Magnetic Imaging Conference

Expert Scientist | Thales Research & Technology 
Coordinator | EU Quantum Flagship project ASTERIQS

Thierry Debuisschert studied physics at Ecole Supérieure d’Optique and received his PhD in 1990 from Ecole Normale Supérieure, with a thesis on quantum noise reduction. The same year he joined Thales Research & Technology, where he is currently expert scientist in the physics division. Debuisschert received many awards for his work, among others the Descartes prize (2004) and the Prix des Etoiles de l’Europe (2018). From 2016 to 2018, he was an elected member of the National Committee of CNRS.

Dr. Debuisschert´s research focuses on nonlinear optics, lasers, tunable laser sources, quantum cryptography and NV centers in diamond. He has been both coordinator and contributor to numerous research projects at French and European level, among others DIADEMS and ASTERIQS, that have gathered prominent European laboratories and industrial partners involved in the development of NV quantum sensors. He is currently Chair of the Science & Engineering Board of the Quantum Flagship and he has played a major role in creating the Strategic Research Agenda presented to the European Commission by the Strategic Advisory Board in 2020. Debuisschert has authored over 50 publications, has supervised more than 15 students and has served in several scientific boards. 

Professor | ETH Zurich

Christian Degen studied physics at ETH Zurich and received his PhD in 2006 from the same university. From 2006 to 2008 he was a postdoc at IBM Research Center Almaden under the guidance of Daniel Rugar. In 2009 Degen was appointed assistant professor at the MIT, and in 2011 he moved to ETH Zurich, where he holds a professorship in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics.

Prof. Degen´s research focuses on novel magnetic sensing and imaging techniques in nanoscale research. He employs ultrasensitive mechanical sensors, such as cantilevers and membranes, as well as quantum sensors based on defect spins in diamond (NV centers). Some of Degen´s main contributions are the invention of scanning NV magnetometry (NVM) in 2008, as well as pioneering experiments in magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM), leading to applications in high sensitivity, high resolution magnetic imaging of memory materials and devices and biomolecules. In 2017, Degen co-founded QZabre LLC, a spin-off company dedicated to fabricating diamond NV center probes and bringing NVM solutions to the market.

Christian Degen received numerous awards for his achievements; among others the Raymond Andrew Prize (2007) and two ERC grants (2012 and 2018). In his research, Christian Degen is using an attoAFM/CFM microscope in a dilution refrigerator for scanning magnetic imaging experiments at millikelvin temperatures.

Lab Head | Empa - Swiss Federal Labs for Materials Science and Technology
Professor | University of Basel

Hans Josef Hug studied physics at the University of Basel and received his PhD in 1993 from the same university. During his postdoc in the Güntherodt group, Hug designed and constructed various low-temperature scanning force microscopes performing measurements on superconducting and magnetic thin film systems, but also on single crystalline surfaces with true atomic resolution. In 2001 Hug was appointed an assistant professor at the University of Basel, and in 2003 he was appointed full Professor at the University of Twente. In 2004, Hug moved to the ETH Domain, where he took the position of the Head of Magnetic and Functional Thin Films Lab at Empa (Swiss Federal Labs for Materials Science and Technology). He also served as the Head of the Empa Nanotechnology research program and has also headed the nanoanalytics platform within the ETH Domain’s Materials Science Competence Center. Besides lecturing at the University of Basel, Hug has regularly lectured at the University of Grenoble and EPFL Lausanne, and has served in PhD committees at various universities. 

Prof. Hug´s research focuses on nanoscale materials science, particularly on thin magnetic films, as well as on atomic and molecular nanosystems on surfaces. The emphasis is put on the continuous development of new experimental methods in scanning probe microscopy to explore nanoscale magnetism. His main contributions include first ever magnetic imaging of vortices in high-Tc superconductors by MFM, domains in ultra-thin magnetic films, the development of quantitative MFM techniques to measure the magnetic stray fields, for example from single skyrmions quantitatively or to determine the local areal density of pinned uncompensated spins in exchange bias systems. 

Prof. Hug´s research also includes imaging of surfaces with true atomic resolution, as well as first ever measurement of covalent bonding between single atoms. His highly application-oriented research led to numerous international collaborations with universities and industrial laboratories. Furthermore, in 2004 Hug founded the company SwissProbe AG (today Nanoscan AG) to market the high resolution MFM technology he developed. Hug has published more than 130 papers and holds several patents. Hans Josef Hug received numerous awards for his achievements; among those the Swiss Technology Award in 2003 for the development of high resolution and quantitative magnetic force microscopy. 

Professor | University of Montpellier 

Vincent Jacques received his PhD in 2007 from École Normale Supérieure de Cachan. After a post-doctoral stay at the University of Stuttgart, he was hired by the CNRS as a research associate in 2009. He is currently working in the team “Solid-State Quantum Technologies” at the Laboratoire Charles Coulomb, a join unit of CNRS and the University of Montpellier. 

Prof. Jacques´ research interests cover several fundamental and applied topics related to the applications of artificial atoms in quantum technologies. Such topics include quantum optics, spin physics, and quantum sensing with the development of highly-sensitive magnetometers based on NV defects in diamond. He has published more than 80 papers in international journals. Jacques´ main contribution is the development of scanning NV magnetometry and its applications to tackle open questions in condensed matter physics. 

Vincent Jacques received numerous awards for his achievements, including the best PhD in Physics Award from EADS Foundation (2008), the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (2009), the Edouard Branly Prize (2013), as well as an ERC starting grant (2014) and an ERC consolidator grant (2019).

In his research, Vincent Jacques is using an attoAFM/CFM microscope in an attoLIQUID1000 cryostat for magnetic imaging.

Scanning SQUID Guru | kirtleyscientific

Dr. John Kirtley studied physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and received his PhD in 1976 from the same university. After being a postdoc and research assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Kirtley joined the IBM Watson Research Center in 1978. After retiring from IBM in 2006, he held positions at Stanford University, the University of Twente, the University of Augsburg, Chalmers University, CNRS Grenoble and the University of Aachen. From 2011 until his retirement in 2020, Kirtley held the position of Physical Sciences Research Associate at Stanford University.

Kirtley started his research focusing on electron tunneling, imaging techniques and noise in superconductors and semiconductors. Later on, he has developed the technique of scanning SQUID microscopy and used the resulting novel instruments for numerous fundamental studies in condensed matter physics. His main contribution is the elucidation of the orbital symmetry of the pairing function in high-temperature superconductors: using scanning SQUID imaging, Kirtley demonstrated d-wave pairing symmetry with the half-integer flux quantum effect in the cuprate high-temperature superconductors. Kirtley has authored over 200 publications.

John Kirtley received numerous awards for his achievements, among others the Oliver E. Buckley Prize (1998), Humboldt Forschungspreis (2007), and the NanoSciences Foundation Chaire d'excellence (2009). Kirtley is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

During his post at Stanford University, Kirtley was in charge of the Stanford SQUID Microscope User Facility (https://snsf.stanford.edu/equipment/xsa/spm_squid.html), part of the Stanford Nano Shared Facility (https://snsf.stanford.edu/about/about.html), which utilizes an attocube scanning SQUID platform in an attoLIQUID1000 cryostat.

Professor | University of Basel
Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder | qnami AG

Patrick Maletinsky studied physics at ETH Zurich, Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris and JILA Boulder, Colorado. He received his PhD in 2008 from ETH Zurich, then moved to Harvard University as a postdoc and stayed there until 2011. In 2012 Maletinsky assumed the Georg-H.-Endress Professorship at the University of Basel as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 2017, and appointed member of the Senate of the University of Basel in 2020.
 
Maletinsky´s research is focusing on the use of individual quantum systems as sensing devices, as well as on their application to challenges in mesoscopic and nanoscale physics, in particular to nanoscale magnetic field sensing. His research has significantly advanced the field of NV magnetometry (NVM) and has led to numerous key publications in quantum sensing over the last years. His main contributions include nanoscale magnetic imaging down to the level of single electron spins, the first application of NVM to imaging superconductor vortices and the first applications of NVM to technologically very promising field of antiferromagnetic spintronics and van der Waals magnets. In 2017 Maletinsky co-founded qnami, a spin-off company dedicated to fabricating diamonds with NV centers and bringing full NVM solutions to the market.
 
Patrick Maletinsky received numerous awards for his achievements; among others the Schläfli Prize of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (2010) and several competitive research grants, including an SNSF starting grant and an ERC consolidator grant. 
 
In his research, Patrick Maletinsky is using an attoAFM/CFM microscope in an attoLIQUID1000 cryostat for magnetic imaging at cryogenic temperatures.

Vice Provost and Dean of Research | Stanford University
Co-chair | National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee

Kathryn Ann “Kam” Moler studied physics at Stanford University and received her PhD in 1995. Afterwards, she joined IBM Watson Research Center as a visiting scientist and Princeton University as an R.H. Dicke Postdoctoral Fellow. In 1998, Moler joined the faculty of Stanford University, where she is now the Marvin Chodorow Professor, and Professor of Applied Physics and of Physics, in addition to being the Dean of Research and the Vice Provost of Stanford University. In 2004 she founded the Center for Probing the Nanoscale - a NSF-funded center where scientists and engineers from Stanford University and IBM improve scanning probe methods for measuring, imaging, and controlling nanoscale phenomena. Moler was previously the Senior Associate Dean of Natural Sciences in the School of Humanities and Sciences and the Director of the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of NanoFront (TU Delft/Leiden), as well as a member of the Advisory Board of the Physics Frontier Center—Joint Quantum Institute.

Prof. Moler conducts research in magnetic imaging, develops tools that measure nanoscale magnetic fields, and studies quantum materials and devices. Her main contributions include  testing several theoretical models of high-temperature superconductivity, probing the dynamics of individual vortices in many materials, and elucidating the coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism through highly sensitive local imaging. She has authored over 100 publications. 

Among other honors, Moler received a national Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, held a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, received the William L. McMillan Award “for her fundamental studies of the superconducting pairing state, Josephson vortices, and the role of interlayer coupling in high-temperature superconductors”. Moler was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2008. Due to her expertise in both quantum physics and leadership, Kathryn Ann Moler is since 2020 co-chairing the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee - a body that advises the President of the United States on ways to ensure American leadership in quantum science.

To honor her sustained commitment to teaching, the American Association of Physics Teachers awarded her the Richtmyer Award for Outstanding Leadership in Physics Education, and Stanford appointed her as the Sapp Family Fellow in Undergraduate Education. 

The Moler lab, beside several home-built scanning SQUID microscopes, hosts an attocube scanning SQUID platform in an attoLIQUID1000 cryostat.

Director | Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics
Professor | Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

Stuart Parkin studied physics at the University of Cambridge and received his PhD in 1980 from the same university. After a Royal Society European Exchange Postdoc Fellowship at the University Paris-Sud, France, in 1980-1981, Parkin joined IBM Research in San Jose, California in 1982 as a postdoc, and became a permanent staff member just a year later. In 1999 Parkin received IBM's highest technical honor from IBM’s Chairman when he was appointed IBM Fellow. Parkin was Manager of the Magnetoelectronics group at the IBM Almaden Research Center and also was a consulting professor of applied physics at Stanford University and Director of the IBM-Stanford Spintronic Science and Applications Center from 2004-2014. In 2014 Parkin was appointed a member of the Max Planck Society, and Director of the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle, Germany, as well as an Alexander von Humboldt Professor at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg - the positions he currently holds.  Parkin has been a visiting professor at numerous universities worldwide. 

Prof. Parkin´s research focuses on spintronics - a field of research to which he has made many major contributions. His work on spin-dependent transport in magnetic multilayers led to his discoveries of the universality of giant magnetoresistance in many transition metal and noble metal multilayers including room temperature effects in copper-based multilayers, the interfacial origin of giant magnetoresistance, and long-range interlayer oscillatory coupling, that allowed for his invention of the synthetic antiferromagnet.  These discoveries of his led to his invention and development of highly  innovative read-heads for computer hard disks, which in turn enabled a 1000-fold increase in the storage capacity of magnetic hard disks in little more than a decade.  These same discoveries are used even today in recording read heads whose physics has switched from spin-dependent scattering to spin-dependent tunneling, the latter using materials he invented and demonstrated in 2001-2004.  In 1995, Parkin with colleagues at IBM Research proposed the concept of a non-volatile magnetic random access memory using magnetic tunneling junctions. This technology has finally mainstream applications since 2019. His current research interest comprises energy‐efficient data storage technologies based on the racetrack memory devices. Parkin has authored over 600 publications and holds 120 patents.

Stuart Parkin has received numerous recognitions for his research, including among others the Europhysics Prize (1997), the AIP Prize for Industrial Application of Physics (1999), the Humboldt Research Award (2004), the IEEE Daniel E. Noble Award (2008), the Dresden Barkhausen Award (2009), the IUPAP Magnetism Prize and Neel Medal (2009), the Von Hippel Award (2012), the Swan Medal (2013), and the Millennium Technology Prize (2014). In 2007 he received the "No Boundaries" Award for Innovation from The Economist. Many universities have awarded Parkin an honorary doctorate for his achievements. Stuart Parkin is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, member of the National Academy of Sciences, member of the National Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

In his research Stuart Parkin is using an attoAFM I microscope with attoMFM upgrade in an attoLIQUID2000 cryostat for magnetic imaging.

Professor | Iowa State University
Senior Physicist | Ames Laboratory

Ruslan Prozorov received MSc in physics studying superconductivity at the Institute of Solid State Physics in Chernogolovka, Russia, and then at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan, Israel, where he received his PhD in 1998. After spending 3 years as a postdoc at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, he joined the University of South Carolina, and in 2005 he moved to Iowa State University, where he is currently a full professor since 2013. He also holds a position of Senior Physicist and Group Leader at the US DOE Ames Laboratory.

Prof. Prozorov is broadly interested in superconducting and magnetic quantum materials, focusing on the interplay between superconductivity and magnetism, pattern formation, meso- and nanoscale science, as well as quantum phase transitions and quantum criticality. Prozorov's group is known for unique experimental techniques, such as visualization of magnetic fields using Faraday and Kerr magneto-optical effects as well as NV centers in diamond, anisotropic transport in detwinned samples, and ultra-precise measurements of London penetration depths in superconductors for which he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2011. Prozorov's notable contributions include the first experimental evidence of d-wave superconductivity in electron-doped cuprates and the discovery of topological hysteresis in type-I superconductors.

In May of 2008, his group posted on arXiv the first-ever study of individual single crystals of iron-based superconductors. They soon published the first observation of structural domains and developed strain-detwinning. This allowed for measuring of in-plane electronic anisotropy, which in turn led to the whole subject of electronic nematicity. He and collaborators provided experimental evidence of s+- superconductivity in iron pnictides and proved the existence of quantum critical point under the dome of superconductivity.

Ruslan Prozorov uses an attoAFM/CFM microscope in an attoLIQUID1000 cryostat for quantum sensing of small magnetic fields.

PhD Student (Marin Alexe Group) | University of Warwick

Samuel Seddon completed his studies of physics with honours at the University of Warwick, and received his MSc in July 2018 (thesis supervisor: Gavin Bell). In October 2018 Seddon assumed the position of a PhD student in the Marin Alexe Group at the same university. Seddon is also excelling in leadership: he has sat on several executive committees of Physics Society, has been coordinating postgraduate seminars, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate module webpages. Beyond his work, Seddon is passionate about sports, music, outdoors activities and social engagement; e.g., he likes playing cricket and piano, attending music festivals, hiking, mountaineering and providing round the clock support for severely disabled adults.

He is the expert user of the attocube system in the Marin Alexe Group which consists of an attoAFM I microscope with attoMFM upgrade and an attoLIQUID2000 cryostat.

Professor | University of New South Wales
Research Director | School of Materials Science and Engineering UNSW

Jan Seidel studied physics at the Dresden University of Technology and received his PhD in 2005 from the same university. He held positions at the University of California Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory before joining the University of New South Wales in Sydney in 2012, where he currently holds a full professor position, in addition to being a member of the Academic Board and Research Director of the School of Materials Science and Engineering.
 
Prof. Seidel’s primary research interest involves the synthesis and characterization of functional materials, with a focus on ferroelectric and multiferroic oxides, halide perovskites and novel ferroic van der Waals materials. His labs host a wide variety of advanced scanning probe microscopy systems to study fundamental electronic, optical, mechanical and magnetic properties at the nanoscale, especially those associated with interfaces and various topological structures such as domain walls, skyrmions, vortices, etc., to which he has made pioneering contributions.
 
Jan Seidel received several fellowships and awards, among others the Feodor Lynen Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2006), Future Fellowship from Australian Research Council (2011), Endeavour Executive Fellowship from Australian Government (2016), Visiting Fellowships at the University of Oxford’s Materials Department and St. Catherine’s College (2016), and UNSW Outstanding Research Supervisor Award (2019). 

In his research, Jan Seidel is using an attoAFM I microscope with attoMFM upgrade in an attoDRY1000 cryostat for magnetic imaging.

Professor and Head of the Department of Physics | Fudan University 
Director | State Key Lab for Surface Physics & Institute of Nanoelectronics and Quantum Computing

Jian Shen received his PhD in 1996 from the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Germany. In 1998 Shen was appointed a faculty member at the University of Tennessee, as well as a research staff scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the USA. In 2010 he was appointed Hao-Qing Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Physics at Fudan University. Shen is also the director of the State Key Lab for Surface Physics, as well as the director of Institute of Nanoelectronics and Quantum Computing at Fudan University. 

Prof. Shen´s research comprises surface emerging phenomena in reduced dimensionality and at nanoscale. In his research, Shen puts focus on electric and magnetic properties of complex oxides and nanoparticles with emphasis on both underlying physical mechanism and applications. He has published about 500 publications. Shen has written 10 review articles on low-dimensional magnetism for Surface Science, Surface Science Report, and J. Phys. Condens. Matter. He has given over 100 invited talks at international conferences including APS, AVS, MRS, MMM, Intermag and ICM. Shen was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2011.

Jian Shen received numerous awards for his achievements; among others the US Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering, the Otto Hahn Medal from the Max Planck Society, the National Chair Professorship from the Chinese government, the Oversea Outstanding Young Researcher Award from Chinese NSF, and the Wigner Fellowship from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 

In his research, Jian Shen is using an attoAFM I microscope with attoMFM upgrade in an attoDRY1000 cryostat for magnetic imaging.

Director | 3rd Physics Institute, University of Stuttgart
Fellow | Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research

Jörg Wrachtrup studied physics at the Free University Berlin and received his PhD in 1994 from the same university. Afterwards, he held positions at the Free University Berlin, CNRS in Bordeaux and TU Chemnitz. In 2000 Wrachtrup was appointed physics professor and Director of the 3rd Physical Institute of the University of Stuttgart. In 2010 he in addition assumed position at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart.

Prof. Wrachtrup´s research interest focuses on various aspects of solid state physics and nanoscience with emphasis on quantum sensing. He carried out the first electron spin resonance experiments on single electron spins, where he combined optical excitation of single molecules with spin resonance techniques in order to achieve the required sensitivity and selectivity. This optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) is based on spin-dependent optical selection rules. Wrachtrup also carried out the first detection of optical as well as the spin signal of a single dopant atom in a solid. This dopant was a nitrogen atom joined by a vacancy; the nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond. This pioneering work has laid the ground for plethora of research on individual NV centers aiming at applications in magnetometry and quantum registry. Wrachtrup also demonstrated usability of NV centers in measuring electric fields and temperature.

Jörg Wrachtrup received numerous awards for his achievements, among others the Gustav Hertz Prize (1996), Excellence Chair from ENS Cachan (2008), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (2012), Bruker Prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2014), Max Planck Research Award (2014), Zeiss Research Award (2016) and Europhysics Prize (2020). He has been awarded several competitive research grants, including two ERC Advanced Grants (2011 and 2017). Wrachtrup has been elected Fellow of the Max Planck Society (2010), Miegunyah Fellow of the University of Melbourne (2017), and member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Science (2018).

In his research, Jörg Wrachtrup is using an attoAFM/CFM microscope in an attoLIQUID1000 cryostat for magnetic imaging at cryogenic temperatures.

© picture J. Wrachtrup by David Ausserhofer

Professor | Weizmann Institute of Science
Head | Braun Center for Submicron Research & Gruber Center for Quantum Electronics

Eli Zeldov studied electrical engineering and physics at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and received his PhD in 1986 from the same university, after which he was appointed lecturer at Technion. In 1988 he joined IBM Watson Research Center as a postdoc. Zeldov joined the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1992, where he currently holds a full professor position, in addition to being the Head of the Braun Centre for Submicron Research, Head of the Gruber Center for Quantum Electronics, and heading the Department of Condensed Matter Physics from 2013 to 2019. Zeldov has been a visiting scientist at Bell Labs, as well as a visiting professor at Stanford University.

Prof. Zeldov´s research focuses on semiconductors and superconductors, with applications of the later in improving scanning probing imaging techniques (SPM). His most notable contribution is the invention of the World´s smallest and most sensitive SQUID device that resides on the apex of sharp pipette, thus forming the optimal geometry for SPM. These SQUID-on-tip devices provide the means for investigating local magnetic, electric and thermal phenomena in novel states of matter. Zeldov has published about 200 publications and holds 10 patents.

Eli Zeldov has received numerous recognitions for his achievements; among others the Gutwirth Distinction Prize (1982), Fulbright Scholarship Award (1986), IBM Invention Award (1991), Charles H. Revson Award (1993), Morris L. Levinson Prize in Physics (1995), Olswang Prize in Physics (1997), H. Kamerlingh Onnes Prize (2003), Landau Prize for Exact Sciences (2012), Abrikosov Prize (2019), Weizmann Prize for Exact Sciences (2019), and Andre Deloro Prize for Scientific Research (2019). Zeldov is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of the School of Engineering of the University of Tokyo and a Commission member at International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. Zeldov received several competitive research grants, among others an ERC POC Grant (2015) and two ERC Advanced Grants (2008 and 2018)

Eli Zeldov builds his own scanning probe microscopes for cryogenic magnetic imaging. He has built in several attocube components into his systems: various attocube low-temperature positioners and two ASC500 scan controllers.

Product Manager Cryogenic Instruments | attocube systems 

Mirko Bacani studied physics at the University of Zagreb and University Paris-Sud. He received his PhD in Physics in 2014 from the University of Zagreb, with the thesis on the Anderson-Mott localization in conducting polymers. Afterwards, he worked as a postdoc on topological insulators and Dirac systems. In 2015 Bacani moved to the Swiss Federal Labs for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), where he studied thin films with emergent properties using various scanning probe microscopy techniques. Following his wish to move from academia to industry, Bacani obtained additional education in management at ETH Zurich, and moved to attocube in 2019, where he is now working in the position of a product manager.

Dr. Bacani´s research interest focuses on novel functional materials and methods of their characterization, combining fundamental and applicative approach. Strong emphasis is put on scanning probe microscopy of magnetic thin films. His main contributions include first experimental verification of the Fogler-Teber-Shklovskii theory, development of a method for quantitative characterization of skyrmions in interlayers, development of frequency-modulated distance control in MFM, and correlating skyrmions with topological Hall effect. Bacani also started a collaboration between Empa and a high-end Swiss timepieces manufacturer. 

In his role of the product manager for cryogenic instruments, Bacani is combining his technical expertise with communication and management skills. By being in close contact with attocube customers and strategic partner companies, as well as by observing trends and requirements of low-temperature physics and materials science, he is in charge of improving existing attocube products, evaluating customization requests and developing strategies for future attocube products. attocube is thus always ready to understand the needs at the forefront of low-temperature magnetic imaging, and bring suitable solutions to the market.

Scientific Director and co-founder | attocube systems 
Professor | Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Khaled Karrai studied engineering at INSA Toulouse and physics at the University of Toulouse. He received his PhD in Physics in 1987 from the Joseph Fourier University Grenoble, with the thesis on THz spectroscopy (then called far-infrared laser spectroscopy) of 2D electron systems. He moved then to the USA, where he was a postdoc and later an assistant professor at the University of Maryland. In 1993, Karrai moved to the Technical University of Munich. In 1995, he was appointed a professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He has been visiting professor at ETH Zurich in 2005 and was the Rudolf Diesel Professor at the Technical University of Munich in 2010. In 2001, Karrai and his then-PhD student, Dirk Haft, founded attocube systems 2001, as a spin-off from the Center for NanoScience at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Karrai was the CTO of attocube systems until 2013. He is today the Scientific Director of the company and is heading a group in charge of innovations relevant for future products. 

Prof. Karrai´s expertize comprises ultra-precision positioning, scanning probe microscopy, interferometric sensing, and cryogenics. His main contributions includes pioneering the field of magneto-optics of high-Tc superconductors, developing cryogenic scanning near-field optical microscopy and inventing the now-widely-used tuning-fork tip sample distance sensing for AFM topographic imaging. He pioneered resonant high-spectral resolution and spatial laser spectroscopy techniques of single semiconductor quantum dots, which opened the path to quantum optics of quantum dots-based systems. He also pioneered the first intrinsic laser cooling of micro-mechanical and nano-mechanical systems, opening the path to quantum ground-state cooling of macroscopic systems. The key technology basis of his scientific work are the inventions he developed on ultra-high precision positioning instrumentation adapted to operate under cryogenic and high magnetic field environment. Karrai authored over 200 publications and holds over 20 patents, a number of which are key to attocube’s business.

Karrai received numerous awards; among others the Humboldt Research Grant (1993-95), the Bavarian Innovation Award (2006), the German Founder´s Award (2008), and the Rudolf Diesel Industry Fellowship from the Technical University of Munich (2009).

Manager Business Sector Cryogenic Instruments | attocube systems

Florian Otto studied physics at the University of Regensburg and Wesleyan University (USA). He wrote his master's equivalent thesis "Exploration of the flow field around an oscillating sphere using 3D particle tracking velocimetry" at Wesleyan University, and graduated at the University of Regensburg in 2005. The thesis involved building a full particle tracking velocimetry setup based on high speed digital cameras including a flow chamber and software from scratch. This research helped to understand self-organization of granular particles vibrated in a fluid through direct observation of the repulsive and attractive parts of a steady streaming flow generated around each particle.
 
During his PhD, he has been working on nonlinear vortex transport in mesoscopic channels of amorphous NbGe, which shed new light on the understanding of the transversal flux transformer effect in special situations, where the interplay of the Lorentz force, the Nernst effect via local heating, and the force due to a local suppression of the superconducting gap leads to abrupt sign reversals of the nonlocal vortex motion. He received his PhD in physics in 2009 from the University of Regensburg. 
 
In 2009, Dr. Otto joined attocube systems AG, at a time when the company had only 35 employees. Since then, the company has grown substantially in size to more than 200 employees, and Dr. Otto has served in different roles from sales to product management and strategic marketing. His key contributions to the portfolio include the co-invention of atto3DR, a unique double rotator which emulates full 3D arbitrary vector fields based on a single solenoid, and co-invention of the attoDRY800, the world's first cryo-optical table. As head of Product Management Department, he has also helped to shape the strategic direction of the company over the last 5 years. In his current role as Manager Business Sector Cryogenic Instruments, he is responsible for the market success of what constitutes more than half of attocube's revenues, and coordinates the efforts to define a successful strategy concerning the product portfolio, product management and strategic marketing in his business sector.

Understanding the needs of attocube's customers working in physics and materials science through providing truly enabling technology for scientific impact is what drives Dr. Otto in his daily work.