Principal Investigator

Prof. Dr. Axel Hoffmann

Founder Professor
Materials Science and Engineering
The Grainger College of Engineering
1021 Materials Research Lab
104 S. Goodwin | MC 230
Urbana, IL 61801
Phone: (217) 300-4374
Email: axelh@illinois.edu

An extensive CV is available here: Hoffmann CV

My research interests encompass a wide variety of magnetism related topics with a main focus on spin transport and magnetization dynamics

Biography

Prof. Axel Hoffmann joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in summer 2019. Before his appointment at UIUC he was the Senior Group Leader of the Magnetic Thin Film Group within the Materials Science Division at the Argonne National Laboratory. His research interests encompass a wide variety of magnetism related subjects, including basic properties of magnetic heterostructures, spin-transport in novel geometries, and biomedical applications of magnetism. His main research focus has recently been on pure spin currents investigated by magnetotransport and magnetization dynamic measurements. He has more than 200 publications with combined more than 20000 citations (h-index: 72 based on Google Scholar), four book chapters, and three magnetism-related U.S. patents. In addition, he is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Physics. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, American Vacuum Society, and IEEE. Furthermore, he was in 2011 a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Magnetics Society, received in 2015 the Outstanding Researcher Award by the Prairie Section of the American Vacuum Society, in 2016 was awarded a President’s International Fellowship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, received in 2017 the Distinguished Performance Award from the University of Chicago, and was selected as a Highly Cited Researcher by the Web of Science each year during in 2019–2024.  In 2022 he was awarded the David Adler Lectureship Award in Materials Physics from the American Physical Society and in 2024 he received the Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation.

Full list of publications available at Google Scholar or at Web of Science

Five recent reviews

Quantum Engineering with Hybrid Magnonics Systems and Materials
D. D. Awschalom, C. H. R. Du, R. He, J. Heremans, A. Hoffmann, J. Hou, H. Kurebayashi, Y. Li, L. Liu, V. Novosad, J. Sklenar, S. Sullivan, D. Sun, H. Tang, V. Tyberkevych, C. Trevillian, A. W. Tsen, L. Weiss, W. Zhang, X. Zhang, L. Zhao, Ch. W. Zollitsch,
IEEE Transactions on Quantum Engineering 2, 5500836 (2021).

Roadmap of spin-orbit torques
Q. Shao, P. Li, L. Liu, H. Yang, S. Fukami, A. Razavi, H. Wu, K. L. Wang, F. Freimuth, Y. Mokrousov, M. D. Stiles, S. Emori, A. Hoffmann, J. Åkerman, K. Roy, J.-P. Wang, S.-H. Yang, K. Garello, and W. Zhang,
IEEE Transactions on Magnetics 57, 800439 (2021).

Hybrid magnonics: Physics, circuits, and applications for coherent information processing
Y. Li, W. Zhang, V. Tyberkevych, W.-K. Kwok, A. Hoffmann, and V. Novosad,
Journal of Applied Physics 128, 130902 (2020).

Spin transport and spin torque in antiferromagnetic devices
J. Železný, P. Wadley, K. Olejník, A. Hoffmann, and H. Ohno,
Nature Physics 14, 220 (2018).

Skyrmions in Magnetic Multilayers
W. Jiang, G. Chen, K. Liu, J. Zang, S. G. E. te Velthuis, and A. Hoffmann,
Physics Reports, 704, 1 (2017).

Five selected publications

Strong Coupling between Magnons and Microwave Photons in On-Chip Ferromagnet-Superconducting Thin-Film Devices
Y. Li, T. Polakovic, Y.-L. Wang, J. Xu, S. Lendinez, Z. Zhang, J. Ding, T. Khaire, H. Saglam, R. Divan, J. Pearson, W.-K. Kwok, Z. Xiao, V. Novosad, A. Hoffmann, and W. Zhang,
Physical Review Letters 123, 107701 (2019).

Blowing Magnetic Skyrmion Bubbles
W. Jiang, P. Upadhyaya, W. Zhang, G. Yu, M. B. Jungfleisch, F. Y. Fradin, J. E. Pearson, Y. Tserkovnyak, K. L. Wang, O. Heinonen, S. G. E. te Velthuis, and A. Hoffmann,
Science 349, 283 (2015).

Spin Hall Effects in Metallic Antiferromagnets
W. Zhang, M. B. Jungfleisch, W. Jiang, J. E. Pearson, A. Hoffmann, F. Freimuth, and Y. Mokrousov,
Physical Review Letters 113, 196602 (2014).

Quantifying Spin Hall Angles from Spin Pumping: Experiment and Theory
O. Mosendz, J. E. Pearson, F. Y. Fradin, G. E. W. Bauer, S. D. Bader, and A. Hoffmann,
Physical Review Letters 104, 046601 (2010).

Symmetry driven irreversibilities at ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic interfaces
A. Hoffmann,
Physical Review Letters 93, 097203 (2004).