Nanophysics graduate student profile
Barbara Kaeswurm
Second Year PhD Student
After spending four years at York for my undergraduate degree in Physics and completing my fourth year project in the Magnetic Materials group, I decided to stay at York and in the Magnetic Materials group as a PhD student. I am now in my 2nd year of my PhD programme and researching the magnetic exchange bias effect. Since the discovery of Giant Magneto- Resistance (GMR) exchange bias has been employed by a number of devices such as magnetic sensors and read heads in magnetic recording. The aim of my project is to investigate the reduction of exchange bias in thin film samples with lithographically patterned nanoelements.
The atmosphere is always friendly and I have never regretted staying at York
In my first year I learned how to use lots of equipment, including several magnetometers, scanning and transmission electron microscopy and the group's novel sputtering technology. I also got to design my own resistivity rig for measuring magnetoresistance properties.
Magnetic materials is a dynamic area of research and has allowed me to travel to an international conference (Intermag, Madrid 2008), IEEE Summer School (Colarado Springs, 2008), and IEEE Young researchers meeting (Sheffield, 2008).
The atmosphere in the Department and the research group is always friendly and I have never regretted staying at York.
