Basel Universität
Departement für Physik
Departement für Physik

Prof. Dr. Martino Poggio

Assistant Professor (tenure track)
Argovia Nanotechnology Professorship

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


office 3.15
tel.: +41 (0)61 267 3761 (office)
e-mail:
research group: http://PoggioLab.unibas.ch


administrative assistant
Audrey Fischer
Tel.: +41 (0)61 267 1238
Fax: +41 (0)61 267 3408
E-Mail:



Short Biography

Martino Poggio, born in Tübingen in 1978, received his A.B. in physics from Harvard University in 2000 and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2005. In graduate school he worked for Prof. David Awschalom on ultrafast optics and semiconductor spintronics completing a thesis titled, "Spin Interactions Between Conduction Electrons and Local Moments in Semiconductor Quantum Wells." After receiving his doctorate, he started work as a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Probing the Nanoscale, a joint center between Stanford University and IBM Corporation funded by the National Science Foundation. Until late 2008 he worked in this capacity in Dr. Dan Rugar's lab at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA on high sensitivity nuclear magnetic resonance force microscopy. In the summer of 2008, he was appointed as a tenure track assistant professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Basel.



Research Summary

We are interested in using ultra-sensitive micro- and nano-mechanical resonators to probe quantum states. We study the quantum behavior of small mechanical structures, their coupling to single electron states, to spin states, to light, and to the larger environment around them. Sensors able to detect the tiny forces arising from single charges or spins allow the study of a wide class of problems in condensed matter physics. Improved understanding of these phenomena may lead to new high resolution nano- and atomic-scale imaging techniques.

Our principle research instrument is a custom built scanning force microscope capable of attonewton sensitivity and three-dimensional positioning with sub-nanometer precision and stability. The microscope operates at high vacuum, down to He3 temperatures, and in magnetic fields up to 6 T. Fiber optic and RF feedthroughs and the ability to mount different types of probes make the apparatus flexible enough to accommodate a variety of sensitive measurements. These measurements include magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM), scanning gate microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), electrostatic force microscopy (EFM), magnetic force microscopy (MFM), as well as sensitive measurements of mechanical dissipation. We aim to use these techniques to address the dynamics of individual charges and spins.



Selected Publications

  1. M. Poggio, H. J. Mamin, C. L. Degen, M. W. Sherwood, and D. Rugar, Nuclear double resonance between statistical spin polarizations, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 087604 (2009).
  2. C. L. Degen, M. Poggio, H. J. Mamin, C. T. Rettner, and D. Rugar, Nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 106, 1313 (2009).
  3. M. Poggio, M. P. Jura, C. L. Degen, M. A. Topinka, H. J. Mamin, D. Goldhaber-Gordon, and D. Rugar, An off-board quantum point contact as a sensitive detector of cantilever motion, Nature Physics 4, 635 (2008).
  4. M. Poggio, C. L. Degen, H. J. Mamin, and D. Rugar, Feedback cooling of a cantilever's fundamental mode below 5 mK, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 017201 (2007).
  5. M. Poggio, C. L. Degen, C. T. Rettner, H. J. Mamin, and D. Rugar, Nuclear magnetic resonance force microscopy with a microwire rf source, Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 263111 (2007).
  6. R. C. Myers, M. Poggio, N. P. Stern, A. C. Gossard, and D. D. Awschalom, Antiferromagnetic s - d exchange coupling in GaMnAs, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 017204 (2005).
  7. M. Poggio, G. M. Steeves, R. C. Myers, Y. Kato, A. C. Gossard, and D. D. Awschalom, Local manipulation of nuclear spin in a semiconductor quantum well, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 207602 (2003).