Helmholtz Investigator Group on magnons
Dr Hebatalla Elnaggar is setting up a new Helmholtz Investigator Group at HZB. At BESSY II, the materials scientist will investigate so-called magnons in magnetic perovskite thin films. Her goal is to create the foundations for a new extremely efficient information technology. © HZB
Dr Hebatalla Elnaggar is setting up a new Helmholtz Investigator Group at HZB. At BESSY II, the materials scientist will investigate so-called magnons in magnetic perovskite thin films. The aim is to lay the foundations for future terahertz magnon technology: magnonic devices operating in the terahertz range could process data using a fraction of the energy required by the most advanced semiconductor devices, and at speeds up to a thousand times faster.
Today's semiconductor technology relies on the transport of electrically charged particles. The densely packed semiconductor devices on microchips generate a lot of unwanted heat, which must be dissipated at great expense. The energy requirements of information technology are immense and increasing steeply.
However, in principle, information could be processed without the transport of electrons. The key to this are magnetic patterns, either the spins of charged particles (spintronics) or spin waves in magnetic materials, known as magnons. Such magnons can propagate through a magnetic medium without moving particles, basically frictionless.
Dr Hebatalla Elnaggar is investigating magnetic thin films with a perovskite structure in which magnons can be detected. The materials scientist earned her doctorate from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and worked as a permanent researcher and head of a working group at Sorbonne University and the CNRS in Paris until recently.
Since october 2025 she has started establishing her own Helmholtz Investigator Group at HZB. “My research goal aligns with HZB's mission to discover new materials and advance technologies for a climate-neutral energy future. Here, I have access to BESSY II and its range of state of the art spectroscopic instruments, clean room facilities, and a high-performance computer cluster,” she says.
Helmholtz Investigator Group: Multi-magnons: A platform for next generation THz magnons
- From Colombia to Berlin: Finding My Way in a New WorldIt was almost 11 p.m. when I arrived in Berlin. After a long journey from Colombia, all I wanted was to get to my accommodation, take a shower, and finally sleep.
Instead, I missed my train. Thinking it would follow the same route as the previous one as it would in my hometown of Medellín I confidently boarded the next train. About twenty minutes later, I realized something was wrong. I was heading in the wrong direction.
As if that was not enough, my phone battery was almost empty. Suddenly, I found myself alone in a city I had never visited before, late at night, speaking a language I did not understand, with no idea how to get back.
This was not how I had imagined the beginning of my first international trip....
- BESSY II: New sample environment allows glimpse into thermocatalytic processesA novel measurement cell allows, for the first time, soft and hard X-ray investigations under high pressures of up to 20 bar and temperatures of up to 400°C. This provides new insights into thermocatalytic processes, such as the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis for producing synthetic fuels. The development of the measurement cell is considered a significant achievement within the Care-O-Sene project.
- Precision interface chemistry pushes perovskite solar cells beyond 26% efficiencyAn international research collaboration has developed a new molecular strategy for controlling one of the most critical interfaces in perovskite solar cells. The resulting solar cells reached a power conversion efficiency of 26.19% in the n i p architecture, together with strong operational stability under prolonged illumination and elevated temperature. The results have been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.