PhD position: HTS-based high-tech mechanical devices

The programs' central ambition is to valorize and to expand the knowledge base that is present at the UT in the fields of modern superconducting materials and of cryogenic technology by integrating them, in close collaboration with VDL ETG, into compact, power-dense and high-performance actuator systems for use in precision machinery and in Big Science.

In a fundamental research line, advanced deposition techniques available at the UT (nano-sheet mediated PLD of thin perovskite films on technical substrates) will be developed further. If successful, this deposition method should drastically simplify the production of HTS-based high-tech devices. Here, "3D deposition of magnetic structures", two research groups at the University of Twente, TNW-IMS and TNW-EMS, will work together to develop optimized nano-sheet buffered superconducting films on 3D functional substrates. The goal is to reach high current densities on a curved technical substrate that can be directly integrated in a device. The feasibility of various substrate materials will be assessed, suitable patterning methods developed and a small demonstrator relevant for the first project (a miniature solenoid) will be realized.

Keywords: advanced Thin film deposition; development of nano-sheet buffer layers; materials characterization.