PhD Candidate for Magnetically Sensitive Low-temperature Atomic Force Microscopy of Individual Atoms

With leading research into Fundamental Physics, we can answer important questions about the world of today and tomorrow. This requires curious individuals who want to push the experimental boundaries of science with their talent and expertise. As a PhD Candidate at the Scanning Probe Microscopy department, you get to explore the future of nanoelectronics with our state-of-the-art facilities.

One route of nanoscale magnetic data storage is to use novel types of non-collinear magnetic ground states - e.g. skyrmions - to store information. The stabilisation of non-collinear ground states in atomically thin magnetic films strongly depends on the interplay between isotropic and anisotropic exchange interactions in between individual atoms as well as on the interaction with the substrate. During the past years, we have focused on developing the new combination of spin-polarised scanning tunnelling and magnetic exchange force microscopy (SPEX) to probe non-collinear magnetic ground states with atomic-scale resolution and quantify the different magnetic exchange forces. We demonstrated that SPEX can decouple the geometric structure from the electronic and magnetic properties and delineate the geometric corrugation from an increased spin-resolved local density of states. We further used SPEX to resolve a cycloidal spin spiral with unprecedent resolution and quantified both the direct and indirect contributions to the magnetic exchange force field above the chiral magnetic structure. For the PhD thesis, you will use SPEX to quantify the different exchange forces in between individual magnetic atoms. Your teaching load may be up to 10% of your working time.

Relevant references:

N. Hauptmann et al., Nano Lett. 17, 5660-5665 (2017).
N. Hauptmann et al., Phys. Rev. B 97, 100401 (2018).
N. Hauptmann et al., Nature Communications 11, 1197 (2020).