on high-temperature radiative properties and energy materials, and forty-six bachelor's theses since 2011, which have their own site together with the theses in progress and the proposals for the coming course.

doctoral theses completed

doctoral theses in progress

bachelor's theses since 2011

company placements supervised

The sites

This page is the hub. The detailed material lives on three sister sites built on the same design system, so a reader can move between them without noticing the join.

GRAL / TFG

Josu M. Igartua