It was a nice summer that went by with ESR 10 (Ismael) and ESR 13 (Zhewen) spending part of their secondment in Hamburg. It was a mixed experience as Ismael is a theoretician and Zhewen is an experimentalist. It was very different for me to explain my experimental work to them and of course in the process it also helped me to learn more about my research by their smart and silly questions.
As it can be seen, the experiences were very enjoyable of the two ESRs. In the above image on the left, you can see Zhewen explaining the Berry phase for the 10th time on a beautiful U Bahn station. And on the right, we are having nice pizza while Ismael is running micromagnetic simulations on his phone!
Besides very good knowledge exchange, there was also food exchange. I think this is the most number of times I have eaten Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese food in my life! I am surely gonna miss these two guys and am looking forward to meeting them again in Hamburg for completing the rest of their secondment!
The new year has begun but I cannot forget the last months of 2022 where I spent 3 months in Halle at the Martin Luther University as a part of my secondment. I was in the group of Prof. Ingrid Mertig at Halle and had some fun time learning micromagnetics and atomistic spin dynamics simulations.
Time with Ismael (ESR 10) and Sergio (ESR 9) just went so quickly. We had a lot of fun besides work! A lot of group activities was something I am really gonna miss there! 3 months is a small amount of time to be able to do something significant in a completely new field. As I had never done micromagnetics or atomistic simulations before, it took me some time to get into the process. Nonetheless, I got to see how theorists think and what kind of approach they have in magnetism compared to experimentalists.
I was also fortunate to be able to give a talk at the MPI, Halle as a guest PhD student on my experimental work. The MPI and MLU are closely located and there is a good amount of collaboration there. I am looking forward to get back to Halle for one of our next SPEAR meetings in September this year!
Hello readers! This first post is about antiferromagnets. I talk about the general concepts in antiferromagnetism and then later I dive into some interesting complex antiferromagnetic states at the atomic scale! I hope you have a good read! Please feel free to reach me out at my email for any further questions! (vsaxena@physnet.uni-hamburg.de)
I started my PhD in September 2021 at the SPM group, University of Hamburg along with ESR 12 (Arturo). The past 7 months have been very interesting. So it was my first time in Germany and in the field of STM! It was a bit challenging (and is still is) to adapt to Hamburg due to it’s nature. I have never stayed in such a big city for a continuously long time ever before and so coming from small peaceful cities to a big and busy city requires patience to get adapted. But for sure, I am enjoying the place and exploring nearby places.
I have been working on a project that explores antiferromagnetism in atomic layered systems! It has been a lot of fun learning and seeing the magnetism in real space! Using an STM really allows us to see what we are doing as opposed to other transport measurements and imaging techniques! The group is very nice and closely packed (good bonding). The learning curve despite being very steep, feels so smooth and doable! I think I am very fortunate to have Kirsten as my supervisor! She makes difficult things look so easy! I always learn a lot from other group members about the amazing stuff they are doing in the field of skyrmions, superconductivity and Majorana fermions!
Cool lab!
When I have a long day at work, I usually go to the fantastic Elbphilaharmonie to have a scenic view of the harbour area. Another possibility is that I tunnel through the Elbe tunnel across the Elbe river to have another great view! And to find peace and nature, I keep visiting nearby areas like Lüneburg and Arhensburg! So if you are around, do not miss these places!
Me chilling at the Elbphilaharmonie (left) and me relaxing in the beautiful nature at Ahrensburg (right)
I am really excited for my new project and hope to unravel something that was never seen before! It has also been great to have good knowledge exchange with ESR 10 and ESR 13 about skyrmions! I am sure we are going to learn a lot in the coming months and definitely are looking forward to contribute to the understanding of skyrmions!
