Academic Degrees
- Ph.D. in Physics, University of Strasbourg (Louis Pasteur)
- M.S. in Condensed and Soft Matter Physics, University of Upper Alsace
Openings
We are actively looking for very motivated graduates, undergraduate students, and postdocs to join the Quantum Sensing & Defect Discovery and Spectroscopy lab, and work in very friendly and productive environment on quantum sensing, quantum microscopy, and quantum materials. Please feel free to email Dr. Laraoui at alaraoui2@unl.edu or just stop by his office, located in Nebraska Hall, Room W312. Please send your CV/resume to alaraoui2@unl.edu with a motivation letter about your research interests and career goals. For more details on how to apply please take a look at the announcements under my picture on the right.
Experience
9/2016 - 7/2019: Research Assistant Professor, Center for High Technology Materials, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
8/2016- 12/2017: Consulting Scientist at ODMR Technologies, Inc
4/2009 - 7/2016: Research Scientist, City College of New York-CUNY, New York, NY
10/2007- 3/2009: Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, Germany
Research Opportunities (Graduate/Undergraduate)
Curriculum Vitae (CV):
Areas of Research and Professional Interest
Dr. Laraoui’ primary research focuses on developing new quantum materials based on color centers in diamond (NV, SiV, GeV), and defects in wide-bandgap semiconductors (SiC, GaN, ZnO) and two dimensional materials (hBN, TMDs) for applications in quantum sensing and quantum information processing. His current research follow four main directions:
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Quantum sensing: nanoscale magnetic, current, and temperature mapping of condensed matter phenomena; far-field imaging of single transition metal nanoparticles (size < 20 nm).
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Defect discovery and spectroscopy in two dimensional materials and wide bandgap semiconductors: studying the spin and optical properties of the defects, developing new quantum devices based on their performances.
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Quantum computing: exploring magnetic, optical, and mechanical cavities for coupling distant spin-qubits for scalable quantum networks
- Hybrid photonics based on coupling single color centers to metamaterials for optical networks.
These research activities are mainly experimental and involve spectroscopy (optical detected magnetic resonance, fluorescence, magneto-optics), microscopy (TEM, AFM, SEM, Near-field, Confocal, Far-field, etc.), RF/MW electronics (PCB and stripline design, RF/MW equipment and pulse control), materials processing (ion beam implantation, irradiation, high temperature annealing, acid clearing, etc.), and device fabrication (E-beam, Evaporation, etching, etc.).
Research Profiles:
In the News: Powered by the 
Inventions/Patents
C.A. Meriles, D. Pagliero, A. Laraoui, “Method for hyper-polarizing nuclear spins at arbitrary magnetic fields“, US Patent App. 14/961,974.
Courses Taught
- Spring 2021: MATL-492/892: Introduction to Quantum Materials and technologies
- Fall 2020: MATL360-260, Elements of Materials Science
- Spring 2020: MATL360-260, Elements of Materials Science
- Fall 2022: MATL360-260, Elements of Materials Science
- Spring 2023: MATL-492/892: Introduction to Quantum Materials and technologies
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 .
Honors and Awards
2013 New York Academy of Sciences’ Blavatnik Award (nominated) for best postdoctoral research work on quantum sensing, New York, NY
2012 CUNY Postdoctoral Travel Award, CCNY, New York, NY
2007-2009 Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, Kaiserslautern, Germany
2005 French Optical Society Award to attend Spintronics Summer School, Cargese, France
Funding
- 9/1/2022-8/31/2023- NSF# 2216155, $358,171 + $152,073 from UNL (cost share), MRI: Acquisition of optical access in a cryogenic scanning probe microscope for quantum sensing capabilities
- 6/1/2021-5/31/2026: NSF-EPSCoR#2044049, $20M, RII Track-1: Emergent Quantum Materials and Technologies (EQUATE), $20m, Role: Focused Research Group (FRG) 2 leader on quantum technologies.
- 11/1/2019- 10/30/2020: UNL’s NSF-MRSEC, Probing Room-temperature Skyrmions at the Nanoscale using Diamond Quantum Sensors, $50k, Role: PI. Project abstract.
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9/1/2018-8/31/2021: NSF-DMR #1809800, $389,000 ($122,500 subaward to UNL), “Objective-first sorting and time resolved diamond magnetic microscopy of superparamagnetic nanoparticles,” Role: Co-PI (former PI).
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7/26/2018-7/31/2021: NSF-CHE #1828744, $387,010, “MRI: acquisition of a Magnetic Property Measurement System to support research and education in the state of New Mexico,” Role: Co-PI.
Selected Publications
Suvechhya Lamichhane, Kayleigh A McElveen, Adam Erickson, Ilja Fescenko, Shuo Sun, Rupak Timalsina, Yinsheng Guo, Sy-Hwang Liou, Rebecca Y. Lai, and Abdelghani Laraoui, Nitrogen-vacancy magnetometry of individual Fe-triazole spin crossover nanorods, ACS Nano 17, 9, 8694–8704 (2023). arXiv:2303.09636.
Mohammadjavad Dowran, Andrew Butler, Suvechhya Lamichhane, Adam Erickson, Ufuk Kilic, Sy-Hwang Liou, Christos Argyropoulos, and Abdelghani Laraoui, Plasmon Enhanced Single Photon Emitters with Hybrid Hexagonal Boron Nitride Silver Nanocube Systems, Advanced Optical Materials 2300392 (2023) . arXiv:2304.00314
Prem Bahadur Karki, Rupak Timalsina, Mohammadjavad Dowran, Ayodimeji E. Aregbesola, Abdelghani Laraoui, and Kapildeb Ambal, An efficient and low-cost method to create high-density nitrogen-vacancy centers in CVD diamond for sensing applications, Diamond and Related Materials, under review. arXiv:2301.08712
Adam Erickson, Syed Qamar Abbas Shah, Ather Mahmood, Ilja Fescenko, Rupak Timalsina, Christian Binek, and Abdelghani Laraoui, Nanoscale imaging of antiferromagnetic domains in epitaxial films of Cr2O3 via scanning diamond magnetic probe microscopy, RSC Advances 13, 178-185 (2023). arXiv:2209.07476
Abdelghani Laraoui, and Kapildeb Ambal, Opportunities for nitrogen-vacancy-assisted magnetometry to study magnetism in 2D van der Waals magnets, Appl. Phys. Lett. 121, 060502 (2022).
J. Smits, J. Damron, P. Kehayias, N. Mosavian, I. Fescenko, A. McDowell, A. Laraoui, A. Jarmola, V. M. Acosta. “Sub-Hertz two dimensional NMR spectroscopy of molecules using Nitrogen Vacancy centers in diamond,” Science Advances 5 eaaw7895 (2019). In the News: UNM, Phys.org.
P. Kehayias, A. Jarmola, N. Mosavian, I. Fescenko, F. M. Benito, A. Laraoui, J. Smits, L. Bougas, D. Budker, A. Neumann, S. R. J. Brueck, V. M. Acosta. “Solution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy on a nanostructured diamond chip,” Nature Communications 8, 108 (2017). In the news: UNM.
H. Jayakumar, J. Henshaw, S. Dhomkar, D. Pagliero, A. Laraoui, N. Manson, R. Albu, M. W. Doherty, C. A. Meriles. “Optical patterning of trapped charge in nitrogen-doped diamond,” Nature Communications 7, 12660 (2016).
A. Laraoui, H. Aycock-Rizzo, X. Lu, Y. Gao, E. Riedo, C.A. Meriles. “Imaging thermal conductivity with nanoscale resolution using a scanning spin probe,” Nature Communications 6, 8954 (2015).
M. E. Trusheim, L. Li, A. Laraoui, E.H. Chen, O. Gaathon, H. Bakhru, T. Schroeder, C.A. Meriles, D. Englund. “Scalable Fabrication of High Purity Diamond Nanocrystals with Long-Spin-Coherence Nitrogen Vacancy Centers,” Nano Letters, 14 (1), 32-36 (2014). In the News: NanoTechWeb, PhysicsWorld, Nature News Feature.
A. Laraoui, C. A. Meriles. “Approach to dark spin cooling in a diamond nanocrystal,” ACS Nano 7, 3403 (2013), arXiv:1703.03988.
A. Laraoui, F. Dolde, C. Burk, F. Reinhard, J. Wrachtrup, C. A. Meriles. “High-Resolution Correlation Spectroscopy of 13C Spins Near a Nitrogen-Vacancy Center in Diamond,” Nature Communications 4, 1651 (2013).
A. Laraoui, J. S. Hodges, C. A. Meriles. “Nitrogen-Vacancy-assisted magnetometry of paramagnetic centers in an individual diamond nanocrystal,” Nano Letters 12 (7), 3477–348 (2012).
A. Laraoui, J. S. Hodges, C. A. Meriles. “Magnetometry of random ac magnetic fields using a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond,” Applied Physics Letters 97, 143104 (2010). Selected for publication in the Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology 22, 16 (October 2010).
H. Schultheiss, X. Janssens, M. van Kampen, F. Ciubotaru, S. J. Hermsdoerfer, B. Obry, A. Laraoui, A. A. Serga, L. Lagae, A. N. Slavin, B. Leven, and B. Hillebrands. “Direct Current Control of Three Magnon Scattering Processes in Spin-Valve Nanocontacts,” Physical Review Letters 103, 157202 (2009). Selected for publication in the Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology 20, 16 (October 2009).
A. Laraoui, M. Albrecht, J.-Y. Bigot. “Femtosecond Magneto-optical Kerr Microscopy,” Optics Letters 32, 936 (2007). Selected for publication in the Virtual Journal of Ultrafast Science 6, 4 (April 2007).
L. H. F. Andrade, A. Laraoui, M. Vomir, D. Muller, J.-P. Stoquert, C. Estournès, E. Beaurepaire, J.-Y. Bigot. “Damped Precession of the Magnetization Vector of Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles Excited by Femtosecond Optical Pulses,” Physical Review Letters 97, 127401 (2006). The Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology 5, 10 (October 2006).