• Thin Films & Physics of Nanostructures

    Dr. Jan Schmalhorst

    © Universität Bielefeld

Research: Spectroscopy of surfaces and interfaces

Equipment D2 The main goals of our work are the basic understanding of magnetism and spin dependent electronic transport in thin films and nanostructures and the development of optimized magneto- and spinelectronic devices. A profound characterization of physical properties of the samples is required to achieve this. Especially the structural and electronic properties of the key components have to be determined. These components are magnetic thin films, ultra thin insulators and the interfaces between them.

My research field includes thin film deposition with or without in-situ characterization, transport measurements, the investigation of the structure by X-ray diffraction and Auger electron spectroscopy based depth profiling, direct measurements of the electronic properties by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and the measurement of element specific magnetic and electronic bulk and interface properties utilizing X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), X-ray magnetic circular dicoism (XMCD), X-ray magnetic linear dicroism (XMLD) and other state-of-the-art synchrotron-based techniques.

Please send general emails to Jan Schmalhorst (jan.schmalhorst@uni-bielefeld.de).

Bachelor- and Masterthesis

Please contact me directly via email (jan.schmalhorst@uni-bielefeld.de) to ask for the latest opportunities for bachelor's and master's theses.

PhD and PostDoc positions

All open positions can be found here.

Vita

Jan Schmalhorst Dr. Jan Schmalhorst studied physics at Bielefeld University. Before he has come back to university in 1998, he worked for a surface science company. Currently, he is a senior scientist in the "Thin films and Physics of Nanostructures" group at Bielefeld University, his main area of research is the characterization of magnetic thin-films by synchrotron-based techniques. He was dean of students from October 2006 through July 2009 and has been the organizer of the Herbstakademie Physik since 2005. Furthermore he is the coordinator of the Department of Physics for the refurbishment of the University main building, the building X and the new laboratory building Experimental Physics (XPhy).