First Post-Doc Joins the Lab

Dr. Fei Xue starts work in the lab in late December. Until recently, Fei has been working as a post-doc in the laboratory led by Dr. Eyal Buks at the Technion in Israel.

International School of Basel Visits the Lab

A group of 33 high school students and 4 teachers from the International School of Basel visited the lab on Monday the 30th. Prof. Poggio gave a short introduction to nanoscience before sending the group off on a tour of the research labs. The group, led by Mr. Lloyd Hacker, toured various labs in the Department of Physics and in the Swiss Nanoscience Institute. Thanks to Dr. Peter Reimann, who organized the visit, and to all of the tour leaders from the Physics and Chemistry Departments. Many thanks also to the students and teachers from the International School of Basel for their enthusiastic interest and their excellent questions. We hope to see them around our labs again in the near future! See the visit schedule.

First Successful Cool-down

After fixing a pair of unforseen leaks, we completed our first successful cool-down of our ³He refrigerator. We achieved the minimum base temperature of 275 mK and are now preparing for the next run.

³He Refrigerator Installed

With lots of help from our extremely capable department machine shop, we have installed our ³He refrigerator on a vibration isolation table above a 2.5-m-deep pit. The first cool-down is approaching. See Lab Photo 10 and Lab Photo 11.

Introduction to Nanomechanics Begins

Prof. Poggio’s course entitled Introduction to Nanomechanics is now underway. Lectures will be on Tuesdays, 12.00-14.00 in Seminarzimmer 1.09.

Third Student Starts in the Lab

Dennis Weber starts work in the lab in early September. Soon after arriving, Dennis is spending two weeks in Helsinki attending “Cryocourse 2009” at Helsinki University of Technology learning about cryophysics and cryogenics. Dennis won full financial support for the course from the Marie Curie EC Programme.

Software Developers Visit the Lab

Friends from Canoo Enginnering AG — a high-end software boutique based in Basel — visited the lab on Wednesday the 5th. Paticipants in the tour and the lively discussions were Mike Mannion, Gerd Hillebrand, Per Janel, Marc Hermann, Thomas Ernst, Nico Kilian, and Günter Losert. Thanks to Mike for organizing and to all the participants for the interest. See Tour Photo 1, Tour Photo 2, and Tour Photo 3.

New Cryostat Arrives

Our first major piece of lab equipment has finally arrived. Together with the machine shop, we are installing our new ³He refrigerator above the pit and on our vibration isolated table. The lab is slowly starting to take shape. See Lab Photo 5, Lab Photo 6, Lab Photo 7, Lab Photo 8, and Lab Photo 9.

Second Student Starts in the Lab

Michele Montinaro starts work in the lab in mid-May.

Nature News & Views on Nanoscale MRI

A News & Views article in Nature by Prof. Chris Hammel focuses on our publicaton in PNAS, Nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging. The author discusses how highly sensitive force-detection techniques have enabled magnetic resonance imaging at the nanometer scale. See Nature 458, 844 (2009).

First Student Starts in the Lab

Phani Peddibhotla starts work in the lab in early April.

Spotlight on Double Resonance PRL

The American Physical Society is working on a new web-based project called Physics to highlight important papers published in the Physical Review journals. This month, Physics calls attention to our recently published Physical Review Letter, Nuclear double resonance between statistical spin polarizations, with an editor’s synopsis entitled, Separating oil from water with magnetic resonance force microscopy.

Nano-MRI Work Discussed in Nature Methods and Nature Biotechnology

An article entitled Good Vibrations in this month’s Nature Methods and an article entitled Nanoscale MRI Microscopy in this month’s Nature Biotechnology highlight our recent publicaton in PNAS, Nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging. See Nat. Methods 6, 192 (2009) and Nat. Biotechnol. 27, 254 (2009).

Argovia Professors Presented

In an innovative form of public-public partnership, the Swiss Canton of Aargau announces its support of the Swiss Nanoscience Institute at the University of Basel with 5 million CHF annually. Aargau wishes to strengthen basic research and to make advanced technologies more accessible to the local economy. Today the first Argovia professors Martino Poggio and Roderick Lim were presented. See Uni News.

A Breakthrough in Imaging

The New York Times, Nature News, BBC News, Forbes, Science News, Technology Review, TheScientist.com, Venture Beat, and The Stanford Report published articles describing recent work at the IBM Almaden Research center on nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging. The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. The work was a collaboration between Christian Degen, Martino Poggio (during his post-doctoral fellowship at Almaden), John Mamin, Charlie Rettner, and Dan Rugar. See IBM Press Release and an imaginative representation of magnetic resonance force microscopy on tobacco mosaic virus (movie – 20 MB).

New Lab Ready

The group will have a beautiful new lab space in the Physics Department basement. A 2.4 meter-deep pit has been completed, the electrical connections have been made, and the lab is ready to occupy. After the furniture is arranged and the equipment arrives, the group can start its work. See Lab Photo 1, Lab Photo 2, Lab Photo 3, and Lab Photo 4.

First Argovia Professor Elected

Prof. Martino Poggio, currently working at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, has been elected first Argovia Professor.  He will start his new challenge in Basel January 2009. See Uni News.