Akshay Pattabi

Akshay joined as an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering during fall 2022. He is passionate about teaching complex engineering concepts in a manner that strengthens foundations, builds intuition, and is easily accessible to all students, without compromising on rigor or depth. At USF, Akshay will work on teaching and developing courses in physics and mathematics aimed at all engineering students, and courses in the electrical engineering concentration.

Prior to joining USF, Akshay worked as a postdoctoral researcher and a lecturer at the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) department at UC Berkeley across the bay. He received his PhD in EECS from UC Berkeley in 2020 and his Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India in 2014. At Berkeley, his research focused on ultrafast magnetism, a sub-field of magnetism that studies the physics behind magnets at really small picosecond (a millionth of a millionth of a second) and sub-picosecond timescales. His work equally focused on better understanding this physics and on applying this physics to build fast and energy-efficient electronic devices.

• Electrical Engineering
• Magnetism
• Ultrafast magnetism and magneto-optics
• Solid state electronics and device physics

• Ultrafast magnetism
• Spintronic (magnetic) devices
• Optics
• Device physics

• Postdoctoral Researcher in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley
• Lecturer in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley
• France-Berkeley Fund Visiting Researcher, Institut Jean Lamour, University of Lorraine, Nancy, France

• UC Berkeley, PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, 2020
• National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India, B. Tech in Electronics and Communications Engineering, 2014

• “Picosecond Spin-Orbit Torque Induced Coherent Magnetization Switching in a Ferromagnet”, D. Polley, A. Pattabi, A. Rastogi, K. Jhuria, E. Diaz, H. Singh, A. Lemaitre, M. Hehn, J. Gorchon and J. Bokor, Sci. Adv. 9, 36 (2023)
• “Progress toward picosecond on-chip magnetic memory”, D. Polley, A. Pattabi, J. Chatterjee, S. Mondal, K. Jhuria, H. Singh, J. Gorchon and J. Bokor, Appl. Phys. Lett. 120, 140501 (2022)
• “Single shot ultrafast all optical magnetization switching of GdTbCo alloys”, A. Ceballos*, A. Pattabi*, A. El-Ghazaly, S. Ruta, C. P. Simon, R. F. L. Evans, T. Ostler, R. W. Chantrell, E. Kennedy, M. Scott, J. Bokor and F. Hellman, Phys. Rev. B 103, 024438 (2021)
• “Spin–orbit torque switching of a ferromagnet with picosecond electrical pulses”, K. Jhuria, J. Hohlfeld, A. Pattabi,  E. Martin, A. Y. A. Cordova, X. Shi, R. Lo Conte, S. Petit-Watelot, J. C. Rojas-Sanchez, G. Malinowski, S. Mangin, A. Lemaitre, M. Hehn, J. Bokor, R. B. Wilson and J. Gorchon, Nat. Elec. 3, 680-686 (2020)
• “Direct optical detection of current induced spin accumulation in metals by magnetization-induced second harmonic generation”, A. Pattabi, Z. Gu, J. Gorchon, Y. Yang, J. Finley, O. J. Lee, H. A. Raziq, S. Salahuddin and J. Bokor, Appl. Phys. Lett. 107, 152404 (2015)