Karolina Górnicka, PhD, Eng. will go on an internship to a US government laboratory | Gdańsk University of Technology

The scientist works as an assistant professor in the Department of Highly Correlated Electronic Systems at the Institute of Nanotechnology and Materials Engineering under the supervision of prof. Tomasz Klimczuk. She is a laureate of Diamond Grant and Scholarship of the Minister of Education and Science for young scientists.

The main goal of her scientific work is to describe the superconducting state, based on microscopic theories of superconductivity induced by the interaction of electrons with the crystal lattice, in selected intermetallic compounds.

She has already completed a one-year postdoctoral research fellowship at the Department of Quantum Matter Physics at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.

The government laboratory in Oak Ridge, where the scientist is going in mid-January, is known mainly for conducting research related to nuclear energy and nuclear technology. ORNL is one of the largest and most important research laboratories in the world. Key areas of research work include: supercomputers, nuclear energy, advanced research in materials science, molecular biology, nuclear physics, computer science, advanced technology, sustainable development, as well as climate research.

– Going for this internship was preceded by a very long and complicated procedure, due to the fact that the laboratory is in government structures. The interview itself lasted two days, several hours each. That is why I am doubly satisfied that I was invited to this internship - says Karolina Górnicka, PhD, Eng. – I will have the opportunity to work with some of the best scientists in the world. I hope to learn how to work and synthesize new materials, study their physical properties, complex quantum effects and various magnetic structures such for example skyrmions. I also hope to establish long-term cooperation with the laboratory, which will result in joint projects in the future.

The postdoctoral internship will be carried out in a scientific group dealing with the synthesis and research of highly correlated quantum materials, led by Dr. Michael A. McGuire (Correlated Electron Materials Group). The main goal of the research will be to obtain and analyze the physical properties of magnetic materials in which a chiral type of magnetic structure resulting from the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction can be observed. The effect of this interaction is the formation of phases with a twisted magnetic structure, such as skyrmions. More detailed research and control of the magnetic properties of interacting skyrmions will contribute to a better understanding and development of spintronic technologies.