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PhD students enhance their English skills
In February, 8 PhD students of both SFBs, SFB-TR87 and SFB 1316, attended a language school in London for one week. The focus of this week was "presenting in English". In small groups of 4 PhD students with one teacher each they learned a lot about structuring a successful presentation and delivering arguments clearly and convincingly. Besides studying English phrases for presentations and leading discussions, they also discussed rhetoric and body language. By giving many prepared and spontaneous talks in the class, they applied directly what they have learned.
During the week they deepened their knowledge not only in presentation skills, but also in British culture and literature by reading common novel paragraphs such as Oscar Wilde.
Besides the English workshop the group enjoyed the stay in London and went for example to the musical Alladin and visited the British museum and the Tate modern. All in all, it was a successful week and the Phd sstudents from Bochum, Aachen, Cottbus, and Paderborn are grateful for the opportunity and support by the SBFs for this workshop.
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New Mercator fellow of the CRC 1316 - Prof. Dr. Satoshi Hamaguchi, University of Osaka
Prof. Satoshi Hamaguchis research focus on plasma-material interactions in general, including their industrial applications. The aim of research is to understand fundamental mechanics of plasma-material interactions under various conditions. To achieve this, we combine plasma/beam experiments with numerical simulation/modeling. More specifically our current research topics include 1) etching, deposition, and surface modification processes for micro/nano electronics device manufacturing, 2) surface modification and functionalization of biomaterials by plasmas, 3) processing of water and biological systems by atmospheric-pressure plasmas mainly for applications in plasma medicine and plasma agriculture, and 4) dynamics and chemical reactions in plasmas under various conditions, including atmospheric-pressure plasmas.
Prof. Hamaguchi is also coordinator of the JSPS core-to-core program "Establishment of the Center for Collaborative Research in Data-Driven Plasma Science " that connects Osaka university with Ruhr University Bochum, and the universities in Bologna, Aix-Marseille, and York. In the framework of this program the sending side covers international airfare and the receiving side covers maintenance and the domestic travel costs. The hosting side covers the cost of holding the seminars.
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Visit to the GREMI (Université d‘Orléans, France)
From 18. to 28.02.2019, Simon Kreuznacht and Dr. Volker Schulz-von der Gathen visited Dr. Sylvain Iseni within the long-term cooperation with the group of Remi Dussart at the GREMI – a CNRS institute located at the University of Orléans. During that stay, they prepared a laser diagnostic measurement of the gas temperature very close to the surface of a DC-driven micro-cavity discharge array.
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International School on Low Temperature Plasma Physics: Basics and Applications
The traditional summer school on low temperature plasma physics will go on in Octobre this year. The summer school takes place in Physikzentrum in Bad Honnef and is from Octobre 5th, 2019 until Octobre 10th, 2019. After the school, the master class will be from Octobre 10th, 2019 until Octobre 12th, 2019.
Participants are welcomed to sign in for registration until June 15th, 2019. Due to limitation in the number of rooms at the Physikzentrum, the attendance is limited.
- For more information, see Homepage Summer School
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DPG spring meeting plasma physics in Munich
From 17thuntil 22ndMarch 2019 the annual DPG spring meeting was held at the Technische Universität München. Scientists from the research fields plasma physics, matter and cosmos and laser physics from all over Germany discussed their recent results. The EP2 group attended the conference with 4 presentations and 5 posters. Plasma scientists from four working groups (AEPT, TET, EP2, EP5) of both SFBs (SFB-TR 87 & SFB 1316) attended the conference.
One afternoon the group visited the Forschungszentrum Garching. Here, they attended interesting tours at the Tokamak fusion device ASDEX as well at the neutral beam injection system ELISE. Moreover, they had a lab tour at the low- temperature gas conversion group.
Besides the scientific program, the Bochumer PhDs enjoyed the social events such as physics slam or the public evening talk about the origin of the universe.
All in all, it was a good conference with fruitful discussions and networking to the other German plasma scientists.
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New PIs within the Research Department
During the last general meeting of the Research Department Plasmas with Complex Interactions, new Senior PIs were elected to join the collaboration of different scientists over the campus. Due to changed cooperations, the group was enlarged by four new Senior PIs: Prof. Dr. Martin Muhler from the chair for technical chemistry, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Dirk Tischler from the chair for microbial biotechnology, and Dr. Julian Schulze as well as Jun.-Prof. Andrew Gibson from the chair for electrical engineering and plasma technology.
With the coming into force of the new by-laws, the Research Department Plasmas with Complex Interactions now includes Associated PIs from other universitites, who work together with the scientists on campus. Here, the new memebers are: Prof. Dr. Jan Benedikt from the chair for plasma physics at the CAU Kiel, Prof. Dr. Guido Grundmeier from the chair for technichal and macomolecular chemistry at the university of Paderborn, Prof. Dr. Timo Jacob from the Insitute for Electrochemistry at the Uni Ulm, Prof. Dr. Thomas Mussenbrock from the chair for theoretical electrical engineering at the BTU Cottbus Senftenberg, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Oberrath from the institute for product and prozess innovation at the Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Prof. Dr. Beatriz Roldán Cuenya from the institute for Interface Science at the Fritz-Haber-Institut Berlin, Prof. Dr. Jochen M. Schneider from the chair for material chemistry at the RWTH Aachen, and finally Dr.-Ing. Jan Trieschmann from the chair for theoretical electrical engineering at the BTU Cottbus.
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Guests
Active exchange with international scientists continues at TP4
The very steady exchange between scientists from all over the world with the group around PD Dr. Horst Fichtner continues also at the end of 2019. Moreover, already for 2019, a visit for 2019 is planned.
(1) Between 17.11. and 7.12.2018, Prof. Sean Oughton from the Univeersity of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand visits the group. His research Topic is Turbulence Evolution in the Heliosphere.
(2) Dr. Dieter Nickeler with his research topic hydrodynamical flows in circumstellar environments spends two weeks at Bochum (2.12.-15.12.2018). He is from Astronomický ústav, Akademie věd České republiky, Czek Republic.
(3) Finally, the regular exchange with Prof Yuri Litvinenko from Univeersity of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand continues: he visits the group of PD Dr. Fichtner between 5.12. and 19.12.2018 as well as between 8.1. and 25.1.2019. With him, the focus in the scientific exchange is about nonlinear diffusion.
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Bochumer young researchers at WELTPP-21
The annual workshop on the exploration of low-temperature plasma physics (WELTPP) was held on the 29th & 30th of november for the 21st time in Rolduc, Kerkrade. PhD students from both the SFB TR-87 and the CRC1316 contributed to the program with 6 talks and 9 posters. In addition to the student talks, Erik Neyts from the University of Antwerp gave an invited talk about the surface charge in plasma catalysis.
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Plasma Day 2018
On Monday, November 12th, 2018, the Plasma Day of the Research Department Plasmas with Complex Interactions took place. The focus of the Plasma Day was the strategic progress of the Research Department in the future. The spokesperson, Achim von Keudell, spoke about the current situation of the Research Department. Further, representatives of all three topic fields of the Research Department presented their progress and future perspective. Moreover, highlight presentations were given by Jens Kleimann from the physics faculty, Andrew Gibson and Julian Schulze from the electrical engineering department.
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Ultra-thin transparent silver layers for solar cells
New chemical precursor
"The precursors for the deposition of ultrathin silver layers are extremely sensitive to air and light," explains Nils Boysen. It is true that the precursors can be stabilized with fluorine, phosphorus or oxygen. "However, these elements contaminate the thin film and pollute the equipment used to produce the layers," the researcher continues. As part of his master's thesis, Boysen and colleagues developed an alternative for stabilization.
The scientists designed a chemical silver precursor in which the silver is packaged in an amide and a carbene, thus eliminating the need for stabilization with fluorine, phosphorus or oxygen. They showed that the new precursor can be used to deposit thin silver layers on an electrode. To do this, they used atomic layer deposition. In the process, the precursor is transported to the electrode in gaseous form and deposited there as a silver layer just a few atoms thick. Because the silver film is so thin, it is transparent.
"Since the process works at atmospheric pressure and low temperatures, the general conditions would be favorable for industrial production," says Anjana Devi.
Prospect of high-efficiency solar cells and lights
With a series of tests, the researchers demonstrated that the silver thin films produced with the new process are pure and electrically conductive. "From a process engineering point of view, the successful synthesis of the new precursor opens the door to realize ultrathin silver films," Thomas Riedl sums up. "They hold out the prospect of producing new electrodes for highly efficient solar cells and lights."
"The interdisciplinary collaboration between the Bochum materials scientists and the Wuppertal engineers was the key to success," says Anjana Devi.
adapted from Julia Weiler (RUB)
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Poster Prize for Patrick Preissing (A6) at the 8th International Workshop on Plasma Spectroscopy in Oxford
The 8th International Workshop on Plasma Spectroscopy was held from the 23-26th of September, 2018 at the Worcester College in Oxford, UK. Volker Schulz- von der Gathen, Patrick Preissing and Katharina Grosse from EP2 contributed with 2 talks and 3 poster presentations. One of two poster prices were won by Patrick Pressing which was announced during the conference dinner. The excursion to Blenheim Palace was a highlight of the conference next to the excellent scientific programme.