Opportunity (Open Position): 

A PhD Scholarship (supported financially by FAPESP) is available to investigate electromigration in metallic superconducting devices. For more information, click here. Deadline: Feb. 15th, 2026.

Research interests

News

2025

• Dec 05: A PhD position supported by FAPESP is available. See details here (in Portuguese);

• Dec 05: Presentation of the poster "Revealing Electromigration Effects in Cr/Ni Microbridges Using AFM, KPFM, and MFM" at the 2nd Atomic Force Microscopy School of LCE/DEMa/UFSCar by Dr. Elijah A. Abbey;

• Dec 05: Students Marcos V. Mistura and Lucas Pires were selected and participated in the AFM course (Gwyddion Mini-course - 2025 Edition) at CNPEM (Campinas, Brazil);

• Dec 01: Congratulations to Gabriel Lemes Molizane Almeida (Bachelor in Physics Engineering) for successfully defending their Senior Undergraduate Thesis;

• Nov 27: Caio C. Q. Gomes delivered a seminar to the EPNM and SPIN groups titled: "Synchrotron-Based Investigation of Selective Oxygen Electromigration in Superconducting YBCO Devices";

• Nov 27: Participation of the student Leonardo Pozzuto in the XXXVII Scientific Initiation Congress of UNESP at Águas de Lindóia-SP;

• Oct 22: Undergrad students Leonardo Pozzuto, Luiz G. A. Ferreira, and Marcos V. Mistura participated in the 2025 Scientific Initiation Congress at UFSCar (São Carlos);

• Oct 02: E. A. Abbey presented the results of "Electromigration-Induced Modifications in Cr/Ni Bilayer Microbridges" and "Exploring oxygen electromigration in superconducting YBCO devices using synchrotron-based techniques" at the XXIII B-MRS Meeting in Salvador-BA, Brazil;

• Oct 07: The National Institute of Science and Technology of Advanced Quantum Materials, comprising several Brazilian research groups and GSM/DF/UFSCar, officially starts its activities.

• Oct 01: Prof. Motta delivered a seminar on Introduction to Superconductivity during the 42nd Chemistry Week at the Chemistry Institute of the University of São Paulo in São Paulo City;

• Sep 25:  Caio C. Q. Gomes participated in the 17th European Conference on Applied Superconductivity (EUCAS) 2026 in Porto, Portugal, and presented the poster "Synchrotron-Based Investigation of Selective Oxygen Electromigration in Superconducting YBCO Devices";

• Sep 01: Welcome to Lucas G. D. Pires and Leonardo Pozzuto (again) for joining the lab as Scientific Initiation (undergrad) students;

• Aug 30: Performing XANES and XRF measurements on the Carnaúba beamline at LNLS/CNPEM/Campinas using electromigrated Ni/Cr devices. Team: Prof. M. Motta, Post-doc E. A. Abbey, MSc Student M. Mistura, and Dr P. Schio;

• Aug 16: Caio C. Q. Gomes begins his year-long visit as a doctoral student at the EPNM (Experimental Physics of Nanostructured Materials) at the University of Liège, led by Prof. Dr. Alejandro Silhanek;

• Aug 01: Welcome Juliana L. Simão da Silva to join the lab as a Master's student (Capes Fellowship);

• Jul 21: Dr. Davi Chaves, former PhD student, started working as a permanent researcher at the Brazilian Center for Physics Research in Rio de Janeiro, RJ;

• May 29: Fapesp multi-user equipment project has been awarded funding to acquire a Montana CA-50 cryostat. For more details, please click here.

• Apr 10: Prof. Colauto's paper on "Maximum limit of connectivity in rectangular superconducting films with an oblique weak link" has been published in Phys. Rev. Applied. Congratulations!

• Mar 25: Milton B. Ferreira Júnior published a paper (YBCO nanofibers produced by solution blow spinning doped with Ni and Zn at low concentrations) in the periodic Superconductor Science and Technology;

• Mar 01: Welcome Vinícius B. Tafuri to join the lab as a Master's student (Capes Fellowship);

• Mar 01: Marcos V. Mistura joins GSM as a FAPESP Master's Fellowship;

• Mar 01: Welcome Alexandre J. Fuzita to join the lab as a PhD student;

• Feb 28: Congratulations to Marcos V. Mistura and Luiz Gustavo Alves Ferreira, both Bachelor's in Physics, for successfully defending their Senior Undergraduate Thesis.

2024

• Dec 08: A PhD position supported by FAPESP is available. See details here (in Portuguese);

• Dec 08: A Master's position supported by FAPESP is available. See details here (in Portuguese);

• Dec 03-05: Local XANES and local X-ray diffraction measurements were conducted on the Carnauba beamline at the fourth-generation Sirius accelerator located in Campinas, SP, Brazil;

• Nov 22: GSM hosts the researcher Dr. Stefan Marinkovic for a month-long scientific visit to discuss findings on electromigration and perform measurements in ceramics and metals at GSM and LNLS/CNPEM;

• Oct 23: Prof. Motta gives a talk entitled "Nanostructured superconducting devices and effects of electromigration" during the XXIII Physics Week at UNESP/Bauru, his alma mater;

• Sep 01: Welcome, Marcos V. Mistura, Leonardo Pezzoto, and Luiz G. A. Ferreira to join the lab!

• Aug 01: Elijah A. Abbey joins GSM as a FAPESP Post-Doc Fellow. Welcome again!

• May 06:  Davi Chaves’ thesis titled "Magnetic Fields as a Tool to Control Superconducting Devices" has been awarded the best doctoral thesis in Condensed Matter Physics for 2024 by the Brazilian Society of Physics. You can download the thesis in English through this link. The news article is available in Portuguese at this link. Congratulations to Davi Chaves on this outstanding achievement;

• Apr 30: Prof. Maycon Motta attended the 9th ICSM conference in Turkey. The title of his talk was "Modulating Superconducting Properties by FIB and Current-Induced Modifications in Nb Thin Films";

• Apr 22 to 26: During this period, Prof. M. Motta visited Prof. Alejandro Silhanek’s group at Université de Liège in Belgium. This visit marks another milestone in our longstanding research collaboration for over a decade. During the visit, we discussed topics of mutual interest related to our joint research on electromigration of nanowires and magneto-optical imaging of superconductors;

• Apr 15: Davi Chaves completed his post-doctoral research at GSM and began his post-doc at KU Leuven under the supervision of Joris van de Vondel in the Quantum Solid-State Physics Group. Best wishes!

• Mar 18: Davi A. D. Chaves' paper on "Using quantitative magneto-optical imaging to reveal why the ac susceptibility of superconducting films is history independent" has been published in Phys. Rev. B. Congratulations!

2023

• Dec 01: Chaves' paper on transforming a weak link into a strong link has been published in Phys. Rev. B. Congratulations!

• Nov 16: A Master's Scholarship is available. See details here (in Portuguese);

• Nov 13: Davi A. D. Chaves joins GSM as a post-doc;

• Nov 01: Prof. Motta presented a seminar entitled "Scientific method in action: room temperature superconductivity" in the XVII Physics Week at UFSCar. Slides available at this link (in Portuguese).

• Oct 16: Davi A. D. Chaves defended his thesis and has been approved with the highest distinction. Congratulations!

• Oct 1-5: Participation of Wilson A. Ortiz, Davi A. D. Chaves, and Maycon Motta in the XXI Brazilian Materials Research Society Meeting in Maceió-AL, Brazil (Link);

• Oct 1: Caio C. Q. Gomes joins the lab as a PhD student, funded by  FAPESP direct PhD fellowship. Welcome!

• Sep 05: Congratulations to Caio C. Q. Gomes (Bachelor in Physics) and Maria Eduarda M. Tempesta (Bachelor in Physics EngIneering) for successfully defending their Senior Undergraduate Thesis; 

• Sep 01: Welcome Gabriel L. M. Almeida, Ivan Y. Tamura, Yurieh L. S. Rafael, and Henrique B. Abreu to join the lab!

• May 21-25: Participation of Wilson A. Ortiz, Caio C. Q. Gomes, Davi A. D. Chaves, and Maycon Motta in the Autumn Meeting of the Brazilian Physics Society (Link);

• Apr 05: Congratulations to Maycon V. R. Rocha (Bachelor in Physics) for successfully defending his Senior Undergraduate Thesis;

• Mar 13: Congratulations to Elijah A. Abbey on successfully defending his thesis;

• Feb 01: Proposal "Electromigration in Nanostructures" selected in the Initial Project Program financed by FAPESP (The São Paulo Research Foundation).

News (in Portuguese)

05/12/2025 - Divulgação de Oportunidades: bolsa de doutorado da Fapesp (2026) 

13/10/2025 - Estudante Caio C. Q. Gomes conta a sua convivência e uso das facilidades do CNPEM 

08/12/2024 - Divulgação de Oportunidades: bolsas de Mestrado e de Doutorado da Fapesp

22/11/2024 - Visita Científica do Pesquisador Dr. Stefan Marinkovic no GSM/DF/UFSCar

06/05/2024 - Prêmio de Melhor Tese de Física da Matéria Condensada da SBF

16/11/2023 - Divulgação de Bolsa de Mestrado da Fapesp

16/10/2023 - Defesa de doutorado de Davi A. D. Chaves

01/10/2023 - Participação dos Profs. Wilson A. Ortiz e Maycon Motta, e também do estudante Davi A. D. Chaves no XXI Encontro da Socidade Brasileira de Materiais

05/09/2023 - Defesas de TCC dos estudantes Caio César Q. Gomes (Física) e Maria Eduarda M. Tempesta (Engenharia Física) 

05/04/2023 - Defesa de TCC dos estudantes Maycon V. R. Rocha (TCC2) e Caio C. Q. Gomes (TCC1)

13/03/2023 - Estudante de doutorado Elijah Abbey defende seu doutorado no PPGF/UFSCar 

01/02/2023 - Projeto de Pesquisa da Fapesp Aprovado (Edital: Projetos Iniciais, PI) 

01/06/2022 - Estudantes de doutorado Davi Chaves e Elijah Abbey retornam de período sanduíche na Bélgica

01/10/2022 - Participação de membros do GSM no XX SBPMat

Highlights