News
BBQ at the Birsköpfli
On the 3rd, we held our 6th annual group BBQ at the Birsköpfli park along the river. Group members and friends had a relaxing time enjoying the beautiful weather, eating, drinking, and cooling off in the river. See you next year!.
Mathias Claus Wins Masters Prize
Ph.D. student Mathias Claus won the Masters Prize in Nanoscience for his thesis entitled, “Design, fabrication, and characterization of a highly sensitive Si3N4 paddle microbridge torque sensor for dynamic paddle magnetometry”. He carried out the thesis in our lab and then joined our group and the group of Prof. Ilaria Zardo as a Ph.D. student in April 2021. See the article in SNI INSight.
Prof. Poggio to Start as SNI Director
Starting August 1st, Prof. Poggio will take over as Director of the Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI) from Prof. Christian Schönenberger. Read more about the change in SNI INSight: here and here.
Giulio Earns Ph.D.
On Wednesday the 29th, Ph.D. student Giulio Romagnoli defended his thesis, entitled, “SQUID-on-tip sensors for real-space magnetic imaging of a chiral magnet”, earning his doctorate in physics magna cum laude. The exam was chaired by Prof. Ernst Meyer with Prof. Poggio, Prof. Ilaria Zardo, and Prof. Amit Finkler (Wiezmann Institute of Science, Israel) making up the committee.
Giulio joined the group as a Ph.D. student in February 2017 to work on scanning SQUID microscopy of skyrmion-hosting materials. He was a member of our Nanoskyrmionics Sinergia collaboration, carrying out real-space magnetic imaging experiments of a chiral magnet, as well as other materials. He worked on developing and improving our fabrication of SQUID-on-tip sensors and on their application for imaging non-co-linear magnetic phases. He will stay on to conclude some ongoing experiments. Congratulations to Dr. Romagnoli!
Amit Finkler Visits
From the 28th to the 30th, Dr. Amit Finkler from the Wiezmann Institute of Science in Israel visited our group. He leads a research group looking into quantum-enhanced sensing techniques and is one of the inventors of the SQUID-on-tip scanning probes used in our group. He came to participate in the Ph.D. thesis committee of Ph.D. student Giulio Romagnoli and to give a talk about his work. His special seminar, entitled, “Computerized tomography of electron spins” took place on the afternoon of Wednesday the 29th.
Nanoskyrmionics Meeting in Basel
On the 15th, the group organized the final meeting of the Sinergia Nanoskyrmionics, coordinated by Prof. Dirk Grundler from the EPFL. The meeting was held in the former mensa of the Department of Physics and followed by a dinner accross the street at Taverne Johann. Dr. Simon Philipp gave a short contribution at the end of the meeting updating the network on his and Dr. Boris’ Groß’s work on dynamic cantilever magnetometry of skyrmion-hosting materials. The meeting included a number of discussions on planned and active collaborations.
Group in Pontresina
From the 13th to the 15th, Ph.D. students Liza Žaper, Aurèle Kamber, and Luca Forrer; senior researcher Dr. Floris Braakman; and Prof. Poggio attended the Annual Meeting of the NCCR SPIN in Pontresina, Switzerland. On the 15th, both Liza and Aurèle gave talks entitled, “Cobalt Nanomagnets for Spin Qubit Control” and “A Nanowire Quantum Dot Scanning Probe”, respectively.
Visit of Dennis Christensen Comes to an End
Dr. Dennis Valbjørn Christensen from the Department of Energy Conversion and Storage at the Technical University of Denmark has been visiting our group since March 30th. On the 10th, after many pleasant scientific exchanges and conversations within the group, Dennis bid the group farewell with pinsa and ice cream in the park. We’re looking forward to collaborating in the future and wish Dennis a pleasant summer break!
Thibaud and Simon Take New Jobs
At the end of the month, both Dr. Thibaud Ruelle and Dr. Simon Philipp, who recently earned their Ph.D. degrees in the group, will move on to new jobs. Starting July 1st, Thibaud will start a post-doctoral project here in the department in the group of Prof. Richard Warburton, working on optimizing the ablation of fiber mirrors for high-finesse optical cavities. Simon will start in a research position at the Fraunhofer-Institüt für Werkstroffmechanik (IWM) in Freiburg, Germany. Good luck to you both in the new positions!
SOLA Basel
On Saturday the 21st, a team of group members and a two friends took part in the SOLA Basel relay race. The team of 10 runners, including post-docs Dr. Estefani Marchiori, Dr. Francesco Fogliano, Dr. Kousik Bagani, Dr. Simon Philipp, Ph.D students Hinrich Mattiat, Daniel Jetter, Liza Žaper, Prof. Poggio, and friends Thomas Gisler and Claire Micallef, ran under the name, ‘Dov’è Giulio?”. After the race, the team celebrated their 25th place (of 126) at the finish and together with other (slower) teams from the department on the department’s rooftop. Results are here and photos and videos here.
Group Retreat in Glarus
From Friday the 13th to Sunday the 15th, the group gathered at the Ferienhaus Restiberg above Linthal in the canton Glarus. The weather cooperated and 17 group members and 2 guests enjoyed a relaxing time in the mountains, hiking, eating, drinking, talking, and lots of laughing. A special thanks to Ph.D. student Luca Forrer for suggesting the spot near his hometown and for organizing the weekend. Photos are here.
Simon Philipp Earns Ph.D.
On Wednesday the 11th, Ph.D. student Simon Philipp defended his thesis, entitled, “Magnetism of nano- to micrometer-sized anisotropic materials”, earning his doctorate in physics magna cum laude. The exam was chaired by Prof. Patrick Maletinsky with Prof. Poggio, Prof. Ernst Meyer, Dr. Boris Gross, and Prof. Mark Freeman (University of Alberta, Canada) making up the committee.
Simon joined the group in February 2017 to work on dynamic cantilever magnetometry (DCM) of nanometer-scale magnetic materials. He was a key member of our Nanoskyrmionics Sinergia collaboration and carried out experiments on a number of interesting samples, including GaV4Se8, magnetic mesocrystals, and magnetic Janus particles. Along with Boris, he helped deepen our understanding of how to use DCM to identify magnetic phase transitions and how to model the response of paramagnets and superparamagnets. Congratulations to Dr. Philipp!
Estefani Wins University Research Grant
On the 26th, post-doc Dr. Estefani Marchiori was informed that she won a Research Fund Grant from the University with her proposal for “Real-space imaging of spin textures in a polar magnet”. The 9-month-long project begins in July 2022, will be led by Estefani, and will take place in our lab. Congratulations Estefani!
Hinrich and Lukas at Nanowire Week
From the 25th to the 29th, Ph.D students Hinrich Mattiat and Lukas Schneider attended the 2022 edition of ‘Nanowire Week‘, held in Chamonix, France. The conference hosted talks, posters, and discussion on the progress of nanowire-related research, ranging from growth to fundamental studies and applications.
Group in Barcelona for NanoMRI 7
From the 21st to the 25th, Ph.D students Liza Žaper, Andriani Vervelaki, Daniel Jetter, and Hinrich Mattiat, as well as post-doc Dr. Kousik Bagani, and Prof. Poggio attended the ‘NanoMRI 7‘ conference held at Institut de Ciències Fotòniques (ICFO) in Barcelona, Spain. The conference is the 7th edition of a meeting started in 2006 at Cornell University. The conference brings together scientists and engineers interested in the field of ultrasensitive spin detection and nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging. Areas of interest include nanomechanical sensors, spin defects in diamond, ultrasensitive scanning probe microscopy, and quantum sensing techniques that push the limits of measurements.
On Tuesday the 22nd, Kousik presented a poster entitled, “Magnetic, thermal, and topographic imaging with a nanometer-scale SQUID on-cantilever scanning probe”. On Thursday the 24th, Liza and Hinrich presented posters entitled, “Magnetic properties of cobalt nanomagnets: towards spin qubit control” and “Nanowires as mechanical force sensors for scanning probe microscopy”, respectively. Prof. Poggio gave a talk on the morning of the same day entitled, “Imaging weak magnetic field patterns on the nanometer-scale”. A video of the talk is available here and videos of many of the other talks at the conference can be seen here.
Pictures from the conference are available here.
Visit to EMPA
On the 15th, Prof. Poggio visited the Department of Advanced materials and Surfaces at EMPA (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) in Dübendorf, Switzerland. There he gave a talk entitled, “Nanoscale magnetic field imaging for 2D materials”.
Talk in Madrid
Between the 7th and 9th, Prof. Poggio attended a meeting on Quantum materials and devices at the nanoscale, in Madrid, which was organized by the COST action on “Nanoscale coherent hybrid devices for superconducting quantum technologies”. Prof. Poggio gave a talk on the morning of the 8th entitled, “Magnetic, thermal, and topographic imaging with a nanometer-scale SQUID-on-lever scanning probe”.
SQUID-on-lever Paper Published
On the 1st, Physical Review Applied published our article describing a new type of scanning probe, which we have developed, based on a nanometer-scale superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). The work is entitled, Magnetic, thermal, and topographic imaging with a nanometer-scale SQUID-on-lever scanning probe. In the paper, we demonstrate a scanning probe that combines the magnetic and thermal imaging provided by an on-tip SQUID with the tip-sample distance control and topographic contrast of a noncontact atomic force microscope (AFM). We pattern the nanometer-scale SQUID, including its weak-link Josephson junctions, via focused-ion-beam milling at the apex of a cantilever coated with Nb, yielding a sensor with an effective diameter of 365 nm, field sensitivity of 9.5 nT/√Hz, and thermal sensitivity of 620 nK/√Hz, operating in magnetic fields up to 1.0 T. The resulting SQUID-on-lever probe is a robust AFM-like scanning probe that expands the reach of sensitive nanometer-scale magnetic and thermal imaging beyond what is currently possible.
The publication is our group’s first as part of the FET-Open collaboration, which we are leading, Focused Ion Beam fabrication of superconducting scanning Probes (FIBsuperProbes). This project has received funding form the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. The research described in the paper was led first by Dr. Marcus Wyss, a former Ph.D. and post-doc who now works at the SNI Nano Imaging Lab and later by post-doc Dr. Kousik Bagani. From our group, Ph.D. students Daniel Jetter and Adriani Vervelaki, as well as post-doc Dr. Estefani Marchiori and research scientist Dr. Boris Gross worked on the project. Dr. Joost Ridderbos of the Schönenberger group helped with the deposition of high-quality superconducting Nb and Dr. Sebastian Gliga of the PSI provided artificial spin-ice samples.
Physics II Starts
On the 24th, Prof. Poggio’s Bachelor lecture, Physics II: Electromagnetism and optics, started. The lecture takes place on Thursdays and Fridays from 13:00 to 15:00 in GHS1 in-presence and without restrictions. Videos of last year’s lecture, which took place remotely are available here.
Review Highlighted on the Cover
On the 8th, Advanced NanoBiomed Research published a review article by Ph.D. student Mr. Fabian Züger (FHNW), who works on an SNI Ph.D. Project with Dr. Maurizio Gullo (FHNW), Prof. Anna Marsano (Basel Department of Biomedicine), and Prof. Poggio. The paper was highlighted with a dedicated cover to the issue, showing an artistic rendering of biofabricated cardiac tissue emended in a nanocomposite doped hydrogel. In the review, the authors review current research on bioprinted conductive and stimuli responsive tissues using nanocomposites. Combining biofabrication techniques with intrinsically conductive nanocomposites is a promising way to achieve relevant physiological conditions in electrophysiological human tissue like cardiac and neural tissue.
QSIT General Meeting
The 2022 QSIT General Meeting was held from the 2nd to the 4th in Arosa, Switzerland. Post-doc Dr. Estefani Marchiori; Ph.D. students Andriani Vervelaki, Daniel Jetter, and Mathias Claus; and Prof. Poggio attended. On the morning of the 4th, Estefani gave a talk entitled, “Real-space imaging of magnetic phases in Cu2OSeO3 crystal”. Thank you to Klara Berg for organizing and a special thanks to the Director, Prof. Klaus Ensslin, for the last in a long series of excellent meetings.
QSIT Winter School
On the 1st, Prof. Poggio gave a lecture at the 2022 QSIT Winter School in Arosa, Switzerland entitled, “Nanoscale magnetic field imaging for 2D materials”, based on the homonymous review, which we recently wrote together with the Degen Group. Download the slides and lecture notes here. The school started on the 31st of January and ended on the 1st. Ph.D. students Andriani Vervelaki and Mathias Claus both attended the school.
Ph.D. Student Starts
On the 3rd, Aurèle Kamber started as Ph.D. student in the group. Aurèle received his Bachelor of Science and his Masters of Science both in Nanoscience from the University of Basel in 2019 and 2021, respectively. In September 2020, Aurèle completed joined our lab as a Masters student. After a short break, we are happy to announce that he now joins us for his Ph.D. Welcome back Aurèle!