Laraoui Lab Team

Group picture, Summer 2023. From the left to the right: Prof. Sy-Hwang Liou, Adam Erickson, Suvecchya Lamichhane, Sehrish Iqbal, Swapnil Barman, Ben Hammons, Dylan Jacks, Mason Brady, and Prof. Abdelghani Laraoui.

Abdelghani laraoui, PI

 Assistant Professor, Mechanical & Materials Engineering

  • Ph.D. in Physics, University of Strasbourg (Louis Pasteur), thesis, CV

  • M.S. in Condensed and Soft Matter Physics, University of Upper Alsace  

 

About Abdelghani Laraoui: Dr. Laraoui earned his PhD in Physics from University of Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg (France) where he developed a time resolved magneto-optical microscope to study the magnetization dynamics of magnetic nanomaterials excited with femtosecond laser pulses. Soon after his graduation, Dr. Laraoui received a Marie Curie fellowship from the European Research Training Network to carry a postdoctoral position at the University of Kaiserslautern (Germany). He used Brillouin Light Scattering Microscopy to study the spin current induced spin-wave emission in spin-torque nano-oscillators for applications in spintronics. After that, Dr. Laraoui joined CUNY-City College of New York as a research associate to work on a methodology to use the spin of nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond as a probe for high-resolution magnetic and temperature imaging at the nanoscale. In 2016, Dr. Laraoui joined University of New Mexico’ Center for High Technology Materials as a Research Assistant Professor. He used very sensitive probes based on NV centers in diamond for imaging single iron-oxide magnetic nanoparticles  (size < 25 nm) and performing two dimensional NMR spectroscopy of microfluidics at the submicron scale. At UNM he was awarded three grants from NSF (DMR, CHE) as PI and CoPI, and from NIH (NIBIB) as a Co-Investigator .

Postdocs:

Dr. Jitender Kumar, Ph.D in Physics, UGC-DAE-CSR Indore, India

Jitender earned his Ph.D. from UGC-DAE-CSR Indore, India, specializing in the magneto-dielectric study of materials under extreme conditions, including low temperatures and high magnetic and electric fields. Following his Ph.D., he was awarded a National Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Department of Science, India, and joined the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Pune, India. At IISER Pune, he investigated the magnetic properties of various magnetic materials, including multiferroics, magnetic glass, and spin glass. In 2019, he was awarded the prestigious Dean's Faculty Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, to pursue advanced postdoctoral research. At the Weizmann Institute, he developed a state-of-the-art ultra-high vacuum NV setup capable of operating at low temperatures and ultra-high vacuum conditions. At UNL his research focused on studying two-dimensional magnetic materials using a single NV center in diamond.

Graduate students:

Adam Erickson, B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering, University of Nebraska- Lincoln, 2019

Adam graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. As an undergraduate researcher, he worked for several years using scanning probe microscopy to study ultrathin film Hafnium Oxide ferroelectrics. In his free time, Adam enjoys reading and music

Suvechhya Lamichhane

Suvechhya is a PhD student in Condensed Matter & Materials at UNL, Supervised by Prof. Sy-Hwang Liou and co-supervised (research) by Prof. Laraoui

Sehrish Iqbal

Sehrish is currently pursuing her PhD in Quantum Sensing & Defect Discovery and Spectroscopy group, under the supervision of Dr. Laraoui. She holds a BS in Computational Physics from The University of Punjab, Pakistan, and an MS in Physics from LUMS, Pakistan. During her MS, she focused on functional materials and optoelectronic devices, particularly on the development of stable electrolytes for dye-sensitized solar cells using self-assembled discotic liquid crystalline-based physical gels. Additionally, she contributed to the advancement of stable MAPbI perovskites for moisture-resistant perovskite solar cells.

Dhan Lawati

Dhan is a PhD student in Materials Engineering at University of Nebraska-Lincoln working under the supervision of Prof. Laraoui on diamond quantum sensing microscopy of nanoscale solid state phenomena. He holds an MS degree in condensed matter physics from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. During his master's, he acquired some expertise with Density Functional Theory (DFT) using the VASP simulation tool. He used this tool to study the ground-state physical properties of materials at the quantum scale.

Swapnil Barman

Swapnil is at present pursuing his Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Laraoui, in the Quantum Sensing & Defect Discovery and Spectroscopy group at UNL. He holds a Bachelor of Technology degree from Amity University, Kolkata. As a Project Student at S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, his work focused on the investigation of spin wave dynamics in 2-dimensional magnonic crystals, as well as THz spectroscopy for photonic metamaterials. He enjoys music and novels during his free time.

Undergraduate students: 

Ben Hammons

Ben Hammons is an Electrical Engineering freshman at UNL. He joined the Laraoui Lab Team to work on Cryogenic Nitrogen Vacancy Microscopy after two high school summer internships (2022, and 2023) in the lab.

Joshua Barker

Joshua is an Electrical Engineering student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with an interest in optics sparked during an internship where he worked on pulsed laser systems. Beyond engineering, Joshua's interests span into motorsports and music composition.

Dylan Jacks

Dylan is an incoming junior at Iowa State University working towards his bachelor's degree in materials engineering with a specialization in ceramics. He is treasurer of Material Advantage at Iowa State and a part of the metal working club Metallurgica. His hobbies include video games, reading, and running. 

Mason Brady

I'm a physics major at Northern Michigan University, born and raised in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I plan on graduating in May 2025. I love my dogs, Star Wars, and the Green Bay Packers.

 

Alumni: 

Mohammadjavad Dowran:  Postdoctoral Research Associate, Mechanical & Materials Engineering, UNL (September , 2021 - July 2023). Current position:  Advanced R&D Scientist at Honeywell

 Google scholar

PhD in Atomic-Molecular & Optical Physic, University of Oklahoma; Norman, OK, August  2021

Dissertation: Quantum Plasmonic Sensing with Squeezed States of Light

MSc in Physics, University of Oklahoma; Norman, OK, May 2016

BSc in Physics, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, July 2009

Rupak Timalsina, PhD in Materials engineering (September 2020 - April 2024)

MS in Applied physics Northern Arizona University, 05/2020

B.Sc. in Physics St. Xavier's College, Tribhuvan University, 04/2012 - 08/2016 

Nathan Reineke 

Nate is an Agricultural Engineering Major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and expects to graduate in December 2023. Nate is from Gretna Nebraska and plans on pursuing a Master's Degree at UNL.

Enrique Stolz

Enrique is an undergraduate majoring in Chemistry and Environmental Science at Alfred University in Alfred, NY. He has past experience in engineering and lab research in neuroscience at SUNY Downstate. He grew up in Madrid and attended high school in New York City.

Mauricio Velasco

Mauricio just finished first semester at Central Community College in Columbus, NE  and  plans on majoring in biochemistry.

 Riley Chase

Fall 2020-2023: Bachelor of science - Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics Double major, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Patrick Osborn

Patrick attends the Ohio State University and is pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Physics and Astronomy. He is also an active participant in his church and enjoys running in his spare time.

John Kunkee

 High School students:

Ben Hammons

Ben is a homeschooled high school student intending on attending UNL and pursuing a degree in electrical engineering. He has done small scale projects and experiments on his own before joining the Laraoui Lab Team.

Mohammed SBAI

Fall 2020-2023: Bachelor of science - Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics Double major, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 

Fall 2019- Spring 2020: Associate of Science, Southeast Community College

Thomas Baumert

Thomas is an undergraduate mechanical engineering major at University of Nebraska-Lincoln that is projected to graduate in 2023. He is interested in aerospace and automotive engineering, and is fascinated by all forms of science.

Abdul Majeed Al Naabi 

 

AL Naabi is an undergraduate Mechanical Engineering student at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 

Visiting Scholars:

 Dr. Kapildeb Ambal, Assistant Professor of Physics at Wichita State University, KS

Kapildeb Ambal

Dr. Ambal received a B.Sc. with Honors in Physics from the University of Calcutta, India, an M.Sc. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Utah. His doctoral research focused on Imaging and spectroscopy of individual paramagnetic electronic states on the atomic scale. Before joining Wichita State University, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland and guest researcher at the National Institute of Standard Technology (NIST), where he worked on the probing of magnetization dynamics of nanomagnets. He is currently working on the investigation of spin-dependent electronic processes at the nanoscale in condensed matter systems to reveal the mesoscale physics that controls charge and spin motion.

Thitinun (Nick) Gas-osoth, a visting Ph.D. Student from Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), Nomi, Japan.

Nick is pursuing a PhD in Physics at JAIST and  and expects to graduate in October 2024.  He has a Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics (1st class Honors) from King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL), Bangkok (2008 - 2011), and a Master of Science in Applied Physics from Naresure University (NU), Phitsanulok (2012 - 2015).

Yifei Wang,  a visting Ph.D. Student from Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), Nomi, Japan.

Yifei got his master degree last year in Prof. Mizutani's Lab from Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), and is currently pursuing a PhD in  Physics. He is working in the group of Prof. An's Lab at JAIST on the fabrication and application of NV center diamond probes.

Current collaborators:

  • Prof. Jingsheng Chen, National University of Singapore. Growth and characterization of quantum materials
  • Prof. Christos Argyropoulos, The Pennsylvania State University. Quantum emitters and hybrid photonic structures for nonlinear optics.
  • Dr. Ilja Fescenko, University of Latvia. NV magnetometry, COMSOL modeling.
  • Prof. Sy-Hwang Liou, Physics Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, spintronics, biosensing, low field NMR and MRI.

  • Prof. Christain Binek, Physics Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, spin textures and switching in antiferromagnets 

  • Prof. Xia Hong, Physics Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, topological spin textures in correlated oxide heterostructures. 

  • Prof. Xiaoshan Xu, Physics Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, topological spin textures and magnon modes in rare-earth garnet heterostructures. 

  • Prof. Rebecca Lai, Chemistry Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, biosensing and single molecule spectroscopy using NV centers in diamond.

  • Prof. Mathias Schubert, THz-EPR spectroscopy of new color centers in ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors.

  • Prof. Alexey Kovalev, Physics Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, topological magnonics

  • Prof. Victor Acosta, Center for High Technology Materials, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, Time resolved diamond microscopy of superparamagnetic magnetic nanoparticles for biosensing.

  • Prof. Toshu An, School of Materials Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Nomi, Japan, NV-Scanning probe microscopy.

  • Dr. Marcus Doherty, Laser Physics Center and Physics Education Center, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, defects spectroscopy and spin-magnon coupling in low dimensional materials

  • Dr. Christoph Adelmann, Dr. Florin Ciubotaru, IMEC Belgium,  Magnonic crystals and magnetic metamaterials.

Previous supervisors:

  • Dr. Jean-Yves Bigot, PhD supervisor, Research director at CNRS and University of Strasbourg, France

  • Prof. Dr. Burkard Hillebrands, postdoc supervisor, Professor and Vice President of the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz and University of Kaiserslautern, Germany

  • Prof. Carlos Meriles, Research supervisor, Professor of Physics at City College of New York-CUNY