I'm a first year physics PhD research student at the University of Warwick in the UK. My research falls under the catch-all category of "condensed matter physics" but specifically I'm involved in understanding the growth via molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) of magnetic materials on compound semiconductor substrates. For instance, I'm currently looking at MnSb grown on GaAs. Why is this useful or interesting? Well, the current excuse is that we're looking at systems with some potential for future spin electronic ("spintronic") devices.
Being involved as I am in dealing with magnetic materials and semiconductors, it is necessary to know about thermodynamics, magnetism, crystallography, electron, x-ray and neutron scattering and diffraction, ion scattering and of course quantum mechanics. The principle techniques used are: RHEED, LEED, XPS, ion scattering (MEIS and CAICISS), STM, SEM, AFM, TEM and DFT. Other techniques such as SEXAFS and photoelectron diffraction may be used in order to complement the ion scattering techniques in performing quantitative surface structure determination.
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