Photo-thermally activated networks of magnetic nanostructures

NanoGUNE, located in San Sebastián, Basque Country (Spain), is an R&D center with the mission of conducting basic and applied world-class research in nanoscience and nanotechnology. The institute features an excellent infrastructure for advanced nano- scale research and engineering work, as well as related scientific studies. The working language at nanoGUNE is English.

We have an opening for short term (14 months) predoctoral position (from 01/01/2019 to 29/02/2020) in our group to work on a project related to optical and thermal properties of magnetic and hybrid (noble-metal/magnetic) nanostructured materials.  

This position is linked to the European collaborative FET project FEMTOTERABYTE “Spinoptical nanoantenna-assisted magnetic storage at few nanometers on femtosecond timescale” (for more info, please visit: https://www.physics.gu.se/english/research/femtoterabyte).

 The work will be the design and build up of a tool for simultaneous magnetic force microscopy imaging and plasmon-assisted photothermal heating of networks of magnetic nanostructured samples.

DETAILS OF THE PROJECT:
Geometrical frustration among spins in magnetic materials can lead to exotic states, of great interest for fundamental and applied studies. In the specific, we are interested in the so called “artificial spin ices” (ASIs), which is a class of lithographically created arrays of interacting ferromagnetic nanometer-scale islands, which can be fabricated in our laboratories. It was introduced to investigate many-body phenomena related to frustration and disorder in a material that could be tailored to precise specifications and imaged directly. As such, they offer broad scientific and technological perspectives: implementation of statistical mechanics models of theory, model systems for the study of out-of-equilibrium thermodynamics, and prototypes for physical systems that store and process information in unconventional ways, (complex networks and neuromorphic computers).
Ferromagnetic nanomagnets, the constituting units of an ASI, support coherent coupling of photons to localized surface plasmon resonances, which are collective free-like electron oscillations. Hybrid nanostructures combining noble and ferromagnetic metals, can improve further the efficiency of this coupling, i.e., the transfer of energy from an incident electromagnetic radiation to the nanostructure. Consequently, the local temperature of the nanostructure can be optically controlled, a phenomenon called thermo-plasmonic heating. This effect opens the path to the realization of novel opto-thermally activated nanomagnet devices that are potential candidates for the implementation of low-power data transfer and computation devices.

Specific objectives:
 - design of an add-on for photothermal heating to integrate with an existing tool for magnetic force microscopy (MFM);
 - magnetic characterization of nanostructured samples via magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) and MFM.
The ideal candidate has a strong background in MOKE, particularly related to magnetic materials characterization. Knowledge and/or previous experience with AFM/MFM characterization is desirable.

Materials required for the application are a Cover Letter, a Curriculum Vitae and one or more letters of reference and should be sent to the e-mail below before 16/11/18.
E-mail: p.vavassori@nanogune.eu
Group Webpage: http://www.nanogune.eu/nanomagnetism