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Femtoterabyte

Research project

Active research

Project owner

Alexandre Dmitriev

Financier

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 737093.

Area

Science and Information Technology

Topic

Physical Sciences Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

Short description

FEMTOTERABYTE develops the conceptually new paradigm for ultra-dense and ultrafast magnetic storage that is envisioned to bring the technological frontier in the storage density to tens of Terabytes per inch2, while taking the operation speed for read-write into the THz. We foresee to achieve this in an all-optical platform that allows deterministic, non-thermal, low-energy, ultrafast magnetization switching at few nanometers and potentially down to a molecular length-scale.

The main building block of this technology is the antenna for light, able to operate with the optical angular momenta at a nanoscale. The project is set to develop the fundamentals for such a memory unit, and to demonstrate it in practice and in operation, mapping its suitability for future upscaling towards industrial implementation in devices.

Partners

Early Career Researchers of Femtoterabyte

Agne Ciuciulkaite

Uppsala University (Uppsala, Sweden)

My PhD project is entitled “Interaction of light with magnetic structures”. The questions and tasks raised in this project are of a fundamental science interest and address the light-magnetism interaction in various magnetic and optic materials and nanostructures. The PhD research project is based on the experimental work in fabrication and characterization of magnetoplasmonic materials, thin films and arrays. My goal is to investigate the light and magnetism interaction with the help of optical and magneto-optical methods. Also, to investigate the light induced magnetization dynamics and carry out research on how light can modify magnetization and vice versa.

Richard Rowan-Robinson

Uppsala University (Uppsala, Sweden)

Richard Rowan-Robinson received his PhD from Durham University in spintronics in 2016. His primary research interest is magnetoplasmonics and understanding the interaction between light and magnetism on the nanoscale. His PhD focused on understanding interfacial effects in magnetic multilayers and included studies of spin-orbit torques, proximity induced magnetism and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Following his PhD, he worked as a postdoc at the University of Nottingham, where he investigated strain-induced domain wall motion using the inverse magnetostriction effect. He later moved to Uppsala Sweden where he began working in the field of magnetoplasmonics. Here, he worked on developing processes to fabricate hybrid Au/TbCo nanoantennas for use in plasmonic assisted all-optical switching studies.

Dr. Esteban Pedruesa Villalmanzo

University of Gothenburg (Gothenburg, Sweden)

Esteban Pedrueza got his PhD from University of Valencia, working in plasmonic nanocomposites fabrication and optical characterization of quantum dots emission in the high pressure regime. After this, he got postdoc positions in the Max-Planck Institute in Germany and in Trinity College in Dublin.

Currently he is working in the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and his main research interests are magnetoplasmonics, specially magneto-optical Kerr effect, photoswitchable molecular devices, strong coupling interactions, biosensing, superresolution microscopy and chiral metasurfaces.

Dr. Oleg Lysenko

University of Gothenburg (Gothenburg, Sweden)

Oleg Lysenko received his Ph.D. degree from Technical University of Denmark in 2016. He is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Physics at the University of Gothenburg. His research activity includes the design and nanofabrication of plasmonic spin-antennas for optically-controlled ultrafast magnetism.

Dr. Evgeniya Smetanina

University of Gothenburg (Gothenburg, Sweden)

Evgeniya Smetanina received a M.S. degree with honor and a Ph.D. degree in laser physics and nonlinear optics from M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, in 2010 and 2014, respectively. From 2014 till 2017 Dr. Smetanina had been a postdoc at Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications, University of Bordeaux, France, where she developed a laser-dielectric interaction model of writing and reading 3D nanostructures in silver-doped glass applied for optical data storage technologies. Since 2017 Dr. Smetanina is a postdoc at Department of Physics, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, working on development and fabrication of nanostructured materials for magnetic control of light.

Dr. Marco Berritta

Uppsala University (Uppsala, Sweden)

Ab initio theory of laser-induced magnetism (inverse Faraday effect), ab initio theory of magneto-optics & current-induced magnetization, relativistic theory of spin dynamics
Presentations, given in connection to Femtoterabyte project:
• Contributed talk at the German Physical Society Meeting (DPG), March 2017, (Dresden, Germany)
• Contributed talk at Magnetics and Optics Recording International Symposium (MORIS), January 2018, (New York, USA)

Dr. Jerome Hulst

Uppsala University (Uppsala, Sweden)

Theory of ultrafast light-to-spin angular momentum transfer, theory of ultrafast spin transport and plasmonics in nanostructures.
Presentations, given in connection to Femtoterabyte project:
• Seminar Jan. 2018, Gothenburg, Sweden
• Talk at Magnetic single Nano Object Workshop (M-SNOW), Sept. 2018 (Nancy, France)
• Seminar on ultrafast magnetoplasmonics, Dec. 2018 (Uppsala, Sweden)

Mr. Leandro Salemi

Uppsala University (Uppsala, Sweden)

Ab initio theory of laser-induced magnetism (inverse Faraday effect), ab initio theory of magneto-optics & current-induced magnetization, relativistic theory of spin dynamics
Presentations, given in connection to Femtoterabyte project:
• Seminar on current and light induced magnetic moments, Oct. 2018 (Uppsala, Sweden)
• Poster at European School on Magnetism, Sept. 2018 (Krakow, Poland) Prize Award for the best poster.

Dr. Sergii Parchenko

Paul Scherrer Institute / Swiss Light Source (Villigen, Switzerland)

Sergii Parchenko’s research interest mainly focused on study the behavior of magnetic and strongly correlated systems after excitation with short and intense laser light. In particular, how to use light to change the state of the material on the ultrafast time scale, understanding of the processes, which take place during this process.
Sergii Parchenko finished his Master course in Applied Physics at Donetsk National University in 2012. For his PhD, he was studying at University of Bialystok in Poland. During the PhD, he was involved in studies of ultrafast spin dynamics in ferrimagnets focused on understanding of inter-sublattice exchange interaction between rare earth and transition metal ions on the ultrafast time scale (as a primary topic) and study of magneto-plasmonic effect (as a secondary topic). After graduation in 2016, Sergii moved to Switzerland and, as a PostDoc, joined the Microscopy and Magnetism group at PSI lead by Dr. Urs Staub where he is currently located. Here in PSI, he was involved in studies of ultrafast dynamics in strongly correlated materials mostly using soft X-ray spectroscopy and scattering techniques (both elastic and inelastic scattering) with aim to clarify the electronic, spin and structural properties of strongly correlated materials on the ultrafast time scale and interactions between them after the excitation with fs NIR-visible and THz radiation. Since July, 2018, he has been invited to join the “FEMTOTERABYTE” project in frame of Horizon 2020 framework program focused on study the possibility of all optical switching of the magnetization in nanostructures using the plasmonic effects.

Ms. Gaia Petrucci

University of Pisa (Pisa, Italy)

Gaia Petrussi's PhD project involves functionalizing plasmonic nanostructured surfaces using magnetic nanoparticles for high-density data storage.

Abstract:
Through magnetoplasmonics, the combination of magnetic and plasmonic materials, one can exploit the interplay of light and magnetism to envisage technological applications like all-optical magnetic switching, leading to the realization of densely packed and fast switchable bits. The approach that we chose to pursuit toward this aim is to functionalize plasmonic nanoantennas with magnetic metal oxides nanoparticles, in order to study how these two elements interact. The plasmonic nanoantennas are gold nanostructures evaporated on glass surfaces. These nanostructured surfaces are realized by Goteborg University through soft lithographic techniques (i.e. hole-mask colloidal lithography using polystyrene nanospheres). In this way it is possible to obtain non-interacting nanoantennas supporting Localized Surface Plasmons Resonance (LSPR), the collective oscillation of free electrons confined in a metal nanostructure. This kind of nanostructures are able to collect external light and to concentrate the electric field carried by it in some specific hot-spots. By arranging the magnetic nanoparticles in these hot-spots we aim at tailoring light-matter interactions at the nanoscale.

Oral communications at conferences:
"Self-Assembly of Magnetic Nanoparticles over Plasmonic Nanoantennas" at International School of Plasmonics and Nano-Optics, Cetraro (Cs), 15-18.06.2018, Pitch presentation.

Poster communications at conferences:

"Self-Assembly of Magnetic Nanoparticles over Plasmonic Nanoantennas” Gaia Petrucci, Alessio Gabbani, Elvira Fantechi, Alexandre Dmitriev, Massimo Gurioli, Andrea Caneschi, Claudio Sangregorio, Francesco Pineider at Workshop Plasmonica 2018, Firenze, 4-6.07.2018.
"Plasmonic Nanoantennas: Toward the Optical Control of the Magnetization of Nanoparticles" Gaia Petrucci, Alessio Gabbani, Elvira Fantechi, Alexandre Dmitriev, Massimo Gurioli, Andrea Caneschi, Claudio Sangregorio, Francesco Pineider at European School on Magnetism - Magnetism by light, Cracovia, 17-28.09.2018.

Mr. Alessio Gabbani

University of Pisa (Pisa, Italy)

Alassio Gabbani's PhD project involves the synthesis, characterization and evaluation of magneto-optical properties of magnetoplasmonic nanoparticles.

PhD project:
My PhD project involves the synthesis, characterization and evaluation of magneto-optical properties of magnetoplasmonic nanoparticles.
The modulation of the optical response of plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) by means of an external magnetic field, i.e. magnetoplasmonics, can trigger interesting innovations in the design of optical switches, modulators or more efficient refractometric sensors [1,2]. The enhancement of this magnetic modulation is a challenging goal in magnetoplasmonics. A previous works proved the ability of Magnetic Circular Dichroism (MCD) to detect small magnetic field-induced energy shifts of the plasmonic modes in simple Au NPs, which were modelled in terms of simple equations of motion of free electrons [3,4]. Nevertheless, the MCD signal of Au NPs is small and it can be further enhanced through the design and preparation of new magnetoplasmonic NPs with large magneto-optical signal. In my PhD project I am exploiting two main strategies to this purpose, which involve different kind of nanostructured materials. These materials are synthesized by colloidal chemistry approaches, and characterized structurally, magnetically, optically and magneto-optically.
The first approach is the preparation of hybridized magnetoplasmonic NPs, by alloying Au with magnetic metals (Fe, Co or Ni) and exploiting the magnetic interaction between the conduction electrons of Au and the spin polarized electrons of magnetic metals to increase the magnetic modulation. Different composition of the NPs are evaluated, in order to introduce magnetic properties without damping the plasmonic resonance and find the right balance between plasmonic and magnetic properties.
The second approach consists in the use of heavily doped semiconductors. Among these class of plasmonic materials, n-doped Indium-Tin-Oxide (n-ITO) NPs display a sharp plasmonic absorption in the Near-Infrared region of the spectrum [5,6]. Thanks to the low LSPR peak width and to the lower electron effective mass of n-ITO with respect to Au, the magnetic modulation of surface plasmons in n-ITO NPs is at least one order of magnitude higher than in simple Au NPs. By tuning synthetic parameters we are trying to modulate the structural parameters of n-ITO NPs, aiming at improving the magnetoplasmonic properties.

[1] G. Armelles et al., Advanced Optical Materials 1, 10-35 (2013).
[2] G. Pellegrini et al., ‘Magnetoplasmonics’ in Encyclopedia of Nanotechnology, Springer 2016.
[3] F. Pineider et al., Nano letters 13, 4785–4789 (2013).
[4] B. Sepulveda et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 147401 (2010).
[5] M. Kanehara et al., JACS 131, 17736–17737 (2009).
[6] G. Shiva Shanker et al., Chem. of Mat. 27, 892-900 (2015).

Publications:

M. Bonini, A. Gabbani, S. Del Buffa, F. Ridi, P. Baglioni, R. Bordes, K. Holmberg, Adsorption of amino acids and glutamic acid-based surfactants on imogolite clays, 2017, Langmuir, 33 (9), pp 2411–2419. DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b04414.
G. Bresciani, M. Bortoluzzi, S. Zacchini, A. Gabbani, F. Pineider, F. Marchetti and G. Pampaloni, Synthesis and Structural Characterization of Non-Homoleptic Carbamato Complexes of V(V) and W(VI), and Their Facile Implantation on Silica Surfaces, March 14, 2018 Issue10, Pages 1176-1184, European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, DOI: 10.1002/ejic.201701260
G. Bresciani, F. Marchetti, G. Rizzi, A. Gabbani, F. Pineider, G. Pampaloni, Metal N,N-dialkylcarbamates as Easily Available Catalytic Precursors for the Carbon Dioxide/Propylene Oxide Coupling Under Ambient Conditions, Volume 28, December 2018, Pages 168-173, Journal of CO2 utilization, DOI: 10.1016/j.jcou.2018.09.023.
G. Varvaro, A. Di Trolio, A. Polimeni, A. Gabbani, F. Pineider, C. de Julián Fernández, G. Barucca, P. Mengucci, and A.M.Testa, Giant magneto-optical response in H+ irradiated Zn1-xCoxO thin films, 2018, Journal of Material Chemistry C, DOI: 10.1039/C8TC03563F

Oral communications at conferences:
Magnetic modulation of surface plasmons in magnetoplasmonic nanoparticles, Alessio Gabbani, Elvira Fantechi, Vincenzo Amendola, Angshuman Nag, Massimo Gurioli, Andrea Caneschi, Claudio Sangregorio, Francesco Pineider, Plasmonica 2018, 4-6 July 2018, Firenze

Poster communications at conferences:

Magnetoplasmonic hybrid nanoparticles, Alessio Gabbani, Elvira Fantechi, Claudio Sangregorio, Francesco Pineider, European School on Magnetism 2017 – Condensed Matter Magnetism: Bulk meets nano, 9-23 October 2017, Cargese, Corsica (France);
Magnetic modulation of surface plasmons in magnetoplasmonic nanoparticles, Alessio Gabbani, Elvira Fantechi, Vincenzo Amendola, Angshuman Nag, Massimo Gurioli, Andrea Caneschi, Claudio Sangregorio, Francesco Pineider, Plasmonica 2018, School of Plasmonics and Nano-optics, 15-18 June 2018, Cetraro (Italy)
Magnetoplasmonic nanoparticles with enhanced magneto-optical response, Alessio Gabbani, Elvira Fantechi, Vincenzo Amendola, Angshuman Nag, Massimo Gurioli, Andrea Caneschi, Claudio Sangregorio, Francesco Pineider, Chemistry for the Future 2018, 4-6 July 2018, Pisa.

Dr. Mario Zapata

nanoGUNE Research Center (San Sebastian, Basque Country, Spain)
Mario Zapata is a theoretical physicist and an expert in different techniques within the framework of Maxwell's classical theory useful for the description of the optical response of nanomaterials, as well as methods of first principles as Time Dependent Density Functional Theory (TDDFT) in the treatment of quantum mechanisms in the optical response of metal nanosystems. He has worked in the area of collective excitations of nanostructured systems such as nanotubes, nanowires and currently in the description of classic magneto-optical systems

Publications

News archive

New Discovery Can Give Faster Spintronic Elements

Femtoterabyte partners in Uppsala University have been able to show that there is a new form of magnetic torque which may make spintronic elements even faster than they are today. The research has been published in Nature Communications.

Full press release from Uppsala University

Article in Nature Communications

New nanostructure developed in Florence

A nanostructure based on magnetic and superconducting molecules with frontier quantum properties has been developed at the University of Florence within Femtoterabyte project. The article is published in the latest issue by the scientific journal Nature Materials and signed by the team coordinated by Roberta Sessoli at the University of Florence, Femtoterabyte partner.

Article in Nature Materials

Video

Full press release

Observation of the nonlinear Wood's anomaly on periodic arrays of nickel nanodimers

Researchers in Uppsala University, who are the part of FEMTOTERABYTE team, jointly with University of Le Mans (France), Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA) and Fritz-Haber-Institut of the Max Planck Society (Germany) published the work on linear and nonlinear magnetophotonic properties of periodic arrays of nickel nanoantennas. This work gives a new insight into how one could manipulate nonlinear optics with magnetism.

Paper:
Observation of the nonlinear Wood's anomaly on periodic arrays of nickel nanodimers

Magnetizing semiconductors with light

Prof. Vassilios Kapaklis, partner of the FEMTOTERABYTE at Uppsala University, writes a news piece in Nature Nanotechnology on the recent advance in combining plasmonics and spintronics in semiconductors.

Article in Nature Nanotechnology

Mesoscale behaviour of a 3d-single molecule magnets monolayer on Au(111) surface

[2018-03-12] The researchers from University of Florence (Italy), University of Rennes (France) and Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland) presented a computational study of a full- and a half-monolayer of a Fe4 single molecule magnet on an unreconstructed surface of Au(111).

Article

The importance of the weak

[2018-03-12] Researchers at the Division of Material Physics at Uppsala University have shown how the collective dynamics in a structure consisting of interacting magnetic nano-islands can be altered to possess liquid-like qualities, as well as promoting emergent magnetic states. Their findings are published in the scientific journal Nature Physics.

Article in Nature Physics

Ultrafast Change of Volume Discovered in Magnetic Materials

[2018-02-15] All magnetic materials show a change of volume if their magnetization changes, but how the process takes place on the shortest time scales is still a mystery. An international collaboration of both experimental and theoretical research groups has now managed to come a step closer to the solution of this riddle.

Article in Nature Communications

γ-Rays shine on a molecular monolayer

[2018-02-05] The investigation of single molecule magnets, conducted in the Femtoterabyte project, brings Mössbauer spectroscopy firmly into the realm of surface science.

News feature at Nature Communications

Article

Thesis defense related to FEMTOTERABYTE

October 27 Ritiwik Mondal defends his PhD thesis ‘Relativistic theory of laser-induced magnetization dynamics’ at Uppsala University under the supervision of Prof. Peter Oppeneer. The work revolves around developing the ab initio relativistic theory for the fast and ultrafast magnetization dynamics.

In particular, the author builds relativistic theory to explain the magnetization dynamics observed at short timescales in pump-probe magneto-optical experiments and computes from the first-principles the coherent laser-induced magnetization. The work directly relates to FEMTOTERABYTE and acknowledges the project.

Professor Peter Oppeneer holds invited talks

Prof. Peter Oppeneer gave an invited plenary at “Hysteresis Modeling & Micromagnetics”, HMM2017 (Barcelona, Spain), June 2017. The talk described the simulations of all-optical magnetization and switching.

Prof. Peter Oppeneer also gave an invited talk at: “Ab-initio spin-orbitronics” (Montesilvano, Italy), Sept. 2017.

Rich scientific discussions in M6 project meeting

September 20th the project partners gathered at Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, to have the Month 6 project progress meeting and the seed workshop on the merger of the ultrafast nanomagnetism and nano-optics.

The meeting was rich in scientific discussions, with all of the partners presenting the very recent research results and exchanging ideas. The detailed current and future plans for the project were also discussed.

Plenary talk at the Moscow International Symposium on Magnetism

[2017-08-26] Professor Roy Chantrell, University of York, gave a plenary talk ‘All optical magnetisation switching: basic physics and potential for new technology' at the Moscow International Symposium on Magnetism on July 1-5, 2017.

Nature News & Views: (Materials science) Magnetic molecules back in the race

[2017-08-26] Professor Roberta Sessol, University of Florence, the partner of Femtoterabyte, gives perspective on the use of single-molecule magnets beyond cryogenic temperatures to be useful for the magnetic memory applications.
Article in Nature News & Views

Fundamental origin of magnetic inertia uncovered

[2017-08-24] Magnetic inertia is considered to hold great promise for achieving ultrafast magnetization switching of ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic materials. It appears in ultrafast spin dynamics as a spin nutation giving a marked deviation from the precessional motion of a spin moment and the Gilbert damping that acts to align the moment to the effective magnetic field.

However, the fundamental origin of magnetic inertial dynamics is unknown. In this article Mondal et al have derived a complete theory of spin dynamics, including magnetic inertia, starting from the fundamental Dirac-Kohn-Sham theory. They show, first, that magnetic inertia exists for any single Dirac particle and that it is a higher-order relativistic spin-orbit coupling effect compared to the Gilbert damping.

Second, they show that magnetic inertia exists for a magnetic volume element or atomic spin moment, and how inertial damping is related to Gilbert damping, yet being a higher-order spin-orbit effect and thus much smaller. It is therefore expected that magnetic inertia can play a role in ultrafast spin dynamics only on an ultrashort, subpicosecond timescale.

Relativistic theory of magnetic inertia in ultrafast spin dynamics
Ritwik Mondal, Marco Berritta, Ashis K. Nandy, and Peter M. Oppeneer
Phys. Rev. B 96, 024425 (2017) – Published 18 July 2017

The paper is the part of Editor’s suggestion at Physical Review B: https://journals.aps.org/prb/issues/96/2

Broad dissemination of Femtoterabyte results at META17

[2017-08-23] Several partners of Femtoterabyte delivered invited and contributed talks at the 8th International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics META17 in Incheon - Seoul, South Korea.

It was the first time that a symposium on magnetism, magneto-optics and magnetoplasmonics (‘META-magnetism and interdisciplinary applications III’) was organized at META conference series.

Read about the conference

Project Kick-off

[2017-03-08] The kick-off meeting for the project took place on March 9, 2017 in Copenhagen. While we made an overview the science and the implementation of the project for the coming three years and discussed what are we going for, all partners gave highlights from their research.

Millions to Research on Future Data Storage

[2016-10-11] A project dealing with the next generation of computer data storage has received an EU grant worth SEK 36 million. The project is coordinated by researcher Alexandre Dmitriev from the Department of Physics, and SEK 8.5 million of the grant will go to his research group at the University of Gothenburg.

Femtoterabyte dissemination kit (pdf)

New avenues for ultrafast magnetic memory, ultra-performance sensing and low…

Over the past three years, the FEMTOTERABYTE project, funded by the European Commission under Future and Emerging…

Last modified

15 July 2022