Yara Galvão Gobato, visiting professor in 2019

I came to the High Field Magnet Laboratory to investigate the physical properties of two dimensional (2D) semiconductors: the optical properties as well as the transport phenomena. This research can be done almost nowhere else in the world, as you need a high magnetic field and a fair amount of knowledge.

Back in São Carlos, where I run a laboratory at the Federal University, we have a 15 Tesla magnet. There a no high field magnets in South America. So I took a sabbatical for one year to come to Nijmegen and learn more about 2D materials. Some think this is quite radical, as I have a husband and a son in Brazil (I took my other son with me), but I like a challenge and I think exchange of knowledge and international collaboration is very valuable. We can learn a lot from each other. I learn new techniques, and as I did my PhD in transport phenomena and a postdoc on optical experiments I can bring those two worlds more together here at the HFML.

What is important to me is that I can contribute to new expertise, to new electronic devices based on properties of materials that are still unknown. Especially when it comes to 2D materials, there is a lot to discover.