NanoMagCOST Magnetism Solutions for Societal Challenges

Dr. A. Bollero, Dr. P. Perna.

Funding :

CM S2018/NMT-4321

Duration: 2019 - 2022

48 months

The most prominent challenges faced by European societies have been defined in the Horizon 2020 quite clearly. We have put together a program of R+D activities in Nanomagnetism aimed at tackling some of these challenges in:

• Disruptive Information Technologies with low power consumption
• Magnetic sensors
• Strategic magnetic materials, and
• Applications in Oncology and Neurology

The NanomagCOST Programme integrates a select interdisciplinary group of 80 scientists from four academic institutions (UAM, UCM, CSIC e IMDEA Nanociencia) from Madrid, organized in five research groups (coordinated respectively by Rodolfo Miranda, Hermann Suderow, Pilar Marín, Manuel Vázquez y Alberto Bollero) and four laboratories from the Madri+D Network, counting with the participation of prestigious senior researchers (Antonio Hernando, Sebastián Viera, Fernando Martín, José Luis Vicent, José L. Carrascosa), and somwhat younger, but highly reputed scientists (Julio Camarero, Juan de la Figuera, Roberto Otero, Agustina Asenjo, José Marco, Teresa González, Nicolás Agraït, Juan José Palacios o María Varela).

This is an area blending research topics of both fundamental relevance and important technological applications. The specific objectives of the proposal address some fundamental challenges, such as the production of new quantum materials for magnetism and the characterization of their properties leading to the generation of disipationless pure spin currents that could give rise to a new generation of disruptive technologies. These studies require the development of an arsenal of imaging techniques unique in Spain to visualize the magnetic texture at the nanometer scale. In this sense, the present Consortium puts together a combination of experts and unique advanced instrumentation, such as STM at milikelvin up to 20T, X-ray based instrumentation: magnetic holography, XTM-tomography, In-situ field MFM, spin polarized-STM in UHV, spin-resolved HRTEM, LEEM, vectorial-M(R)OKE (dual magnetic and transport characterization), magnetic hyperthermia, 3D printing, or Advanced Computation hardly found anywhere else.

We aim at exploring in close collaboration with a large group of companies that will take care of the prototyping and industrial level scaling, external experts and hospitals, some practical applications of nanomagnetism, going from the production of magnets without rare earths and their 3D printing to the development of magnetoelastic sensors for biomedical applications, magnetoresistive sensors to detect the neural signals in order to by-pass spinal cord injuries or the use of magnetic nanoparticles to kill selectively cancer cells.

Inorder to address the objectives of basic character and the envisaged applications, it is mandatory to organize interdisciplinary groups where physicists, chemists, biologists and engineers work together in coordination, such as done in this Program. The previous successful collaboration among most of the participants in this proposal warrants the consolidation of this group that will place Madrid as an international reference in Nanomagnetism, not only in the academic field, but also as a generator of practival results relevant to challenges facing our society from energy to health, including information technologies or the recycling of raw and rare materials.