Master’s and Bachelor’s Thesis Projects

2D-Materials have gained tremendous attention, at the latest, since the Nobel price was awarded to A. Geim and K. Novoselov in 2010 for the isolation and investigation of single layer graphite, “graphene”, which was theoretically predicted to be thermodynamically instable. Ever since, many other layered structures have been identified and their single-layered crystals isolated and studied.

In this project we aim to investigate the heterostructures created from magnetic and non-magnetic layered materials. ... read more

Raman spectroscopy has become a standard in many fields including quality control in the semiconductor or food industries, is widely used for drug or explosives screenings and finds its way into medical applications where e.g. non-invasively skin cancer tests can be carried out without taking tissue samples. A strength of this method is to be sensitive to the symmetry of materials, i.e. the sample’s (crystallographic) structure, and hence also be sensitive to changes in this material’s property.

The project is split into two parts: i) to finalize the finetuning of the metrology and develop a measure for its uncertainty and ii) to investigate different complex oxide-perovskites with chemical formula ABO3, which can have phase transitions of different order (structural, spin, …). The aim of the second part is to further the understanding of the material’s microscopic order, leading to macroscopic effects, such as magnetism or ferroelectricity. ... read more

Two-dimensional (2D) materials provide a versatile platform for exploring novel spintronic device concepts with potential applications in future information technologies. In recent years, 2D spintronics has therefore attracted significant interest in condensed matter physics. In this context, the Paul-Drude Institut (PDI) has demonstrated the growth of high-quality, large-area, all-epitaxial 2D heterostructures, such as Fe5GeTe2/Graphene [H. Lv et al., Small, 2023], providing a strong foundation for 2D spintronic device investigations.

In this project, the student will develop lateral spin valve devices based on MBE-grown Fe5GeTe2/Graphene heterostructures. The work will focus on optimizing cleanroom fabrication processes, realizing functional devices, and investigating their magnetotransport properties, with particular emphasis on room-temperature operation. ... read more

Ferrimagnetic spintronics combines the advantages of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic materials and has become a highly promising research field in modern condensed-matter physics. In particular, ferrimagnets offer exciting opportunities for next-generation data storage technologies, enabling ultrafast operation and ultrahigh storage density.
In this project, the student will explore the ferrimagnetic material NiCo2O4 (NCO), which exhibits strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy at room temperature. The main objective is to synthesize high-quality thin films using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and investigate their structural, magnetic and transport properties. ... read more

Layered magnets can be seen as ideal platforms for exploring magnetism in the 2D limit. To establish their potential in future technologies, the realization of high-quality magnetic layered materials exhibiting ferromagnetism (FM) and/or antiferromagnetism close to room temperature is urgently needed. Recently, we have successfully synthesized at wafer-scale using molecular beam epitaxy on the one hand side a metastable α-FeGe2 layered phase (not found as a bulk material) and on the other hand side layered Fe5GeTe2 as well as Fe3GaTe2 films.

The aim of the project is to investigate the magnetic properties and to establish the magnetic phase diagram of α-FeGe2 and/or Fe5GeTe2 (Fe3GaTe2) films. In principle, there is room for two individual projects. ... read more