Team

Dr. Marie Böttcher

In a magnetic skyrmion, the magnetization rotates from a ferromagnetic background into the opposite direction in the center of the skyrmion.Spintronics, a combination of spin and electronics, not uses only the electrical charge, but also the intrinsic spin of the electron to process information. Recently, non-collinear chiral magnetic structures called skyrmions have received a lot of interest in the field of spintronics. Magnetic skyrmions are particle-like, highly stable vortical objects, in which the magnetization of the atoms rotates from a ferromagnetic background into the opposite direction in the center of the core.

For an application of skyrmions in data storage devices the knowledge of the temperature and magnetic field dependence is crucial. Especially the description of phase transitions is of prime importance. I use an advanced Monte Carlo technique called parallel tempering Monte Carlo (PTMC) to investigate these properties of skyrmion systems.

Skyrmions can be found in so-called frustrated spin systems where different competing interactions occur. This leads to many metastable states in the energy landscape, hence the description of the system needs a highly sophisticated modeling.

The PTMC uses thermal energy to overcome energy barriers between metastable states to sample a large volume of the phase space. Therefore, a certain number of copies of one spin structures, the so called replicas, were created and simulated at different temperatures. During the simulation time, replicas of adjacent temperatures are getting swapped. In doing so, the replicas were heated up and cooled down during the simulation process. This technique allows an accurate thermodynamical study of different magnetic systems which can host magnetic skyrmions.

Research Interest

  • Theoretical and computational physics, thermodynamics
  • Spintronics, nanomagnetism, spin glass
  • Skyrmions and chiral magnetic structures
  • Monte Carlo simulations

Publications

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Team Members (without pictures)

List with pictures

NameWorking Area
Office
/Building 2412		Phone
+49 6131 39-		Email

University Professor
Jairo SINOVAAlexander von Humboldt Professor,
Head of INSPIRE, Director of SPICE		01-32723340sinova@uni-mainz.de

Research Team Leaders
Bertrand DUPÉComputational Materials Design(2413) 02-23125781bertdupe@uni-mainz.de
Olena GOMONAYAntiferromagnetic Spintronics01-31923643ogomonay@uni-mainz.de
Erik R. McNELLISOrganic Spintronics01-32123644emcnelli@uni-mainz.de

Administration
Elena HILPSPICE and Guests Coordinator01-32527992ehilp@uni-mainz.de
Denise KORNBRUSTHR Management and
Project Management		01-32327991dkornbr@uni-mainz.de
Juliane SCHMIDT- on maternity leave -
Robert-André VETTELIT & Systems Administration(2413) 02-23327927ra.vettel@uni-mainz.de

Visiting Scientists
Sergei A. EGOROVUniversity of Virginia, USA
Rafael GONZÁLEZ HERNÁNDEZAlexander v. Humboldt Fellow
Universidad del Norte, Colombia		01-31923643rhernand@uni-mainz.de
Warlley H. CAMPOSPhD Candidate joint with TWIST Group
Skyrmions and Spintronics in Topological Insulators		2412 / 01-523wacampos@uni-mainz.de
Hamidreza KAZEMITopological Spintronics
Department of Physics and Research Center OPTIMAS, Technical University of Kaiserslautern		2412 / 01-321hakazemi@uni-mainz.de
Shradha Chandrashekhar KoliTopological Material Design
Research Group of Prof. Zhao, Albert Fert Institute of Beijing		Staudingerweg 9 / 02-231schandra@uni-mainz.de

Research Staff
Reza MAHANIOrganic Spintronics01-32123644rmahani@uni-mainz.de
Davi R. RODRIGUESPostdoctoral Researcher joint with TWIST Group2412 / 01-533davrodri@uni-mainz.de
Ricardo ZARZUELAOrganic Spintronics01-31525781rzarzuela@uni-mainz.de

PhD Candidates
Pedram BASSIRIANResearch Assistant joint with TWIST Group2412 / 01-523pbassiri@students.uni-mainz.de
Marie BÖTTCHERComputational Materials Design01-52327424m.boettcher@uni-mainz.de
Uday CHOPRAOrganic Spintronics01-52327424uchopra@uni-mainz.de
Diana PRYCHYNENKOEmmy-Noether Group TWIST01-52327424prychynenko@uni-mainz.de
Libor ŠMEJKALAntiferromagnetic Spintronics01-31525781lsmejkal@uni-mainz.de

Master Students
Wojciech MORAWIECComputational Materials Design(2413) 02-23324549

Student Assistants
Hjördis PUSCHMedia & Photography01-32327991hjopusch@uni-mainz.de

Postal Address

Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz
Institute of Physics
INSPIRE Group

Staudingerweg 7
D 55128 Mainz

Group's Office

Room:   2412 / 01-323
Phone:  +49 6131 39 - 21268
Fax:      +49 6131 39 - 26375
Email:   sinova-group@uni-mainz.de

Directions

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Dr. Bertrand Dupé

Expertise

  • Solid state physics and materials science
  • Atomistic simulations, density functional theory (DFT)
  • Spin dynamics
  • Monte Carlo simulations of frustrated magnets

Publications (Highlights)

  • B. Dupé, G. Bilhmayer, M. Böttcher, S. Blügel, and S. Heinze "Engineering skyrmions in transition-metal multilayers for spintronics" Nature Communications, 2016, 7, 11779.
  • B. Dupé, M. Hoffmann, C. Paillard, and S. Heinze "Tailoring magnetic skyrmions in ultra-thin transitions metal films" Nature Communications, 2014, 5, 4030.
  • B. Dupé, I. C. Infante, G. Geneste, P.-E. Janolin, M. Bibes, A. Barthélémy, S. Lisenkov, L. Bellaiche, S. Ravy, B. Dkhil "Competing phases in BiFeO3 thin films under compressive epitaxial strain" Physical Review B, 2010, 81, 144128.
  • I. C. Infante, S. Lisenkov, B. Dupé, M. Bibes, S. Fusil, E. Jacquet, G. Geneste, S. Petit, A. Courtial, J. Juraszek, L. Bellaiche, A. Barthélémy, and B. Dkhil "Bridging multiferroic phase transitions by epitaxial strain in BiFeO3" Physical Review Letters, 2010, 105, 057601.
  • H. Béa, B. Dupé, S. Fusil, R. Mattana, E. Jacquet, B. Warot-Fonrose, F. Wilhelm, A. Rogalev, S. Petit, V. Cros, A. Anane, F. Petroff, K. Bouzehouane, G. Geneste, B. Dkhil, S. Lisenkov, I. Ponomareva, L. Bellaiche, M. Bibes, A. Barthélémy "Evidence for room-temperature multiferroicity in a compound with a giant axial ratio" Physical Review Letters, 2009, 21, 217603.
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Team Members

University Professor

Jairo SINOVA

Alexander von Humboldt Professor,
Head of INSPIRE, Director of SPICE
Phone: +49 6131 39 - 23340
Fax: +49 6131 39 - 26375
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-327sinova@uni-mainz.de
Sinova's Complete CV and Short CV

Leerzeile

Research Team Leaders and Postdoctoral Fellows

V. K. BHARADWAJ

Postdoctoral Fellow and Computational Expert

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 25151
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-533

vebharad@uni-mainz.de

Atasi CHAKRABORTY

Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow
Antiferromagnetic and Altermagnetic Spintronics

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27992
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-325

atasi.chakraborty@uni-mainz.de

Olena GOMONAY

Independent Research Senior Team Leader
Spin+X and ElastoQMat PI
Antiferromagnetic Spintronics

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 23643
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-319

ogomonay@uni-mainz.de

Pieter GUNNINK

Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow
joint with the team of TopMagIc
Topological Magnetic Insolitronics

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27991
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-533

pgunnink@uni-mainz.de

Libor ŠMEJKAL


Independent Research Team Leader at MPI Dresden (from Sept 2024)
Spin+X and ElastoQMat PI
Altermagnetic and Antiferromagnetic Topological Spintronics

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 25781
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-315
lsmejkal@uni-mainz.de

Xanthe Verbeek


Postdoctoral Fellow ElastoQMat and SPIN+X: Altermagnetic and Antiferromagnetic Spintronics

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27992
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-325
xverbeek@uni-mainz.de

Ricardo ZARZUELA

Independent Research Team Leader
Antiferromagnetic Spintronics

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 25781
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-315

rzarzuela@uni-mainz.de

Leerzeile

Administration

Elena HILP

Administration
PA of Sinova, SPICE & Guests Coordinator

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27992
Fax: +49 6131 39 - 23474
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-325

ehilp@uni-mainz.de

Denise KORNBRUST

Administration
HR & Project Management

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27991
Phone (direct): +49 6131 39 - 23642
Fax: +49 6131 39 - 26375
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-323

dkornbr@uni-mainz.de

Hjördis PUSCH

Administration
HR, Project Management

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27991
Fax: +49 6131 39 - 26375
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-323

hpusch07@uni-mainz.de

Angélica Maria RUIZ PERDOMO

Media & Outreach

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27991
Fax: +49 6131 39 - 26375
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-322

ruizpera@uni-mainz.de

Leerzeile

Visiting Scientists

Rafael GONZÁLEZ HERNÁNDEZ

Associate Professor
Alexander v. Humboldt Fellow

Universidad del Norte
Departamento de Fisica
Barranquilla, Colombia

rhernandezj@uninorte.edu.co

Jacob GAYLES

Assistant Professor

University of South Florida
Departament of Physics
Tampa, USA

gayles@usf.edu

Leerzeile

PhD Candidates

Nayra ALVAREZ

Postdoctoral Fellow
First-principles study of compensated magnets

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27424
Fax: +49 6131 39 - 26375
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-523

alvarezp@uni-mainz.de

Gaspar DE LA BARRERA

PhD Candidate
Antiferromagnetic spintronics and unconventional magnetism

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27991
Fax: +49 6131 39 - 26375
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-523

gdelabar@uni-mainz.de

Rodrigo JAESCHKE

PhD Candidate
Topological Antiferromagnetic Spintronics

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27424
Fax: +49 6131 39 - 26375
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-523

rjaeschk@uni-mainz.de

Bennet KARETTA

PhD Candidate
Antiferromagnetic and Altermagnetic Spintronics

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27424
Fax: +49 6131 39 - 26375
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-523

karetta@uni-mainz.de

Ross KNAPMAN

PhD Candidate joint with TWIST Group

Phone: +49 203 379 4717
Office: Lotharstraße 1 / MG 384 / 47057 Duisburg

ross.knapman@uni-due.de

Gina PANTANO

Visiting PhD Candidate

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27424
Fax: +49 6131 39 - 26375
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-523

pantanog@uni-mainz.de

Sergio Rodríguez

PhD Candidate
Unconventional Magnetism and Spintronics

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27424
Fax: +49 6131 39 - 26375
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-523

srodrigu@uni-mainz.de

Scientific Student Assistants

Nils KELLER

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27424
Fax: +49 6131 39 - 26375
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-523

nkelle02@students.uni-mainz.de

Thabiso KHOZA

Media & Outreach Student Assistant

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27991
Fax: +49 6131 39 - 26375
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-322

khozatha@uni-mainz.de

Colin LANGE

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27424
Fax: +49 6131 39 - 26375
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-523

colange@students.uni-mainz.de

Elizabeth PANFILOVA

Administration
HR & Administrative Student Assistant

Phone: +49 6131 39 - 27991
Fax: +49 6131 39 - 26375
Office: Staudingerweg 7 / 01-323

panfiloe@uni-mainz.de

Photos: Sabrina Hopp, Robert Vettel, Lukas Klein and Angélica Ruiz
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Dr.-Ing. Melanie Dupé

Research Interests

Atomistic simulations of multiferroics
Melanie Dupé - Research Area

Expertise

  • Chemistry and materials science
  • Atomistic simulations, density functional theory (DFT) and Monte-Carlo
  • Functional materials (lead-free piezoelectrics, cathode materials for lithium ion batteries, phosphors)
  • Structure-property relationships in perovskites
  • Thermodynamic stability and point defects in dielectrics

Publications (Highlights)

 

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04.11.2016 – INSPIRE Group Welcomes New Team Members

We are very pleased to welcome Bertrand Dupé and Melanie Dupé, Kyoung-Whan Kim, Marie Böttcher and Uday Chopra to the INSPIRE group. Bertrand Dupé joined us as an interim professor and team leader. Melanie Dupé and Kyoung-Whan Kim, both postdoctoral researcher, add perfectly our team as well as Marie Böttcher and Uday Chopra, who joined us as PhD students.

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Dr. Erik R. McNellis

Welcome. 🙂

My work sits at the nexus of two major trends of contemporary materials- and nano-science:

The first is the exploitation of the lower cost, greater abundance, greater tailorability and versatility of components based on organic molecules over traditional solid state materials in microtechnology.

The second is the use of the laws of quantum mechanics and powerful computers to predict highly accurate, atomically resolved properties of nano-systems. Such computational modeling from first-principles theory is exponentially developing into an essential, extremely cost-efficient tool for academic and industrial nanotechnological research alike.

Previously, I have modeled solid surfaces functionalized with single-molecule electrooptical motors, and worked on chemically tuning the electronic motion in novel solar cells based on organic molecules and quantum-dots. My methodological experience covers electronic structure theory in various forms from the solid state to quantum chemical methods.

Currently, I lead the Organic Spintronics Team. We work on developing molecular materials and components for spintronics from atomistic theoretical models, using the full gamut of modern first-principles and multi-scale modeling methods.

Publications (Highlights)

Awards & Fellowships

  • Postdoctoral Fellowship at FOM AMOLF (Amsterdam, NL) / Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research (Mainz, DE) (Feb 2012 – Oct 2014)
  • Full Scholarship at International Max-Planck Research School (Berlin, DE) (Jan 2006 – May 2008)
  • Full Scholarship at Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, UCLA (Los Angeles, USA) (Sep 2005 – Nov 2005)
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01.08.2016 – Ulrike Ritzmann joined the INSPIRE Group

P1020972 - Version 2
We are very pleased to welcome Ulrike Ritzmann to the INSPIRE group. Before Ulrike joined our group, she had a Postdoc position in Prof. Ulrich Nowak's group at the University of Konstanz. Her research interest lies in the field of spin caloritronics, that combines the interplay of heat, charge and spin. In magnetic materials, temperature gradients can excite spin currents mediated via the so-called magnons, which are the excitations of the magnetic system. By using atomistic spin model simulations, she studies the thermally driven magnon propagation and its characteristic length scale in different magnetic materials starting from ferromagnets to two-sublattice materials like antiferromagnets and ferrimagnets.

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14.07.2016 – Amaury Souza received the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation Research Fellowship

Amaury AvH Fellowship

Brilliant news for the INSPIRE group: We are very pleased to announce that Amaury Souza received the Research Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. As the group knows how to celebrate, we took the opportunity to celebrate his achievement with a traditional and popular dish from his home country Brazil: Pão de Queijo (Cheese Bread). We wish him all the best and much inspiration for his future research projects as a part of the INSPIRE group!

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Dr. Libor Šmejkal

Phases of matter are classified according to order parameters and corresponding symmetries. For instance, water exhibits rotational symmetry, while ice breaks it. We have recently classified magnets by spin symmetries. We have found out that, remarkably, there exists yet third magnetic ordering in addition to the more common antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic orderings. The unconventional altermagnetic ordering is characterised by an unconventional time-reversal symmetry breaking in the form of alternating spin order in reciprocal space which originates from anisotropic and mutually rotated opposite spin densities in direct space. Altermagnets are predicted a plethora of effects both of fundamental and applied interest such as dissipationless and spin-polarised currents, some of which were already indicated in experiments.

Our team is currently investigating altermagnetism and topological antiferromagnetic spintronics with our collaborators from Prague, Mainz, Washington, Barranquilla, Kaiserslautern, Frankfurt, Karlsruhe, Dresden, Grenoble, Nottingham, Vienna, and Pilsen.

 
Altermagnetism: Our prediction and perspective of altermagnetism are now published in Physical Review X! Here we show visualisation of altermagnetic spin densities. (C) LS & Matthias Greber

Altermagnetism: Our prediction and perspective of altermagnetism are now published in Physical Review X! Here we show visualisation of altermagnetic spin densities. (C) LS & Matthias Greber

Topological Antiferromagnetic Spintronics: Antiferromagnets with space-time symmetries exhibit Dirac fermions in their bandstructure.

Topological Antiferromagnetic Spintronics: Antiferromagnets with space-time symmetries exhibit Dirac fermions in their bandstructure.

 
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Current interests of our team:

 

Recent Publications

        • “Beyond Conventional Ferromagnetism and Antiferromagnetism: A Phase with Nonrelativistic Spin and Crystal Rotation Symmetry”. L. Šmejkal, J.Sinova, and T. Jungwirth

Physical Review X

        • “An anomalous Hall effect in altermagnetic ruthenium dioxide”. Zexin Feng*, Xiaorong Zhou*, Libor Šmejkal*, Lei Wu, Zengwei Zhu, Huixin Guo, Rafael González-Hernández, Xiaoning Wang, Han Yan, Peixin Qin, Xin Zhang, Haojiang Wu, Hongyu Chen, Ziang Meng, Li Liu, Zhengcai Xia, Jairo Sinova, Tomáš Jungwirth, and Zhiqi Liu

Nature Electronics

        • “Crystal time-reversal symmetry breaking and spontaneous Hall effect in collinear antiferromagnets.”. L. Šmejkal, González-Hernández, R., T. Jungwirth, and J. Sinova

Science Advances

        • “Topological antiferromagnetic spintronics”. Šmejkal, L., Mokrousov, Y., Yan, B. & MacDonald, A. H.

Nature Physics

        • "Proposal to Detect Dark Matter using Axionic Topological Antiferromagnets". David J. E. Marsh, Kin Chung Fong, Erik W. Lentz, Libor Šmejkal, and Mazhar N. Ali

Physical Review Letters

Further interests - solid state theory of relativistic effects:

      • Prediction and observation of large anisotropic magnetoresistance in Mn2Au alloys. Press release .
      • Prediction and observation of anisotropic magnetoresistance and spin-orbit torque (SOT) in Heusler alloys. SOT was demonstrated at room temperature in NiMnSb microbars: Press release .

 

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