Speaker
Description
From building my own microscope to constructing a synchrotron beamline, my research journey has been defined by designing tools to uncover new physics.
Over the past decade, my scientific path has been shaped by a series of deliberate leaps across diverse trajectories: instrumentation development, fundamental condensed matter physics, and atomic-scale device fabrication.
My journey began with the design and construction of a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM), fuelling my curiosity to probe atomic-scale surface phenomena. This capability opened the door to STM lithography, enabling atom-by-atom device fabrication. As part of this work, I contributed to fabricating the world’s smallest transistor—an achievement that underscored the power of precision engineering at the single-atom level.
Device fabrication naturally led me back to questions of fundamental physics. I became fascinated by the material platform enabling these devices: so-called delta-layers, ultra-sharp and ultra-dense metallic layers buried within a silicon host. My focus shifted toward investigating their electronic properties, prompting a leap from real space to reciprocal space. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) provided a direct view of the electronic structure of these materials.
Bringing these threads together motivated the design and construction of SGM4, a microARPES beamline at the ASTRID2 synchrotron in Denmark. This beamline combines micron spatial resolution with momentum-resolved spectroscopy, bridging real-space and reciprocal-space perspectives. I am now working toward using this technique to explore nanostructured delta-layers and to perform in operando measurements of delta-layer devices.
In this talk, I will present key findings that have emerged along this trajectory. I will close with a personal reflection: how stepping beyond traditional experimental roles—building instrumentation, linking complementary techniques, and pursuing curiosity-driven detours—has shaped my identity as a researcher. I hope to encourage early-career colleagues to embrace technical skills, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and bold exploration as powerful drivers of discovery.
