OXiNEMS

OXiNEMS (Oxide Nanoelectromechanical Systems for Ultrasensitive and Robust Sensing of Biomagnetic Fields) is a cooperative project financed by the Research Executive Agency of the European Commission within the framework of the Horizon 2020 FET open program. Apart from Hamburg University three additional research groups located at the National Research Council (Italy), the Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) and the University G. d’Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara (Italy) as well as two companies (Quantified Air B. V., Netherland, and META Group, Italy) strive to develop a new class of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) based on integrated multifunctional oxides. More particularly, a nanomechanical sensor suitable to detect ultralow magnetic fields in the femto-Tesla regime will be developed, which can be used, e.g., for magnetoencephalography (MEG). The device itself will consists of an nanomechanical oscillator with an optical detection scheme to sense minute changes of an external magnetic field as, e.g., generated by brain activity. The concept is thus similar to the one used in magnetic force microscopy (MFM) but with enhanced the sensitivity.

The Hamburg team, which is mainly responsible for device characterization and modelling of device performance, is lead by Dr. Alexander Schwarz. He is a senior scientist and leader of the force microscopy subgroup in the scanning probe microscopy group of Prof. R. Wiesendanger. In the past he designed three low temperature force microscope experiments and focussed on atomic resolution imaging using non-contact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) on insulating surfaces, molecular systems, superconducting and  magnetic samples using magfnetic forces microscopy (MFM) as well as magnetic exchange force microscopy (MExFM). He is also co-project leader in the Nano-BEC project, which aims to realize a hybrid quantum system consisting of a nanomechanical oscillator and ultracold atoms. His expertise in detecting local magnetic fields using mechanical means (a cantilever in AFM and its related techniques) with high sensitivity and single atom spin sensitivity as well as the set-up of quantum-limited optical detection schemes to probe tiny deflections of such mechanical oscillators will proof beneficial for the OXiNEMS project.