Farewell Dinner

Ph.D. student Pengfei Wang of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) has been visiting our group as part of our collaboration with the group of Prof. Jiangfeng Du. Our two groups participate in a joint grant given by the Sino Swiss Science and Technology Cooperation (SSSTC). After six very successful months of experimental work in our lab, Pengfei is returning to China. On December 20th, Prof. Poggio, Dr. Fei Xue, and Ph.D. student Michele Montinaro joined Pengfei for a farewell dinner. We wish Pengfei the best of luck in his research and we hope to continue our successful collaboration with him in the future.

Christmas Party

The Warburton, Maletinsky, and Poggio Groups had a joint Christmas party on December 18th at Parterre Restaurant in Klein Basel. Over 20 people joined between students, post-docs, professors, and guests. Thanks very much to Andreas Kuhlmann and Michele Montinaro for organizing. See you next year!

QSIT Site Visit

The second site visit of the NCCR Quantum Science and Technology (QSIT) took place at ETH Zürich on November 29th and 30th. The presentations to an evaluation committee included a session of talks and a session of posters by student researchers on the 29th. From our lab, Ph.D. student Andrea Mehlin presented a poster on her work implementing cantilever feedback cooling using a quantum point contact. In addition, Ph.D. student Dennis Weber, one of six students invited to give talks about his work, made a presentation on cantilever magnetometry of individual Ni nanotubes. Thank you to the director of the NCCR Prof. Klaus Ensslin, to the co-director Prof. Richard Warburton, and to the chief administrator Ilona Blatter for their hard work organizing the review. A recently released video describes the QSIT collaboration, its scope, and its goals.

Paper appears in Nano Letters

On November 6th, Nano Letters published our paper, Cantilever magnetometry of individual Ni nanotubes as a “Just Accepted” manuscript. The work investigates the behavior of magnetization states in individual Ni nanotubes by sensitive cantilever magnetometry. These experiments were made possible by a strong collaboration between our group, the group of Prof. Anna Fontcuberta (EPFL), and the group of Prof. Dirk Grundler (TUM).

Second Annual Swiss MRFM Gathering

On Friday November 2nd our group organized the second informal gathering of research groups working on magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM) here in Switzerland. The meeting was held in Basel and attended by about 20 students, post-docs, and professors from our group, the group of Prof. Christian Degen (ETH Physics), and the group of Prof. Beat Meier (ETH Chemistry). The proceedings included talks on MRFM by Phani Peddibhotla (Basel), Ivan Tomka (ETH Chemistry), and Rosmarie Joss (ETH Chemistry); on sensitive magnetometry with nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers by Michael Loretz (ETH Physics); and on cantilever fabrication by Dr. Paolo Navaretti (ETH Physics / Basel). The program concluded with a tour of the Poggio Lab and dinner. Thanks to all participants for a successful event. See you next year!

Basel “Nano-magnetism Workshop”

On October 31st our group organized a workshop on nano-magnetism with three other collaborating groups: the group of Prof. Anna Fontcuberta (EPFL), the group of Prof. Dirk Grundler (TUM), and the group of Prof. Reinhold Kleiner and Prof. Dieter Kölle (Tübingen). Students and post-docs from the groups gave short talks aimed at generating discussion and potentially future collaborations between the groups. We thank all of the participants for their contributions to a successful event.

Seminar at TU Delft

On October 10th Prof. Poggio gave the QN Seminar at the Delft University of Technology on the invitation of Prof. Gary Steele. His talk was entitled Nano-mechanics, nano-magnetometry, and nano-MRI. The visit also included a tour of the laboratories and clean-room facilities at TU Delft.

QSIT Lunch Seminar

On October 4th, Ph.D. student Michele Montinaro was invited to give a talk at the QSIT Lunch Seminar as part of our group’s participation in the NCCR QSIT. Michele’s presentation was entitled Feedback cooling of cantilever motion using a quantum point contact transducer. After the seminar and pizza lunch, Michele, Ph.D. student Andrea Mehlin, Dr. Hari Solanki, and Prof. Poggio from our group met with our collaborator Prof. Christian Degen and our shared post-doc Dr. Paolo Navaretti to discuss the status of our joint projects.

Paper appears in APL

On September 25th, Applied Physics Letters published our paper, Feedback cooling of cantilever motion using a quantum point contact transducer. The publication appears in the Nanoscale Science and Technology section of the journal.

Plenary Talk in Halle

On September 20th, Prof. Poggio gave a plenary talk in Halle, Germany at the GDCh FGMR 34th Annual Discussion Meeting: Advanced Magnetic Resonance for the Study of Dynamics in Biomolecules and Materials entitled Recent Progress in Force-detected MRI. A full program is available here. After the conference, Prof. Kay Saalwächter, one of the organizers, gave Prof. Poggio a tour of his NMR Group at the Martin Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg.

Fundamental Analog Electronics Begins

Prof. Poggio’s course entitled Fundamental Analog Electronics is now underway. Lectures will be Tuesdays, 10.00-12.00 in Neuer Hörsaal 1. On weeks requiring practical labs, there will be a lab session Wednesdays 12:00-14:00 in Seminarzimmer 2.04. On weeks requiring written exercises, there will be an exercise session Wednesdays, 12:00-13:00 in Neuer Hörsaal 1.

Feedback Cooling with a QPC

A pre-print of our paper, Feedback cooling of cantilever motion using a quantum point contact transducer, is now available on the arXiv. The manuscript describes the use of a quantum point contact (QPC) as a displacement transducer to measure and control the low-temperature thermal motion of a nearby micromechanical cantilever. The QPC is included in an active feedback loop designed to cool the cantilever’s fundamental mechanical mode, achieving a squashing of the QPC noise at high gain. The minimum achieved effective mode temperature of 0.2 K and the displacement resolution of 10^-11 m/Hz^1/2 are limited by the performance of the QPC as a one-dimensional conductor and by the cantilever-QPC capacitive coupling. The paper will appear in Applied Physics Letters.

Prof. Yuichiro Kato in Basel

Prof. Yuichiro Kato visited our lab in Basel on Friday the 3rd. Prof. Kato runs a group at the University of Tokyo focusing on quantum optoelectronics and, in particular, on optical properties of carbon nanotubes. Prof. Kato also discussed our on-going collaboration with some members of our group.

Visitors Drop by the Lab

A series of visitors came to our lab in Basel on the way back home from the 4th nanoMRI Conference in Ascona, Switzerland. Prof. Raffi Budakian from the University of Illinois and Prof. Chris Hammel from Ohio State University visited on Friday the 27th; Prof. John Marohn, Dr. Lei Chen, Jonilyn Longenecker of Cornell University, and Dr. Lee Harrell of the U.S. Military Academy visited on Saturday the 28th; and Dr. Mark Monti, Dr. Andrew Harter, Dr. Dimitri Alexson, and Dr. Heath Huckabay of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory visited on Monday the 30th.

NanoMRI Conference in Monte Verità

Prof. Christian Degen (ETH), Prof. Poggio, and Prof. Beat Meier (ETH) have organized the 4th nanoMRI Conference at the Centro Stefano Franscini in Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland. The conference takes place between July 22nd and 27th and aims to bring together scientists and engineers interested in the field of ultrasensitive spin detection and nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging. A particular focus will be on magnetic resonance force microscopy, nanomechanical resonators, single spins in diamond, and on the experimental and theoretical challenges that go with pushing the limits of measurements. A full conference program is available here. Special thanks to our conference sponsors: The Centro Stefano Franscini, the Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI), the NCCR Quantum Science and Technology (QSIT), National Instruments, SPECS, Bruker, Attocube, and Zurich Instruments.

Group Trip to Celerina

On the weekend of July 14th, the group took some time to relax on a trip to the high-mountain town of Celerina in the Canton Graubünden. Group members enjoyed hiking, sailing, cooking, eating, and a couple of animated games of Risk. Thanks to everyone on the trip for a good time!

Talk in Stuttgart

On Friday July 6th Prof. Poggio gave a talk at the Physics Department of the University of Stuttgart on the invitation of Dr. Lapo Bogani. The talk, entitled Nano-mechanics, nano-magnetometry, and nano-MRI is part of a series on “Control of quantum correlations in tailored matter” organized by the Universities of Stuttgart, Ulm, and Tübingen. The visit to Dr. Bogani’s lab was also an oppurtunity to discuss potential collaborations.

Pengfei Wang Begins Extended Visit

Ph.D. student Pengfei Wang of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) began a 6-month visit to our group in early July. Pengfei’s visit is part of our collaboration with the group of Prof. Jiangfeng Du. Our two groups have won a joint 3-year grant given by the Sino Swiss Science and Technology Cooperation (SSSTC), in order to fund such exchanges. The title of our joint proposal is: Application of Mechanically-Detected Spin Resonance to Solid-State Nanostructures.

Lucia Bossoni Visits

Ph.D. student Lucia Bossoni from the Department of Physics at Università degli Studi di Pavia is visiting our lab for two weeks in order to perform sensitive force measurements in one of our low-temperature systems. These experiments are part of a collaboration between our group, Lucia, and her advisor, Prof. Pietro Carretta.

Student Completes Masters; to Join as Ph.D.

Andrea Mehlin completed her Masters degree with a project in our lab in June of 2012. We are happy to announce that Andrea has decided join our lab as a Ph.D. student in September of 2012. Andrea’s Masters thesis is entitled A Quantum Point Contact as Sensitive Sensor of Cantilever Motion.

Group at SPS Meeting in Zürich

On June 21st and 22nd the group participated in the annual meeting of the Swiss Physical Society (SPS) held this year at the ETH in Zürich. Prof. Poggio acted as chair of the “NCCR Nano: Nanomechanics” session, Michele Montinaro and Dennis Weber gave contributed talks, and Phani Peddibhotla presented a poster. A program can be found here.

Colloquium at TU Dresden

Prof. Poggio is visiting the Technische Universität Dresden on June 12th on the invitation of Prof. Hans-Henning Klauss. Prof. Poggio will visit the condensed matter physics department and will give the Physics Department Colloquium.

Student Completes Masters and Begins Ph.D.

Benedikt Herzog completed his Masters degree with a project in our lab in eary April of 2012. Ben is the first complete his degree with us and we are happy to annouce that he has decided to continue working in our lab for his Ph.D. He will start work on May 1st. Ben’s Masters thesis is entitled Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy at Room Temperature.

Prof. Roberto Cingolani in Basel

The director of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Prof. Roberto Cingolani, will be visiting our department and giving the Physics Department Colloquium on April 20th at the invitation of Prof. Poggio. Prof. Cingolani is a professor of physics at the University of Lecce and was the founder and director of the National Nanotechnology Laboratory (NNL) there. Since 2005, he has been leading the IIT outside of Genova. His own reseach has spanned across the fields of semiconductor nanostructures, optical spectroscopy, nanofabrication, and molecular nanotechnology. Here in Basel he will give a colloquium entitled Nanotechnologies for Humans and Humanoids.

Colloquium in Tübingen

Prof. Poggio and Ph.D. student Arne Buchter will be visiting the Physics Department of the Universität Tübingen between the 18th and 19th of April. They will discuss an ongoing collaboration with the group led by Prof. Reinhold Kleiner and Prof. Dieter Kölle. Prof. Poggio will talk about our latest research at the Physics Colloquium.

Benedikt Herzog Completes Masters

Masters student Benedikt Herzog completed his Masters in Physics in April 2012. His thesis, entitled Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy at Room Temperature, describes his work building up and running his own MRFM apparatus in our lab. Ben is the first Masters student to complete his project in our group. We are happy to announce that Ben has decided to continue his studies and pursue his Ph.D. in our group. He will begin work in May 2012.

Group Wins SSSTC Funding

On April 1st, a joint research project between our group and the group of Prof. Jiangfeng Du of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) will begin. The project is funded by a 3-year grant given by the Sino Swiss Science and Technology Cooperation (SSSTC). The SSSTC is an instrument of the Swiss and Chinese governments intended to promote and support collaborative research between Swiss and Chinese scientists. Dr. Fei Xue from our group, is the main liaison between the groups and will be leading our contribution to the project.

Visitors from Tübingen

Dr. Matthias Kemmler and Ph.D. student Joachim Nagel visited our group in the second half of March as part of an collaboration between our group and the group led by Prof. Reinhold Kleiner and Prof. Dieter Kölle at the Universität Tübingen. Dr. Fei Xue and Ph.D. student Arne Buchter have been leading our contribution to the joint experiments which are being carried out in our lab.

Dan Rugar Visits

On March 12th, Dr. Dan Rugar from the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA visited our lab. Prof. Poggio and the group members showed Dan the lab and explained our most recent results. As the foremost experimentalist in MRFM, Dan answered a variety of technical and experimental questions from our group members. Dan dropped by for a half-day on his way to the DFG conference in Stuttgart.

Warburton Group PRL

On March 5th, our colleagues from the Warburton Group here in Basel published a paper in Physical Review Letters entitled, Probing Single-Charge Fluctuations at a GaAs/AlAs Interface Using Laser Spectroscopy on a Nearby InGaAs Quantum Dot. The work, led by Dr. Julien Houel, Ph.D. student Andreas Kuhlmann, and Prof. Richard Warburton, investigates the effect of local charge fluctuations on a nearby self-assembled quantum dot (QD). Dr. Fei Xue from our group made important contributions in the fabrication of the high-quality QD samples. Some early measurements were also carried out in our lab. The paper appears under the heading, “Condensed Matter: Electronic Properties, etc.”

Group at APS March Meeting

Ph.D. students Michele Montinaro, Dennis Weber, and post-doc Dr. Fei Xue traveled to Boston to represent the group at the annual APS March Meeting from February 27th to March 2nd. Each gave a talk about his most recent research. Prof. Poggio was also in attendance.

Joint Post-Doc Starts Work

Dr. Paolo Navaretti starts work on March 1st as a joint post doctoral researcher between the groups of Prof. Christian Degen at ETH Zürich and Prof. Poggio here at Universität Basel. His work will be part of the Poggio and Degen labs’ continuing collaboration, which is facilitated by the NCCR QSIT. Dr. Navaretti’s work will benefit both groups, but he will be mostly located at ETH.

Introduction to Nanomechanics Begins

Prof. Poggio’s course entitled Introduction to Nanomechanics is now underway. Lectures will be Wednesdays, 13.00-15.00 in Seminarzimmer 1.09. Exercise sessions will be Tuesdays 13:00-14:00 in Seminarzimmer 1.09.

Talk at International School Basel

On February 9th, Prof. Poggio gave a talk to an audience of students and parents at the International School Basel in Reinach. The talk was one of three talks by local experts falling under the title, “The Physics of Nothing… and Everything: From Astrophysics to Biophysics to Nanoscience”. The event was part of the school’s “In Dialogue” series. Thanks very much to the students and parents for their interest and to the school administrators for organizing an excellent event.

Second General Meeting of the NCCR-QSIT

In the first week of February, a meeting was held in Arosa, Switzerland for the members of the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) on Quantum Science and Technology (QSIT), of which our group is part. Prof. Poggio, Dr. Fei Xue, and Dennis Weber from our group were in attendance. Friday morning, Fei gave an invited talk on our latest work. We thank the QSIT director Prof. Klaus Ensslin, the co-director Prof. Richard Warburton, and especially the QSIT coordinator, Dr. Ilona Blatter, for their work in organizing a wonderful meeting.

Seminar at the Cavendish Laboratory

Prof. Poggio will be visiting the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, England between the 23rd and 24th of January on the invitation of the team leader of the Quantum Information and Nanoscale Metrology Group, Dr. Mete Atatüre. Prof. Poggio will give a talk on our latest work as part of the Atomic, Mesoscopic and Optical Physics (AMOP) Seminar Series.

Degen Lab Members Visit

Ye Tao and Brad Moores from Prof. Christian Degen’s group at ETH Zürich visited our lab on January 19th. As part of our two groups’ continuing collaboration, our lab members gave the visiting Ph.D. students a detailed lab tour, demonstrating and explaining the various techniques that we’ve developed in the past few years.