The research of the QEM group is made possible via research grants from FOM (the physics division of the NWO), as well as financial support from the UvA and EU - the latter funding access the synchrotron radiation facilities BESSY (in Berlin) and SLS (outside Zurich).
STM/STS, HIKE and ARPES and Optics on pnictide superconductors
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In an effort to get a better understanding of the physics behind the newly discovered pnictide high temperature superconductors, STM/STS, HiKE, ARPES and Optics measurements are combined... read more |
Topological Insulators
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Topological insulators are one of the hot topics in condensed matter physics. These are materials that are (ideally) insulating in the bulk of the material, but have metallic surfaces. The presence of conducting surface states in insulators is nothing new, but in the recently discovered alloys BiSb, Bi2Se3, Bi2Te3 and some intercalated versions of these materials the surface states are robust against the effects of impurity scattering on adatoms at the surface. read more |
Real and k-space microscopy of colossal magnetoresistant manganites
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One of the major challenges of contemporary physics is to gain insight into many-body problems such as high temperature superconductivity displayed by e.g. various cuprates. A similar group of materials are the manganites that display an equally poorly understood phenomenon. read more |
Determination of the interaction in high-TC cuprates through ARPES
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Complete understanding of the coupling mechanism in high temperature (HTSC) cuprates remains unclear up to now. One way to reveal the mechanism is to find out how the electrons or quasiparticles interact with a certain degree of freedom. read more |
Dynamic x-ray speckle patterns of the magnetic superstructure peak of an ultrathin Ho film
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If coherent light is scattered from a disordered sample it will produce a random diffraction pattern (speckle pattern) which is related to the exact spatial arrangement of the sample. When the spatial arrangement of the sample changes, also the speckle pattern will change. In this way it is possible to extract the time scales of the fluctuating disorder (intensity fluctuation spectroscopy). read more |
Anisotropy-patterned magnetic films using focused ion beam
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Thin magnetic films of rare-earth transition-metal (RE-TM) alloys have a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) that is used in magneto-optical devices like the minidisc to store data in the form as magnetic domains. Focused ion beam irradiation (FIB) provides a novel means to engineer the anisotropy in these kind of films on length scales comparable to the domain wall width (~10-100 nm). read more |