Magnetic-Speed-Limit

Mission

Magnetism is one of the first phenomenon known by civilisation, yet one of the most poorly understood. While the origin of magnetism in materials is in atomic interactions of characteristic ultrashort time scales (millionth of a billionth of a second), it has been long believed that magnetism could only be manipulated at relatively slower nanosecond rates, exploiting external magnetic fields. However, in the past decade researchers have been able to observe ultrafast magnetic dynamics at these intrinsic ultrashort time scales without the need for magnetic fields, rather using ultrafast laser, thus revolutionising the view on the speed limits of magnetism. Despite many achievements in ultrafast magnetism, the understanding of the fundamental physics of ultrafast magnetism is still only partial, hampered by the lack of experimental techniques suited to fully explore these phenomena.

As the environment and a responsible energy use are growing concerns for society, an often forgotten source of energy consumption is the large data volumes used across the internet. Large data centres, where information is still stored in the form of tiny magnetic bits, are wasting most of their energy in form of heat, and compression and transmission of the data requires much computing power to deliver content on demand. Addressing how to store and manipulate information not only at higher rate (ideally in the terahertz regime, 1000 times faster than existing technology) but also in a much more energy efficient way, is crucial if our society has to continue to prosper based on technological advances.

The overall objective of the project is hence to better understand the puzzling phenomenon of ultrafast magnetism using new experimental tools (intense terahertz radiation and X-ray free electron lasers), which could be used to design the future of data storage. In the specific, we outlined three main research objectives:

  1. To unveil the process of magnetization dynamics controlled by strong terahertz radiation in magnetic metals (those commonly used to store magnetic information), which will add up an important piece to the puzzle of ultrafast magnetism.
  2. To understand the details of how ultrafast magnetism is linked to the crystal structure of the materials investigated.
  3. To establish how spins move in space and time using x-ray imaging to create the first "movie" of ultrafast magnetism with femtosecond and nanometer resolution at the newly built x-ray free electron lasers.

 

Research Highlights

Research objective 1

Inertial spin dynamics in ferromagnets, Nature Physics 17, 245 (2020): we report on the first experimental observation of nutation in magnetic thin films. The results have been highlighted in several dissemination channels:

Nonlinear magnetization dynamics driven by strong terahertz fields, Physical Review Letters 123, 197204 (2019): we show that intense terahertz fields can drive nonlinear magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic thin films. Results disseminated via:

Research objective 2

Nonequilibrium sub–10 nm spin-wave soliton formation in FePt nanoparticles, Science Advances 8, eabn0523 (2022).

Anisotropic Ultrafast Spin Dynamics in Epitaxial Cobalt, Applied Physics Letters 118, 232404 (2021).

Research objective 3

Megahertz-rate Ultrafast X-ray Scattering and Holographic Imaging at the European XFEL, under review (2022), arXiv:2201.06350

Dissemination

Publications (18 published articles, 3 under review, 5 manuscripts in preparation)

  • Nanna Zhou Hagström, Michael Schneider, Nico Kerber, Alexander Yaroslavtsev, Erick Burgos Parra, Marijan Beg, Martin Lang, Christian M. Günther, Boris Seng, Fabian Kammerbauer, Horia Popescu, Matteo Pancaldi, Kumar Neeraj, Debanjan Polley, Rahul Jangid, Stjepan B. Hrkac, Sheena K. K. Patel, Sergei Ovcharenko, Diego Turenne, Dmitriy Ksenzov, Christine Boeglin, Igor Pronin, Marina Baidakova, Clemens von Korff Schmising, Martin Borchert, Boris Vodungbo, Kai Chen, Chen Luo, Florin Radu, Leonard Müller, Miriam Martínez Flórez, André Philippi-Kobs, Matthias Riepp, Wojciech Roseker, Gerhard Grübel, Robert Carley, Justine Schlappa, Benjamin Van Kuiken, Rafael Gort, Laurent Mercadier, Naman Agarwal, Loïc Le Guyader, Giuseppe Mercurio, Carsten Deiter, James Moore, David Hickin, Dimitrios Rompotis, Jinxiong Wang, Daniel Kane, Sandhya Venkatesan, Joachim Meier, Florent Pallas, Tomasz Jezynski, Maximilian Lederer, Monica Turcato, David Lomidze, Andrey Samartsev, Jan Engelke, Martin Teichmann, Jan Torben Delitz, Alexander Reich, Carsten Broers, Djelloul Boukhelef, Janusz Szuba, Krzysztof Wrona, Jun Zhu, Martin Bergemann, Ebad Kamil, Thomas Kluyver, Robert Rosca, Michał Spirzewski, Markus Kuster, Steffen Hauf, Matteo Porro, Stefano Maffessanti, Karsten Hansen, Florian Erdinger, Peter Fischer, Carlo Fiorini, Andrea Castoldi, Massimo Manghisoni, Cornelia Beatrix Wunderer, Eric E. Fullerton, Oleg G. Shpyrko, Christian Gutt, Cecilia Sanchez-Hanke, Hermann A. Dürr, Ezio Iacocca, Hans T. Nembach, Mark W. Keller, Justin M. Shaw, Thomas J. Silva, Roopali Kukreja, Hans Fangohr, Stefan Eisebitt, Mathias Kläui, Nicolas Jaouen, Andreas Scherz, Stefano Bonetti, Emmanuelle Jal, Megahertz-rate Ultrafast X-ray Scattering and Holographic Imaging at the European XFEL, under review in Journal of Synchrotron Radiation (2022) arXiv:2201.06350
  • Nanna Zhou Hagström, Rahul Jangid, Meera, Diego Turenne, Jeffrey Brock, Erik S. Lamb, Boyan Stoychev, Justine Schlappa, Natalia Gerasimova, Benjamin Van Kuiken, Rafael Gort, Laurent Mercadier, Loïc Le Guyader, Andrey Samartsev, Andreas Scherz, Giuseppe Mercurio, Hermann A. Dürr, Alexander H. Reid, Monika Arora, Hans T. Nembach, Justin M. Shaw, Emmanuelle Jal, Eric E. Fullerton, Mark W. Keller, Roopali Kukreja, Stefano Bonetti, Thomas J. Silva, Ezio Iacocca, Symmetry-dependent ultrafast manipulation of nanoscale magnetic domains, under review (2022) arXiv:2112.09587
  • V. Unikandanunni, R. Medapalli, M. Asa, E. Albisetti, D. Petti, R. Bertacco, E. E. Fullerton, S. Bonetti, Inertial spin dynamics in epitaxial cobalt, under review in Physical Review Letters (2021) arXiv:2109.03076
  • K. NeerajM. Pancaldi, V. Scalera, S. Perna, M. d’Aquino, C. Serpico, S. Bonetti, Magnetization switching in the inertial regime, Physical Review B 105, 054415 (2021)
    • D. Turenne, A. Yaroslavtsev, X. Wang, V. Unikandanunni, I. Vaskivskyi, M. Schneider, E. Jal, R. Carley, G. Mercurio, R. Gort, N. Agarwal, B. Van Kuiken, L. Mercadier, J. Schlappa, L. Le Guyarder, N. Gerasimova, M. Teichmann, D. Lomidze, A. Castoldi, D. Potorochin, D. Mukkattukavil1, J. Brock, N.Z. Hagström, A.H. Reid, X. Shen, X.J. Wang, P. Maldonado, Y. Kvashnin, K. Carva, J. Wang, Y. Takahashi, E.E. Fullerton, S. Eisebitt, P. M. Oppeneer, S. Molodtsov, A. Scherz, S. Bonetti, E. Iacocca, H. A. Dürr, Nonequilibrium sub–10 nm spin-wave soliton formation in FePt nanoparticles, Science Advances 8, eabn0523 (2022) arXiv:2111.01649
    • K. Neeraj, A. Sharma, M. Almeida, P. Matthes, F. Samad, G. Salvan, O. Hellwig, S. Bonetti, Terahertz charge and spin transport in metallic ferromagnets: the role of crystalline and magnetic order, Terahertz charge and spin transport in metallic ferromagnets: the role of crystalline and magnetic order, Applied Physics Letters 120, 102406 (2022) arXiv:2108.00456
    • L.L. Guyader, D.J. Higley, M. Pancaldi, T.M. Liu, Z. Chen, T. Chase, P. Granitzka, G. Coslovich, A. Lutman, G. L Dakovski, W. Frederick Schlotter, P. Padraic Shafer, E. Arenholz, O. Hellwig, M. L.M Lalieu, B. Koopmans, A.H.M. Reid, S. Bonetti, J. Stohr, H.A. Durr, State-resolved ultrafast charge and spin dynamics in [Co/Pd] multilayers, Applied Physics Letters 120, 032401 (2022)
    • V. Unikandanunni, F. Rigoni, M.C. Hoffmann, P. Vavassori, S. Urazhdin, S. Bonetti, Ultrafast electron dynamics in platinum and gold thin films driven by optical and terahertz fields, Applied Physics Letters 120, 021601 (2022) arXiv:2106.10009. Featured article and selected for the Cover of Applied Physics Letters January 10th, 2022
    • A. A. Maznev, R. Mincigrucci, F. Bencivenga, V. Unikandanunni, F. Capotondi, G. Chen, Z. Ding, R. A. Duncan, L. Foglia, M. G. Izzo, C. Masciovecchio, A. Martinelli, G. Monaco, E. Pedersoli, S. Bonetti, and K. A. Nelson, Generation and detection of 50 GHz surface acoustic waves by extreme ultraviolet pulses Applied Physics Letters 119, 044102 (2021)
    • V. Unikandanunni, R. Medapalli, E. E. Fullerton, K. Carva, P. M. Oppeneer, S. Bonetti, Anisotropic Ultrafast Spin Dynamics in Epitaxial Cobalt, Applied Physics Letters 118, 232404 (2021), arXiv:2008.03119
      • D. Ksenzov, A. Maznev, V. Unikandanunni, F. Bencivenga, F. Capotondi, A. Caretta, L. Foglia, M. Malvestuto, C. Masciovecchio, R. Mincigrucci, K. Nelson, M. Pancaldi, E. Pedersoli, L. Randolph, H. Rahmann, S. Urazhdin, S. Bonetti, C. Gutt, Nanoscale transient magnetization gratings excited and probed by femtosecond extreme ultraviolet pulses, Nano Letters (2021), arXiv:2009.13330
      • F. Genuzio, T. Giela, M. Lucian, T. O. Menteş, C. A. Brondin, G. Cautero, P. Mazalski, S. Bonetti, J. Korecki, A. Locatelli, A UHV MOKE magnetometer complementing XMCD-PEEM at the Elettra Synchrotron, Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 28, 995 (2021)
      • K. Neeraj, N. Awari, S. Kovalev, D. PolleyN. Zhou Hagström, S.S.P.K. Arekapudi, A. Semisalova, K. Lenz, B. Green, J.-C. Deinert, I. Ilyakov, M. Chen, M. Bawatna, V. Scalera, M. d'Aquino, C. Serpico, O. Hellwig, J.-E. Wegrowe, M. Gensch, S. Bonetti, Inertial spin dynamics in ferromagnets, Nature Physics 17, 245 (2020) arXiv:1910.11284
      • L. Alber, V. Scalera, V. Unni, D. Schick, S. Bonetti, NTMpy: An open source package for solving coupled parabolic differential equations in the framework of the three-temperature model, Computer Physics Communications 265 (2021), arXiv:2002.04559
      • V. Scalera, M. Hudl, K. Neeraj, S. Perna, M. d’Aquino, S. Bonetti, C. Serpico Analysis in k-space of Magnetization Dynamics Driven by Strong Terahertz Fields, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics 57, 4300505 (2020), arXiv:2005.05742
      • M. Hudl Waltin, M. d’Aquino, M. Pancaldi, S.-H. Yang, M.G. Samant, S.S.P. Parkin, C. Serpico, H.A. Dürr, M.C. Hoffmann, S. Bonetti, Nonlinear magnetization dynamics driven by strong terahertz fields, Physical Review Letters 123, 197204 (2019), arXiv:1903.08395
      • P. Salén, M. Basini, S. Bonetti, J. Hebling, M. Krasilnikov, A. Nikitin, G. Shamuilova, Z. Tibaic, V. Zhaunerchyk, V. Goryashko, Matter Manipulation with Extreme Terahertz Light: progress in the enabling THz technology, Physics Reports 836-837, 1 (2019)
      • D. Polley, N. Zhou Hagström, C. von Korff Schmising, S. Eisebitt, S. Bonetti, Terahertz magnetic field enhancement in an asymmetric spiral metamaterial, Journal of Physics B: Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics 51, 224001 (2018), arXiv:1806.10100. Part of the invited papers on the joint Special Issue on ultrafast spectroscopy: fundamentals Guest Editors Keith Nelson (MIT, USA), A. Leitenstorfer (U. of Konstanz, Germany), K. Tanaka (U. of Kyoto, Japan).
      • D. Polley, M. Pancaldi, M. Hudl, P. Vavassori, S. Urazhdin, S. Bonetti, THz-driven demagnetization with Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy: Towards ultrafast ballistic switching, Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 51, 084001 (2018), arXiv:1711.01234
      • Zhe Wang, S. Kovalev, J. Deinert, N. Awari, M. Chen, B. Green, T. Oliveira, J.S. Lee, A. Deac, D. Turchninovic, N. Stojanovic, S. Eisebitt, I. Radu, S. Bonetti, T. Kampfrath, M. Gensch, Selective THz control of magnetic order: new opportunities from superradiant undulator sources,  Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 51, 114007 (2018)
      • M. Pancaldi, R. Freeman, M. Hudl, M. Hoffmann, S. Urazhdin, P. Vavassori, S. Bonetti, Anti-reflection coating design for metallic THz meta-materials, Optics Express 26, 2917 (2018), arXiv:1711.05670

      Peer-Reviewed International Conferences

      Contributed talks

      • Anisotropic ultrafast spin dynamics in epitaxial cobalt, Joint European Magnetic Symposia, December 8, 2020 (Zoom)
      • K. Neeraj et al., Direct experimental evidence of inertial dynamics in ferromagnetic thin films, Joint European Magnetic Symposia, December 8, 2020 (Zoom)
      • N. Zhou Hagström et al., Ultrafast Holographic Imaging at the European XFEL, MMM 2019, International Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, Las Vegas, NV, USA November 4 - 8, 2019
      • K. Neeraj et al., Direct experimental evidence of inertial dynamics in ferromagnetic thin films, MMM 2019, International Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, Las Vegas, NV, USA November 4 - 8, 2019
      • D. Polley et al., Terahertz induced Demagnetization in Magnetic Multilayers, MMM 2019, International Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, Las Vegas, NV, USA November 4 - 8, 2019
      • V. Unni et al., Anisotropic spin relaxation in epitaxial cobalt films following ultrafast demagnetization, MMM 2019, International Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, Las Vegas, NV, USA November 4 - 8, 2019
      • K. Neeraj et al., Direct experimental evidence of inertial dynamics in ferromagnetic thin films, Ultrafast Magnetism Conference 2019, York, UK, October 14-17, 2019
      • D. Polley et al., Terahertz induced Demagnetization in Magnetic Multilayers, Ultrafast Magnetism Conference 2019, York, UK, October 14-17, 2019
      • Björn Wehinger et al., Spin and Lattice Correlations in SrCu2(BO3)2 Probed by High-Pressure Ultrasound Under High Magnetic Fields, New Generation in Strongly Correlated Electrons Systems, Pescara, Italy, September 2-6, 2019
      • K. Neeraj et al., Direct experimental evidence of inertial dynamics in ferromagnetic thin films, JEMS 2019, Joint European Magnetic Symposia, Uppsala, Sweden, August 26 - 30, 2019

      Invited talks

      • S. Bonetti, Inertial spin dynamics in ferromagnets, Trends in Magnetism 2020 (TMAG2020), September 6-10, 2021, Cefalù, Italy.
      • S. Bonetti et al., Inertial spin dynamics in ferromagnets, Terahertz Spintronics Symposium, Intermag 2021, April 26-30, 2021 (Zoom).
      • S. Bonetti et al., Ultrafast spin dynamics in anisotropic metallic systems, Gordon Research Conference: Ultrafast Phenomena in Cooperative Systems Lucca, Italy, February 2 - 7, 2020
      • Björn Wehinger, Hybridized spin-lattice correlations in quantum magnets, 5th Workshop on ab initio phonon calculations, Cracow, Poland, December 3–6, 2019
      • N. Zhou Hagström et al., Ultrafast Holographic Imaging at the European XFEL, 31st Max IV user meeting, Lund, September 23 – 25, 2019
      • M. Pancaldi et al., Spiral metamaterials for terahertz magnetic field enhancement, META 2019, the 10th International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics, Lisbon, Portugal, July 23 - 26, 2019
      • S. Bonetti et al., Magnetic-field enhancing terahertz metamaterials, META 2019, the 10th International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics, Lisbon, Portugal, July 23 - 26, 2019
      • S. Bonetti et al., Terahertz spin dynamics, MORIS 2019, Magnetics and Optics Research International Symposium, Prague, Czech Republic, June 23 - 26, 2019
      • S. Bonetti et al., Terahertz spin dynamics, MML 2019, International Symposium on Metallic Multilayers, Madrid, Spain, June 17 - 21, 2019
      • S. Bonetti et al., THz probing and manipulation of magnetism, SPIE Optics + Photonics, Spintronics XI, San Diego, CA, USA, August 22, 2018
      • S. Bonetti et al., THz control of magnetism with metamaterials, SPIE Optics + Photonics, Terahertz Emitters, Receivers, and Applications IX, San Diego, CA, USA, August 19, 2018
      • S. Bonetti et al., THz spin dynamics, 2nd IEEE Conference on Advances in Magnetics, La Thuille, Italy, February 4 - 7, 2018
      • S. Bonetti et al., THz-driven ultrafast magnetization dynamics, Ultrafast Magnetism Conference 2017, Kaiserslautern, Germany, October 9 - 13, 2017
      • S. Bonetti et al., THz-driven Ultrafast Spin-Lattice Scattering in Metallic Ferromagnets, FISMAT 2017 - Italian National Conference on Condensed Matter Physics, Trieste, Italy, October 1 - 5, 2017
      • S. Bonetti et al., Probing and controlling magnetism with light, Magnet 2017 Assisi (Italy), September 13 - 15, 2017, Keynote speaker
      • S. Bonetti et al., THz-driven spin dynamics: a new light on old questions, Gordon Research Conference: Spin Dynamics in Nanostructures Les Diablerets, Switzerland, July 16 - 21, 2017

      Invited at workshops, seminars, colloquia, lectures  (by S. Bonetti)

      • Colloquium: Inertial spin dynamics in ferromagnets, Duisburg Physics Colloquium, January 21, 2021 (Zoom).
      • Workshop: Driving a soft phonon coherently with intense terahertz fields, Dynamic Quantum Matter and Materials, December 14-16, 2020 (Zoom).
      • Workshop: Time resolved magnetism with soft x-rays, Italy @ EuXFEL workshop, December 10-11, 2020 (Zoom).
      • Seminar: Inertial spin dynamics in ferromagnets, Online Spintronics Seminar, December 4, 2020 (Zoom). Talk available on OSS's Youtube Channel
      • Seminar: XFEL science and introduction to beamline proposal writing, LINXS webinar series, Let's Dive into the Atoms, November 25, 2020 (Zoom). Talk available on LINXS's Youtube Channel
      • Seminar: Inertial spin dynamics in ferromagnets, IEEE Magnetics Seminar, October 30, 2020 (Zoom). Talk available on Petaspin's Youtube Channel
      • Workshop: Ultrafast coherent soft x-ray imaging: making movies at the nanoscale , FUSEE - Future of Seeded Free Electron Lasers, Trieste, Italy, December 10-11, 2019
      • Lecture: Ultrafast Dynamics through X-ray pump-probe experiments, ELISS - ELI Summer School, Prague, Czech Republic, August 26 - 30, 2019
      • Seminar: Terahertz spin dynamics, FERMI Science Colloquium, FERMI-Elettra, Trieste, February 14, 2019
      • Workshop: Terahertz-driven spin dynamics: towards ultrafast coherent magnetization switching, Center for Quantum Spintronics (QuSpin) International Workshop, Trondheim, Norway, October 4 - 5, 2018
      • Workshop: THz-driven spin dynamics, 2nd International Workshop on Magnetic Materials and Nanomaterials, Boumerdes, Algeria, July 1 - 4, 2018
      • Workshop: X-ray imaging of spin currents and magnetisation dynamics at the nanoscale, The 9th International Workshop on Nanoscale Spectroscopy and Nanotechnology, Gyeongju, South Korea, September 25 - 28, 2017.
      • Seminar: THz-driven Ultrafast Spin-Lattice Scattering In Metallic Ferromagnets, THz workshop at XFEL, Hamburg, Germany June 1--2, 2017
      • Open Lecture: From attracting stones to the memory of the internet: the wonders of magnetism, Fysikum, Stockholm University April 27, 2017

      Infrastructure

      Laser systems

      Regenerative amplifier

      • Pulse energy output: >7 mJ
      • Pulse duration: 35-40 fs
      • Repetition rate: 1 kHz

      Optical parametric amplifier

      • Pulse energy output: 3 mJ (signal + idler)
      • Pulse duration: 50-80 fs
      • Repetition rate: 1 kHz

      Oscillator

      • Average power: 550 mW
      • Pulse duration: 25 fs (can be compressed <10 fs)
      • Repetition rate: 80 MHz

      Terahertz Time-Domain Spectroscopy

      • TOPTICA TeraFlash Pro
      • Bandwidth up to 7 THz
      • Imaging extension

      Team

      Principal investigators

      Stefano Bonetti
      Full Professor

      Postdocs

      Debanjan Polley

      Debanjan's research interests are in THz spectroscopy of nanostructures, THz metamaterials, magnetization dynamics and spintronics. He has worked at S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata, India under the guidance of Dr. Rajib Kumar Mitra and Prof. Anjan Barman. He defended his Ph.D. thesis “Manipulating Terahertz Radiation Using Nanostructures” on July, 2016. He will join our group at Stockholm University March 2017 as a post-doctoral fellow, where he will investigate spin transport and dynamics in terahertz regime. Besides his work, Debanjan enjoys reading historical fictions, playing table tennis, trekking and exploring new places.

      Matteo Pancaldi

      Matteo obtained his Ph.D. from the Nanomagnetism group in the nanoGUNE Consolider Research Center (San Sebastian, Spain), under the supervision of Dr. Paolo Vavassori. He received the Master degree in Physics from the University of Bologna, Italy, in December 2013. His research topics include the study of artificially frustrated magnetic systems and the magneto-optical characterization of magnetic nanostructures. His research will focus on the nonlinear spin dynamics driven by strong terahertz radiation.

      Björn Wehinger

      Björn’s research interests are spin and lattice correlations in quantum materials close to criticality. He is currently working on the ERC project "Understanding the speed limits of magnetism" and is based at University of Venice and FERMI in Trieste (Italy). He graduated at University of Grenoble (France) in July 2013 with a dissertation on x-ray scattering from phonons and ab initio calculations. Within a junior scientist position at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (Grenoble, France) he developed a new method for quantitative analysis of diffuse scattering and worked on high pressure experiments. In 2014 Björn moved to Switzerland where he worked on low dimensional quantum materials at University of Geneva and Paul Scherrer Institute. Björn was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship on low dimensional quantum materials co-founded by the Paul Scherrer Institute. He furthermore chairs the Special interest group “Dynamics, Disorder and Diffuse scattering” of the European Crystallographic Association. Besides work he enjoys playing with his little son, rock climbing and mountaineering.

      Ph.D. students

      Kumar Neeraj

      Neeraj obtained his B.Sc (Hons.) in Physics from Kirorimal College, University of Delhi, India. He obtained his M.Sc in Physics from SN Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata, India. He completed his master thesis under the supervision of Dr. Rajib Kumar Mitra and Prof. Anjan Barman, studying the ground state opto-electronic properties of carbon nanotube films and their use as effective electromagnetic interference shielding device in the THz region. He was also involved in micro fabrication of polarizers and antidot structures for THz studies. Apart from research, he takes keen interest in football, reading, listening good music. He is pursuing his Ph.D. in Spin transport and Dynamics in the Terahertz Regime.

      Vivek Unni

      Vivek obtained his M.Sc. (Physics) with specialization in photonics and B.Sc. (Hons.) in physics, from Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, India. He completed his master’s thesis in the topic “No cloning Theorem” under the supervision of Prof. Debendranath Sahoo. He has been working as Junior Research Fellow in the Multimodal Microscopy project funded by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India from July 2016. His other interests include Science education, World Cinema, Cricket, Football and International affairs. He is pursuing his Ph.D. in Ultrafast Spins: The Role of Lattice and Electrons.

      Nanna Zhou Hagström

      Nanna obtained both her B.Sc and M.Sc in Physics from Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, and has a B.Sc in Mathematics from Stockholm University. During her master she did two internships at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) in California. During Spring 2016 she studied mackinawite, an iron sulfide that adapts to oxidative impurities, through X-ray absorption spectroscopy at SSRL, under the supervision of John Bargar and Vincent Noël. In 2017 she spent 5 months under the supervision of Michael Toney (SSRL) and Ana Flavia Nogueira (University of Campinas, Brazil) studying hybrid organic-inorganic mixed halide perovskite, a solar absorber, through synchrotron X-ray diffraction. She is pursuing her Ph.D. in ultrafast imaging of spin dynamics at the nanoscale.

      Carlo Alberto Brondin

      Carlo Alberto obtained his bachelor degree in Chemistry at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy, in 2018. During his thesis, he synthesized and characterized lanthanide-doped core-shell nanoparticles, with the aim of tuning upconversion luminescent properties for optical thermometry applications. He started his Master degree in Science and Technology of Bio and Nanomaterials at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy. He joined the group for his master thesis focused on the study of the magnetic properties in thin films coupled to Dirac materials.