Open PhD Positions

• Flawed Drude behavior: when metals turn bad
  Contact: M. Dressel
  Keywords: unconventional transport mechanisms, displaced Drude peak, charge localization, optical spectroscopy

• Optical fingerprints of altermagnetism
  Contact: M. Dressel, M. Wenzel
  Keywords: unconventional magnetism, optical spectroscopy, magneto-optics

Since its discovery of altermagnetism, the field of unconventional magnetism has seen enormous progress in theoretical description and understanding. Experimental progress, however, is severely hampered by material issues, such as small sample size, poor surface quality, micro­structure, and the insulating ground states of many candidate materials. Optical spectro­scopy offers a promising route to overcome these limitations because these powerful methods enable non-destructive, non-contact measurements with high precision across a broad spectral range and they can be performed under diverse external conditions, including variable temperature, magnetic field, pressure, and strain.

We aim to establish advanced optical spectroscopic techniques as bulk-sensitive probes for detecting and characterizing the unique fingerprints of unconventional magnetic order. Utilizing magneto-optical Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and Müller-matrix ellipsometry, we want to investigate the energy-resolved breaking of time-reversal symmetry in unconventional magnets with zero net-magnetization, rooted in the splitting of spin polarized electronic bands. In addition to electronic excitations, we focus on lattice–spin interactions, exploring the potential chirality of optical phonon modes that may arise from strong crystal-field effects and the interplay between conventional phonons an intrinsi­cally chiral magnons.

information on doctoral degree studies