Welcome to the Hellman Lab! We are an experimental group in condensed matter physics. We work on growth and characterization of thin films, measuring their structure, heat capacity and magnetic properties.
We study a wide range of materials; from the thermal and electronic properties of amorphous materials to emergent interfacial magnetism in non-centrosymmetric metals. Current projects include the study and manipulation of magnetic skyrmions and how properties of amorphous materials may be tuned by changing their structure.
We have developed a series of experiments based on MEMS "lab-on-a-chip" devices utilizing a silicon nitride membrane as a thermal isolation platform which allows us to study orders of magnitude smaller sample sizes than other available thermodynamic measurements such as thin films.
Magnetic microscopy measurements take place at the Advanced Light Source with whom we have close collaborators. For these measurements we modify the membrane-based device into a portable heater stage that is transparent to X-rays for use in in-situ temperature.
We currently have openings for graduate students and postdocs in a variety of projects in both the amorphous and interfacial magnetism projects, if interested feel free to contact us!
Our group in July 2018
Additional lab photos