New avenues of application of nano-magnetism in science and technology

Talk of Paolo Vavassori at the Science Faculty of the UPV/EHU (Leioa), classroom 1.2.

Devices based on new physical principles and concepts involving nano-scale magnetic materials are increasingly important for electronics, information technology, medical and automotive industries. These devices increasingly rely on magnetic materials with multifunctional properties, e.g. a combination of ferromagnetic and piezoelectric properties or a possibility to operate the magnetic state by an electric field.

Besides these more traditional applications of nano-magnetism to data storage and sensing technologies, new areas of utilization are emerging in recent years. The present seminar will deal with the new fields of magneto-plasmonics and bio-medical applications of nano-magnetism, which seem especially promising.

While these fields of nano-magnetism are still in their infancy, they already reveal their huge potential as examples of the synergetic combination of nano-physics, nano-chemistry and nano-biotechnology, which is expected to be achieving tremendous progress in Science and Technology in the near future.

Paolo Vavassori is Ikerbasque Research Professor and co-leader of the nanomagnetism group at the Cooperative Research Center CIC nanoGUNE. Vavassori got his PhD in Physics in 1994 at the Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and has developed his research in Italy and the USA investigating magnetization reversal, dynamics, and related characterization methods, as well as fabrication and characterization of magnetic nanostructures. At nanoGUNE the focus of his research encompasses the study of novel magnetoplasmonic nanostructured metamaterials and unconventional applications of magnetic nanostructures to biology, medicine and chemistry. He also has extensive experience in the fiel of magneto-optic instrumentation development.