Dr. Cinthia Piamonteze

Cinthia Piamonteze is an expert on x-ray absorption spectroscopy applied to correlated magnetic materials. 

She completed her PhD in physics at University of Campinas, Brazil, working at the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Source (LNLS). Her PhD work was on nickelate systems, using both soft and hard x-ray absorption spectroscopy to probe how the electronic and structural properties of these systems change across their metal to insulator transition. During her PhD project she was heavily involved in multiplet calculations for the simulation of x-ray absorption spectra.

After completing her PhD, she moved to the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in Berkeley, California for her post-doctoral work. Initially she investigated metalloproteins making use of x-ray absorption spectroscopy to investigate the valence and site symmetry of metal ions inside active sites in enzymes, for example, those responsible for CO oxidation or conversion of N₂ to ammonia. Still at ALS, she turned her scientific focus to complex oxides making wide use of x-ray magnetic circular dichroism.

In 2007 she joined the Paul Scherrer Institute, where she was the scientist responsible for the construction and commissioning of the X-Treme beamline. She took an active role in the beamline optics calculation, planning of the construction and budget.

Currently, she is senior staff scientist in PSI. Her scientific interests include the discovery and investigation of novel properties at the interface between complex oxides in high quality heterostructures, the control of magnetism by external stimulii as electric fields or strain, and the understanding of the ground state of van der Waals magnets.

Cinthia Piamonteze’s main institutional responsibilities are the technical development of the X-Treme beamline as well as scientific and technical support of external users. She is also a member of different committees inside PSI and international ones. She is the PSI delegate for the experiment environment workgroup within LEAPS. Since 2019 she is a member of the research committee at PSI (Forschungskommission - FoKo), which, among other tasks, is responsible for reviewing scientific proposals that require PSI funding.

Cinthia Piamonteze’s research interest involves the creation and investigation of new magnetic properties at the interface between complex oxides as well as the understanding and control of magnetism in low dimensions, for examples in van der Waals magnetic materials. As a specialist in x-ray absorption spectroscopy, x-ray linear dichroism and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism she applies these techniques to help in the understanding of these systems. She also has long experience with charge transfer and ligand field multiplet codes used to simulate x-ray absorption spectra. Applying this know-how in conjunction with the experiment has rendered interesting insights.

For an extensive overview we kindly refer you to our publication repository DORA or ORCID

• distect: automatic sample-position tracking for X-ray experiments using computer vision algorithms. Berg, M., Furrer, D., Thominet, V., Wang, X., Zeugin, S., Grabner, H., Stockinger, K., Piamonteze, C. (2024).  Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, 31, 1514-1524. DOI: 10.1107/S1600577524009536
• Surface matters: A case study of the scale and impact of oxide surfaces via orbital polarization. Lishai Shoham; Maria Baskin; Yaron Kauffmann; Anna Zakharova; Teppei Yoshida; Shigeki Miyasaka; Cinthia Piamonteze; Lior Kornblum. APL Materials 12, 051121 (2024). DOI: 10.1063/5.0198123
• Delving into Fe-content effects on surface reconstruction of Ba_0.50Sr_0.50Co_1−xFe_xO_3−δ for the oxygen evolution reaction. Aegerter, D., Fabbri, E., Borlaf, M., Yüzbasi, N. S., Diklić, N., Clark, A. H., Romankov, V. , Piamonteze, C., Dreiser, J., Huthwelker T, Graule T Schmidt, T. J. (2024). . Journal of Materials Chemistry A. DOI:10.1039/d3ta06156f
• Coexistence and coupling of ferroelectricity and magnetism in an oxide two-dimensional electron gas. Bréhin, J., Chen, Y., D'Antuono, M., Varotto, S., Stornaiuolo, D., Piamonteze, C., Varignon, J., Salluzzo, M., Bibes, M. (2023). Nature Physics, 19, 823-829. DOI:10.1038/s41567-023-01983-y
• Large orbital magnetic moment in VI₃.Hovančík D, Pospíšil J, Carva K, Sechovský V,  Piamonteze, C. Nano Lett. (2023). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c04045
• Ferromagnetic insulating epitaxially strained La₂NiMnO₆ thin films grown by sputter deposition. De Luca, G, Spring J, Bashir U, Campanini M, Totani R, Dominguez C, Zakharova A, ,Döbeli M, Greber T, Rossell M.D., Piamonteze C., Gibert M. APL Materials, 9(8), 081111 (2021). DOI: 10.1063/5.0055614
• Interplay between magnetism and interface-induced effects in ultrathin manganites. Zakharova, A., Caputo, M., Guedes, E. B., Radovic, M., Nolting, F., Piamonteze, C. Phys. Rev. Mater. 5, 124404 (2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.5.124404
• Proximity-induced novel ferromagnetism accompanied with resolute metallicity in NdNiO₃ heterostructure. Caputo M, Ristic Z, Dhaka RS, Das T, Wang Z, Matt CE, Plumb NC, Guedes EB, Jandke J, Naamneh M, Zakharova a, Medarde M, Shi M, Patthey L, Mesot J, Piamonteze C, Radovic M Advanced Science. 2021. DOI: 10.1002/advs.202101516
• Ferromagnetic order of ultra-thin La_0.7Ba_0.3MnO₃ sandwiched between SrRuO₃ layers, C. Piamonteze, F. Bern, S. R. Venkata Avula, M. Studniarek, C. Autieri, M. Ziese, I. Lindfors-Vrejoiu,  Applied Physics Letters, 118(15), 152408 (2021). DOI 10.1063/5.0043057
• Soft X-ray absorption of thin films detected using substrate luminescence: a performance analysis, C. Piamonteze, Y. W. Windsor, S. R. V. Avula, E. Kirk, U. Staub,  Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, 27, 1289-1296. (2020) DOI: 10.1107/S1600577520009972
• A Living‐Dead Magnetic Layer at the Surface of Ferrimagnetic DyTiO₃ Thin Films,Raphaël Aeschlimann, Daniele Preziosi, Philipp Scheiderer, Michael Sing, Sergio Valencia, Jacobo Santamaria, Chen Luo, Hanjo Ryll, Florin Radu, Ralph Claessen, Cinthia Piamonteze, Manuel Bibes, Adv. Mater. 30, 1707489 (2018). DOI:10.1002/ADMA.201707489
• Study of magneto-electric coupling between ultra-thin Fe films and PMN-PT using X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, S. R. V. Avula, J. Heidler, J. Dreiser, J. Vijayakumar, L. Howald, F. Nolting, and C. Piamonteze, J. Appl. Phys. 123, 064103 (2018). DOI:10.1063/1.5002530
• Symmetry breaking at the (111) interfaces of SrTiO3 hosting a two-dimensional electron system, G. M. De Luca, R. Di Capua, E. Di Gennaro, A. Sambri, F. Miletto Granozio, G. Ghiringhelli, D. Betto, C. Piamonteze, N. B. Brookes, and M. Salluzzo, Phys. Rev. B, 98, 115143 (2018). DOI: 10.1103/PHYSREVB.98.115143
• Magnetic properties of strained multiferroic CoCr2O4: A soft x-ray study, Windsor Y. W., Piamonteze C., Ramakrishnan M. Scaramucci A, Rettig L, Huever J A, Bothschafter E M, Bingham N S, Alberca A, Avula S R V, Noheda B, Staub U. Phys. Rev. B 95, 224413 (2017) DOI: 10.1103/PHYSREVB.95.224413
• Magnetoelectroelastic control of magnetism in an artificial multiferroic, Heidler J, Fechner M, Chopdekar RV, Piamonteze C, Dreiser J, Jenkins CA, Arenholz E, Rusponi S, Brune H, Spaldin NA, Nolting F, Phys. Rev. B 94 014401 (2016).  DOI: 10.1103/PHYSREVB.94.014401
• Tunable spin polarization and superconductivity in engineered oxide interfaces Stornaiuolo D, Cantoni C, De Luca GM, Di Capua R, Di. Gennaro E, Ghiringhelli G, Jouault B, Marrè D, Massarotti D, Miletto Granozio F, Pallecchi I, Piamonteze C, Rusponi S, Tafuri F, Salluzzo M. Nature Mater. 15, 278–283 (2016). DOI:10.1038/NMAT4491
• Interfacial Control of Magnetic Properties at LaMnO3/LaNiO3 Interfaces Gibert M, Viret M, Torres-Pardo A, Piamonteze C, Zubko P, Jaouen N, Tonnerre J M, Mougin A, Fowlie J, Catalano S, Gloter A, Stephan O, Triscone J M. Nano Lett. 15 7355-7361 (2015). DOI:10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b02720
• Interfacial properties of LaMnO3/LaNiO3 superlattices grown along (001) and (111) orientations. Piamonteze C., Gibert M., Heidler J., Dreiser J., Rusponi S., Brune H., Triscone J. -M., Nolting F., Staub U. Phys. Rev. B 92 014426 (2015). DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.92.014426
• Surface Aligned Magnetic Moments and Hysteresis of an Endohedral Single-Molecule Magnet on a Metal. Westerstroem Rasmus, Uldry Anne-Christine, Stania Roland, Dreiser Jan, Piamonteze Cinthia, Muntwiler Matthias, Matsui Fumihiko, Rusponi Stefano, Brune Harald, Yang Shangfeng, Popov Alexey, Buechner Bernd, Delley Bernard, Greber Thomas. Phys. Rev. Lett. 114 087201 (2015). DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.087201
• Manipulating magnetism in La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 via piezostrain Heidler J, Piamonteze C, Chopdekar R, Uribe-Laverde M, Alberca A, Buzzi M, Uldry A, Delley B, Bernhard C, Nolting F. Phys. Rev.B 91 024406 (2015). DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.91.024406
• X-Treme beamline at SLS: X-ray magnetic circular and linear dichroism at high field and low temperature. Piamonteze C, Flechsig U, Rusponi S, Dreiser J, Heidler J, Schmidt M, et al. Journal of Synchrotron Radiation. 2012; 19(5): 661-674. https://doi.org/10.1107/S0909049512027847