PhD Position in DOMAIN WALL BASED SENSING DEVICES

Sensitec is a manufacturer of magnetoresistive sensors, magnetic microsystems, and measurement systems for industrial, automotive, space, and many more applications. A position for a PhD candidate starting 1. September 2014 is available at Sensitec (www.sensitec.com) in the framework of the European Marie Curie project “WALL”. The “Wall” training will take place in the exiting environment of an international training network for young researchers. Leading European universities and companies will offer numerous technical and general courses, lectures and hand-on experience. For more information see http://www.itn-wall.eu.

The recently developed geometrically confined domain walls have yielded a plethora of exciting new physical phenomena. But beyond fundamental science, sensors based on domain walls have been developed and have recently debuted on the market as the first commercial realization of a device based on magnetic domain walls.
In this project, the physics of new sensor concepts will be developed for angle detection or as counters for practical applications. The devices are based on the propagation of magnetic domain walls due to external sensing field. Process and design parameters are to be studied, experimentally and theoretically by complementary micromagnetic simulations with a view to optimizing the operating conditions including a magnetic field working range.
Techniques learned in this project include advanced deposition of thin film heterostructures and nanostructuring using commercial equipment. Test methods for characterizing the devices, especially their reliability will be developed in order to assess the applicability of the developed concepts and understand the underlying physics.
The PhD enrolment will be at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz (http://www.klaeui-lab.physik.uni-mainz.de)