Homepage: Frithjof Nolting

Prof. Dr. Frithjof Nolting
Paul Scherrer Institut
Swiss Light Source
WSLA/120
5232 Villigen – PSI
Switzerland

Tel: +41-56-310 5111
Fax: +41-56-310 3151
frithjof.nolting at psi.ch

Titularprofessor of Nanoscience
PSI Professorship at the University of Basel

Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI) and
Department of Physics
University of Basel
Klingelbergstrasse 82
4056 Basel
Switzerland

Group leader of the Microscopy and Magnetism group at the Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut. The group is responsible for the operation and user support of the Surface/Interface: Microscopy beamline (SIM), the building of a new beamline (called X-Treme) and performs research in a wide area of topics in condensed matter physics.

My main activities are:

Magnetism at the nanoscale

Exploring the world of reduced dimensions in solid state physics is a challenging and rewarding research area. When the dimensions reach the nanometer scale, surface, quantum mechanical and thermodynamic properties that are insignificant on macroscopic scales dominate more and more, resulting in new and interesting properties. In our work, we investigate the magnetic properties of nanoscale systems. Starting with systems where one dimension is on the nanoscale such as thin-film systems, and structuring them into “2D-nanosystems” we arrive at a system where all three dimensions are on the nanoscale: nanocrystals. So far, my major research areas are magnetic mulitlayers such as exchange bias systems, studying the domain configuration in antiferromagnetic oxides, laser induced dynamics, magnetization dynamics, and ferromagnetic domain configurations in patterned materials. The measurements are performed static and time resolved with a pump-probe set-up. The primary investigation technique I currently employ is polarization-dependent spectromicroscopy using X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) at the Swiss Light Source.
Many experiments are carried out in close collaboration with the group of Dr. Laura Heyderman (Magnetic Nanostructures, Laboratory for Micro and Nanotechnology, PSI), the group of Prof. Theo Rasing (University of Nijmegen), the group of Prof. D. Pescia (ETH Zurich), and other research groups from Switzerland, Germany and the USA.

Instrumentation

We are building new experiments for X-rays absorption spectroscopy and microscopy. For example the improvement of existing endstations or building a new X-Treme beamline for XMCD spectroscopy at high magnetic fields (7T) and low temperatures (2K).