Mariana's work focuses on the study of phonons and lattice distortions on polar and magnetic perovskites. She is a PhD student in the MAP-Fis doctoral program and her goal is to induce unprecedented dynamical multiferroic (ferroelectric and magnetic) phases in perovskite oxide materials through nonlinear phononic processes. Her project involves a detailed characterization of the optical phonons and magnetic excitations through Raman, THz and infrared spectroscopies as a function of temperature and applied magnetic field. The coherent excitation of phonons and the study of induced magnetic excitations are being performed by ultrafast time-resolved pump-probe THz techniques. Mariana is also a regular user of large infrastructures (SOLEIL, ILL, FELIX, PSI, Diamond). Mariana's PhD plan builds upon the combination of the nationally leading and internationally recognized know-how of two main groups of IFIMUP Research Laboratory: “Polarizable Materials and Functional Nanostructures” and the “Ultrafast Lasers and Magnetodynamics Spectroscopies” groups, with their corresponding leaders, Prof. Joaquim Agostinho Moreira, and Prof. Helder Crespo. Her work bridges a collaboration toward a field strategically included in the highly challenging main activity “Strongly correlated systems for room temperature cross-coupling effects” of the IFIMUP “Quantum Materials” thematic vector. 

Research Topics: Structural and Magnetic characterization, Lattice dynamics, Raman spectroscopy, Ferroelectricity, Multiferroicity, Dynamical multiferroicity