Student practical training / Bachelor theses / Student Assistant / Compulsory internship

The Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) is member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres. HZDR pursues interdisciplinary research in the fields of Health, Energy, and Matter and consists of eight institutes. Our Institute, the Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research has an internationally recognized long term expertise in ion-solid interactions in the contexts of material synthesis, modification or analysis as well as in solid state physics. The research in our group is focused on the processing-structure relationship of thin films and nanostructures grown by PVD methods.

Metal-induced crystallization with and without layer exchange (MIC w/o LE) is a method to decrease the crystallization temperature of amorphous group 14 elements (G14E) by up to several hundred degrees. While MIC w/o LE has been widely studied for Si and Ge in contact with catalytic metals, there exist only a few studies for the crystallization of amorphous carbon (a-C).

Due to its small lattice mismatch with the basal plane of graphite and high diffusivity of C atoms, Ni is a suitable catalyst for the growth of graphene and crystalline graphitic nanostructures. During the annealing of an a-C/Ni layer stack covalent bonds between the carbon atoms at the catalyst interface are weakened. Liberated carbon atoms can move along the interface and diffuse along the grain boundaries into the Ni layer, towards the catalyst surface, where nucleation and grain growth of graphenic crystallites occur. This technique can be used for the low-temperature graphene synthesis. It is demonstrated that the structure and the crystallite size
of the metallic catalyst layer has a strong influence on the crystallite size and the quality of the graphenic film.

The applicant will contribute to the improvement and the characterization of the structure and quality of metallic films. He or she will gain hands-on experience in operating physical vapour deposition (PVD) set ups – as magnetron sputtering (DCMS), high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) and ion beam sputtering (IBS) - for thin film deposition. Furthermore the applicant will be involved in a detailed characterization and evaluation of the deposited films.