By successfully passing his Stage Transfer Assessment (STA), Yevhen has reached an important milestone in his PhD journey, officially transitioning from a probationary research student to a fully registered PhD candidate. In an engaging talk, he shared his research on using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to study advanced semiconductor materials at the nanoscale. His presentation also demonstrated insightful research plans and a strong foundation for exciting results ahead.

In his presentation, Yevhen highlighted an interesting idea: defects in materials, often seen as imperfections, can give rise to some of their most useful properties. From controlling conductivity to enabling quantum functionalities, these tiny irregularities can have a surprisingly large impact on device performance.

Yevhen’s project focuses on probing such defects and dopants inside materials and devices, aiming to understand their diverse electrical behaviour at the nanoscale. To achieve this, he uses advanced AFM techniques including Electrostatic Force Microscopy (EFM), Conductive-AFM, and Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM), which allow researchers to map electrical properties with extremely high spatial resolution.

Looking ahead, Yevhen plans to expand this work using Scanning Microwave Impedance Microscopy (sMIM) and apply these techniques to doped silicon carbide samples from collaborators, potentially opening new insights into materials relevant for quantum technologies.

In many ways, Yevhen’s research is about thinking small to make a big impact, probing materials at the nanoscale to enable the next generation of powerful electronic devices.

Congratulations again to Yevhen on this milestone. We look forward to seeing the exciting results that will come from his work!