Professor Dr. Stefan Eisebitt
Head of the joint research group “Functional Nanomaterials” at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie
After three years of PhD studies at the University of British Columbia, Canada, Stefan Eisebitt obtained his PhD in Physics in collaboration with the Research Center Jülich at the University of Cologne in 1996. In his thesis he focused on the structure-function relationship in semiconductor nanostructures.
X-ray spectroscopy and x-ray scattering were also dominating in his further research as a staff scientist at the Institute for Solid State Research in the Research Center Jülich. It was during this time, that Dr. Eisebitt established the use of coherent x-rays as a new field of research. Since his stay as a visiting scientist at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory in 2001 he refines these techniques specifically for the study of magnetic nanostructures, e.g. for research in the area nanomagnetism and data storage.
2002 through 2008 Stefan Eisebitt headed a BESSY in-house research group on these topics and taught as a “Privatdozent” at the Humboldt University Berlin. At the end of 2008, he accepted an offer of the Technical University Berlin for a full professorship in the Institute for Optics and Atomic Physics in the area “Nanometer-Optics and X-ray Scattering”.
The close collaboration between research and teaching in the University realm with non-University institutes in Adlershof is reflected by the joint research group “Functional Nanomaterials”. The group headed by Professor Eisebitt is being established between the TU Berlin and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie.
The group of Stefan Eisebitt investigates the switching behavior of magnetic nanostructures, e.g. for applications in novel magnetic data storage media. Magnetic switching processes can be imaged via illumination with coherent synchrotron radiation.
Lithographically patterned 80 nm squares are seen to switch in an external magnetic field in the adjacent figure. The grey scale reflects the local magnetization. The investigation of magnetic switching processes - here performed via x-ray holography - are of relevance for a basic understanding of nanomagnetic processes as well as for applications in magnetic data storage development.
Contact: Prof. Dr. S. Eisebitt, e-mail: eisebitt(at)physik.tu-berlin.de, tel. +49 30 314 25496, www.ioap.tu-berlin.de/menue/arbeitsgruppen/ag_eisebitt/