Our research group focuses on nanometer-scale mechanics, magnetism, and imaging. We explore the ultimate thermal and quantum limits of mechanical sensors, study how magnetic materials behave on the nanometer-scale, and the use sensitive imaging tools to investigate magnetization patterns, spin configurations, and current distributions.

Our group has established itself as a leader in sensitive force microscopy – in particular as applied to nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) – in the mechanics of nanowires (NWs), in the magnetism of ferromagnetic nanotubes (FNTs), in hybrid mechanical systems, and in microscopy with nanometer-scale superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs). We have been at the forefront in developing measurements techniques such as NW-based atomic force microscopy (AFM) and magnetic force microscopy (MFM), sensitive torque magnetometry, and scanning quantum dot (QD) microscopy. We are also among the few groups in the world with the capability to fabricate and use SQUID-on-tip sensors for nanometer-scale magnetic and thermal imaging. More recently we have been developing scanning SQUID microscopy with SQUID-on-lever sensors, combining magnetic, thermal, and topographic contrast.

The imaging techniques employed by our group do not only resolve exquisitely weak patterns, including those generated by single charges, spins, and small amounts of flowing current, but they also probe systems at nanometer length-scales. Such localized measurements, unlike global magnetization or transport measurements, allow us to overcome ensemble or spatial inhomogeneity in systems ranging from magnetic nanotubes, to superconducting thin films, to strongly correlated states in van der Waals heterostructures. Such localized measurements, unlike global magnetization or transport measurements, allow us to overcome ensemble or spatial inhomogeneity in systems ranging from magnetic nanotubes, to superconducting thin films, to strongly correlated states in van der Waals heterostructures. This capability is the key to unravelling the microscopic mechanisms behind a wealth of new and poorly understood condensed matter phenomena.