Toni Helm, PhD (detailed CV)

After graduation I set out to a new endeavor - I joined a young research group headed by Prof. James Analytis at Berkeley in California (USA) and became a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Berkeley is not only because of its location (in one of the most beautiful areas of this world - at the shore of the San Francisco bay area) worth visiting. Its scientific landscape is as spectacular! In the Analytis Quantum Materials Laboratory I got in touch with the synthesis of new exotic and extremely challenging to grow, inorganic materials. We mainly applied solid-reaction and excess-flux techniques but also used vapor transport in our lab.

"I got taught that patience and a leap of faith is one important ingredient for making new materials."

While we were "cooking" in the laboratory at LBNL uphill we were setting up a brand new laboratory downhill on the fifth flour of Birge Hall on the gorgeous and famous campus of the University of California (CAL). Here we performed SQUID magnetometry, magnetotransport as well as torque magnetometry and AC heat capacity measurements on various kinds of exciting materials. During my time in Berkeley I had also the chance to experience and perform  multiple experiments at the high-magnetic field laboratories in Tallahassee in Florida and Los Alamos in New Mexico of the National High Magnet Field laboratory (NHMFL).

In the Analytis group I also had the joy to guide and work with highly skilled undergraduate and graduate students as well as highly experienced fellow postdocs and senior scientists.

I have mainly worked on growing Iron-based Pnictide superconductors and also Chalcogenides. The series of the unconventional superconductor BaFe2(As1-xPx)2 was one of my major projects. This material is extremely exciting in terms of quantum criticality and nematicity and the relation of the two phenomena.

We also established an AC heat capacity probe in our laboratory that enabled highly sensitive thermodynamic measurements in field of up to 16 T and temperatures down to 0.3 K. With this technique we investigated thermodynamic phase transitions of various superconductors. One very exciting project was concerned with a so-called spin liquid material, Li2IrO3. This compound can be stabilized in different phases and their enigmatic magnetic ground state has excited many theorists and is under hot debate in the field of quantum spin liquids and frustrated magnetism.

Another project was concerned with the quasi 1D superconductor Ta4Pd3Te16. While the major aim was to investigate its response to uniaxial strain we observed a new thermodynamic transition that had not been reported before. Here I also started to get my first experiences with the application of focused Ion beams for micro-structuring single crystals.

"Berkeley is like an island to me. It is protected from the real world by its vibrant, young population and a unique landscape and climate inside and outside of academia."

Due to my experiences in the single-crystal synthesis and micro-fabrication with the help of focused ion beam (FIB) I got attracted by the exciting opportunity to set out for a new endeavor back home in Dresden (Germany).

In January 2015 I joined the Max-Planck young-research group for "Microstructured Quantum Matter" (MQM) headed by Philip J. W. Moll at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (MPI CPfS). In this lively environment, I experienced the privilege and joy of unlimited resources, ideas and motivation. This young research group and its laboratory was continuously expanding and transforming. We developed novel mesoscale experiments that will have a strong impact on some of these day's hot topics such as quantum magnetism and criticality, unconventional superconductivity and other new emerging states of matter. During my time in Philip's group I got in touch with a plethora of exciting materials. We had some extremely successful discoveries in Dirac semi-metals, unconventional Superconductors and  heavy fermion materials. Again high magnetic fields were the key which helped unravel exciting new physics in these materials.  Now, moved to the Ecole Polytechnique Federale Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne (Switzerland), this group will become a hot spot for a steadily growing community of FIB-based micro-fabricated quantum matter. I am looking forward to fruitful future collaborations with both, the team of MQM as well as MPI CPFS.

"The Max Planck system is an extremely professional and fast moving research factory. Its drive towards innovation and progress is outstanding. I was blown away by the virtually unlimited recources, possibilities and personalities that are inlfuenced by the MPG."

In August 2018 I joined the team of Prof. Joachim Wosnitza at the High Field Laboratory Dresden (HLD), part of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). My current research is focussed on topical quantum materials under extreme conditions. At the HZDR I have the opportunity to continue my work in a place that offers exceptional expertise and capabilities highly beneficial for my research goals, see the starting page. Due to my experiences as a student and external user at the HLD during grad school this place feels very familiar. Now, the world's strongest magnets are right next door to my office. It is a huge privileg to spend time on this exciting play ground. As part of the local in-house research team I can get in touch with experts from all over the world vsiting our facility for high-field experiments. Each day has the potential for new endeavors and surprises.