Welcome to the Microspectroscopy Group
The Microspectroscopy Group has a long experience in synchrotron based hyperspectral imaging for a wide variety of materials and involving many different scientific disciplines. In particular we study the nanostructures of novel organic materials and the magnetic properties of thin films and multilayers employing a combination of X-ray microscopy and spectroscopy. We operate two beamlines at the SLS, PolLux and NanoXAS. At these beamlines we perform our research and provide support for external users.
Recent Scientific Highlights and News:
Tailoring Spin-Wave Channels in an Artificial Spin Ice
Magnonic crystals are periodic magnetic structures, which are attracting great interest because of their potential use in low-power information technology based on spin waves, or magnons. Artificial spin ices have been recently studied as reconfigurable magnonic crystals, but achieving the required combination of magnetic state reconfigurability and desired magnon dispersions remains challenging. Here, researchers propose a hybrid system that makes use of a magnetic thin film underlayer to couple and strengthen the interaction between the artificial spin ice’s nanoelements though spin waves. Moreover, the magnetic state of the artificial spin ice gives rise to directional spin wave channels in the underlayer. This hybrid system opens a new direction for band structure engineering in reconfigurable magnonic crystals.
Logic operations with domain walls
A collaboration of scientists from the ETH Zürich and the Paul Scherrer Institute successfully demonstrated the all-electric operation of a magnetic domain-wall based NAND logic gate, paving the way towards the development of logic applications beyond the conventional metal-oxide semiconductor technology. The work has been published in the journal Nature.
Optics for spins
In this work, published on the front cover page of Advanced Materials, an international collaboration of Italian, American, and Swiss scientists demonstrated a novel concept for the generation and manipulation of spin waves, paving the way towards the development of magnonic nano-processors.