For students

Supervisor: dr hab. eng. Daniel Gnida

Auxillary supervisor: dr Piotr Sobora (Wroclaw University)

Contact data:

Description:

The proposed doctoral project concerns research on superconductivity in high-entropy alloys (HEAs), with particular emphasis on thin films fabricated using pulsed laser deposition (PLD), and on analyzing the relationships between structure, chemical composition, and superconducting properties in strongly disordered multicomponent systems.

The main objective of the research will be the fabrication and characterization of superconducting HEA thin films with controlled composition and microstructure, followed by determining the influence of key technological and structural factors on fundamental superconducting parameters such as the critical field and critical current density. In particular, the effects of substrate temperature, film thickness, lattice strain, thermal treatment, and the presence of defects and pinning centers (both intrinsic and artificially introduced) on magnetic flux pinning mechanisms and current transport will be analyzed.

A second important research direction will involve describing quantum electron transport in these materials, with particular emphasis on the role of structural disorder characteristic of high-entropy alloys. Superconducting fluctuation effects near the critical temperature and their influence on electrical conductivity and the superconducting transition will be examined. This will enable a better understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the stability of the superconducting state in systems with strong lattice and chemical disorder.

The completion of this work will make it possible to establish structure–property relationships in thin-film HEA superconductors and to identify factors that facilitate the optimization of critical parameters. The results will be significant both from the perspective of condensed matter physics and potential technological applications, particularly in the design of a new generation of superconducting materials with high mechanical resistance and stability under extreme conditions.

The research will be carried out in collaboration with Prof. Rafał Idczak from the Institute of Experimental Physics at the University of Wrocław. The planned auxiliary supervisor from the University will be Dr. Piotr Sobota ().