HFML-FELIX and EMFL User meeting: an informative and enjoyable gathering

User meetings, poster presentations & food among friends

Once Professor Nielsen had received his final applause, the large group of both national and international attendees split into two to follow a separate, more specific afternoon program in the EMFL User Meeting chaired by Uli Zeitler, or the HFML-FELIX User Meeting chaired by Joost Bakker. The EMFL meeting was opened by Charles Simon, Chair of the EMFL Board of Directors. The divide into smaller groups allowed for more in-depth discussions about each topic of expertise and both offered a varied assortment of speakers.

The informative section of the day ended with a poster presentation in the cooling shade cast by the large tent outside. PhD students and post-docs from EMFL, HFML-FELIX and user groups took full advantage of this chance to share their research with colleagues and peers in their field, leading to interesting discussions and an open exchange of knowledge. After all this, it was time to relax and enjoy coming together to talk over the day during a luxury barbeque.

A new day

The second - and also the longest - day kicked off at nine in the morning. This time the EMFL User Meeting was chaired by Steffen Wiedmann, while the HFML-FELIX User Meeting was chaired by Jos Oomens. Afterwards, everyone came together again for the plenary talk by Professor Ben Murdin of the University of Surrey about far-infrared, non-linear Ramsey spectroscopy applied to donors in silicon at a high magnetic field.

With a full morning schedule and the warm temperatures of summer, the lunch outside provided a welcome break to prepare and recharge everyone for the afternoon programme yet to come: The EMFL and HFML-FELIX workshop – Free Electron Lasers & High Magnetic Fields. The workshop was also part of the Isabel project, which aims to strengthen the long-term sustainability of the EMFL.

EMFL and HFML-FELIX Workshop

The workshop was opened by director Britta Redlich, starting with a warm welcome and general introduction to the topics of the afternoon. She also used this moment to expand upon our lab’s unique facilities and how the combination of free electron lasers and high magnetic fields can provide our field with new research possibilities. A labtour was planned for Thursday morning to explore these research opportunities. 

Next on the program was a presentation of Andrei Kirilyuk of HFML-FELIX, titled Shaken, not stirred: the FELIX recipe for ultrafast magnetization reversal, which in turn was followed by Sergei Zvyagin of HZDR, talking about THz resonance spectroscopy in high magnetic fields. 

A short break allowed us to process the information while enjoying a snack and something to drink, before continuing the last part of the workshop with three short presentations by Dima Afansiev (Light-driven phonomagnetism), Maurice Bal (THz conductivity and resistively detected cyclotron resonances in InSb) and Steffen Wiedmann (Quantum materials @ HFML: state-of-the-art and future prospects). 

More to come

With the afternoon workshop ending, the Wednesday programme's informative part was almost over. Next for the attendees was a tour of the laboratory, before travelling to Nijmegen city centre to finish the day together with a tasty dinner at the Arsenaal 1842 restaurant and rest up for the final day.