Magnetism & Spin Electronics News

View of the entrance to the Fitzgerald Building Physics Lab TCD

Latest News

2021

Well done to Tim Butcher who successfully defended his PhD thesis this year titled 'Transient Inhomogeneous Ionic Solutions - The Influence of the Magnetic Field Gradient'. Tim is now working as a postdoc with the Microspectroscopy group at the Swiss Light Source in the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. His research focusses on ptychography based X-ray microscopy and spectroscopy of magnetic systems using synchrotron radiation. We're all very proud of you Tim!

 

 

Orrie Larmour, Kieran Kilbane and Dr. Darragh Cronin join the group

A big welcome to Orrie Larmour, Kieran Kilbane and Darragh Cronin who have all joined the group this year. Orrie is a Masters student and will be working in the photonics lab under the direction of Dr. Jean Besbas and Prof. Plamen Stamenov. Kieran is a PhD student researching magnetic tunnel junctions and their applications in non-volatile field programmable gate arrays. Both Orrie and Kieran previously completed their Bachelors projects in the group. We welcome Darragh Cronin who is working as a postdoctoral researcher with us. Darragh is coming from Tyndell in Cork and will be working under the direction of Prof. Plamen Stamenov.

 

Dr. Pilar Jiménez Cavero joins the group

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Pilar Jiménez Cavero to the join. Pilar completed her PhD in the University of Zaragoza, Spain and worked on thermal spin transport in maghemite-based thin film structures. Welcome to the group Pilar!

 

Dr. Yangkun He joins the group

Yangkun He

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Yangkun He to the group this year. Yangkun completed his PhD in Beihang University in 2018, researching the microstructure and mechanism for giant magnetostriction in Fe-Ga alloys with trace rare-earth dopants under the supervision of Prof. Chengbao Jiang. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher for 3 years in the group of Prof. Claudia Felser at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids researching skyrmion and hard magnets for magnetic recording. Welcome Yangkun, we're very happy for you to join us!

MRG breaks the record for super-fast switching

Mn2RuxGa, or MRG, has been shown to demonstrate the fastest ever recorded switching of a magnetic material. The work, which was led by Dr. Chandrima Banerjee and Dr. Jean Besbas, was published in Physical Review Letters this year. Read all of the details here!

 

Nora Dempsey wins the 2021 CNRS Innovation Medal

Past group member Nora Dempsey was one of four scientists to win the 2021 CNRS Innovation Medal. This award recognises her outstanding work in the fabrication, characterisation and use of high-performance micro-magnets. Read about her story here!

 

Katarzyna Siewierska passes her PhD viva

A little socially distant gathering for Kat!

A huge congratulations to Katarzyna Siewierksa for passing her PhD viva on February 25th of this year. The viva exam was held online with external examiner Prof. YoshiChika Otani and internal examiner Prof. Igor Shvets. Her thesis is titled 'Development and Characterisation of a Zero-Moment Half-Metal.' Well done Kat!

 

Recent News

2020

Photo of Tim Butcher (left) and Ajay Jha (right).

This year two members of our group, Tim Butcher and Ajay Jha, were awarded bursaries to the value of €3000 as part of the Intel- Trinity MOU program. Students pursuing a masters or those in their final year of PhD were eligible for the award. We are delighted for Tim and Ajay - both very well deserved!

 

Goodbye to Chandrima

Microsoft Teams meeting celebrating Chandrima's party

We say farewell to Chandrima who is leaving us after 2 years to join the group of Oren Cohen at the Technion in Israel. Chandrima has really helped us advance fast opto-magnetism in our group and opened up new ideas and ways of working. We wish her every success in her new work on ultimate attosecond investigations of magnetic materials and we look forward to continuing to cooperate with her in the future.

 

Rhian-Marie Thomas awarded an OBE

Rhian-Marie Thomas OBE

Rhian, the only Welsh speaker ever to work in our Group, joined Barclays Finance in 2000 just after completing her PhD on mixed valence manganites. She came to understand that finance was more than more than matchmaking willing lenders with willing borrowers, but along with Science, probably the most important tool for reshaping the world. She became a passionate advocate of the green agenda to combat climate change and is now CEO of the Green Finance Institute. Find out about it here and listen to her 40-minute interview of Mary Robinson here . The OBE is a British honour for people who have contributed to the arts, sciences or public service. Only about one person in a thousand ever receives such an honour.

 

Plamen Stamenov elected a Fellow of Trinity College

We are all extremely proud of Plamen Stamenov on his election to Fellowship this year. A very deserving candidate - Plamen has greatly contributed to both research and teaching in the School of Physics. A Trinity Monday like no other!

Hercules

The Hercules students of 2020

Lucy Prendeville went to Grenoble this March for the 30th edition of Hercules; the 5-week European school to learn about synchrotron and neutron radiation sources. Unfortunately, after two weeks all students had to return home as a result of Covid-19. However, the course continued online for the following three weeks over Zoom - consiting of both lectures and tutorial sessions. She had a fantastic experience and would like to thank all of the organisers for ensuring the continuation of lectures in such difficult circumstances.

 

AIMagn Association - 5th Italian Magnetism School

The Hercules students of 2020

Three of our first year PhD students spent a week in Rome at the 5th Italian Magnetism School, organised by the AIMagn Association. They learned about a wide range of topics in magnetism including spintronics, magnonics, magnetocalorics and magnetometry! A huge thank you to all of the organisers of this very successful spring school - in particular to Gaspare Varvaro, a former summer student of our group!