At the joint annual conference of the Austrian Physical Society (ÖPG) and the Swiss Physical Society (SPS) at the University of Vienna, the ÖPG dissertation prizes were once again awarded this year. In the Division “Surfaces, Interfaces, and Thin Films" (OGD), two prizes (out of a total of five in all Divisions) were awarded to the IAP. The chair of the OGD Division, Margareta Wagner, was delighted to present the awards to Dr. Anna Niggas (E134-03) and Dr. David Rath (E134-05) during the award ceremony.

Anna conducted the experiments for her doctorate in the research area of Atomic and Plasma physics (Prof. Richard Wilhelm). In her dissertation “On the interaction of slow highly charged ions with free-standing two-dimensional materials,” Anna dealt with the neutralization processes of ions as they approach a surface. Using 2D materials of varying thicknesses, Anna was able to determine how the charge state of an ion develops in the first layers of a material and how the released energy is converted into secondary electrons.

In the research area of Surface Physics (Prof. Gareth Parkinson), David developed, designed, and built a highly sensitive infrared spectrometer for oxides. Thanks to special features, such as an aperture system that can be individually adapted to each sample, the sensitivity of his infrared system exceeds that of previously used systems by orders of magnitude. The design background and a detailed description of the system are summarized in his dissertation “Infrared Reflection Absorption Spectroscopy with Angle Selection.”