The PhD student completed an internship at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf.
Mgr. Eva Štěpanovská, the first student of the new doctoral study program in Applied Ion Technologies, participated in a three-month foreign internship at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf (HZDR) research center. The local Ion Beam Centre (IBC) is equipped with electrostatic and tandem ion accelerators, as well as various analytical methods. Under the guidance of Dr. René Heller and a team of trained professionals, the student had the opportunity to work on her dissertation, specifically on ion implantation of low and high-energy ions into polymers and graphene oxide.
During her stay, she was involved in optimizing energetic ions and learned to operate the Electron Beam Ion Trap (EBIT) instrument independently. The principle of EBIT is based on using an electron beam focused by a strong magnetic field to ionize atoms and confine them within a potential well. The resulting ion trap can retain ions for extended periods, enabling the achievement of high-energy states of xenon ions.
Throughout the internship, she gained valuable insights, optimized energetically charged ions for sample implantation, implanted her own samples for her final work, and, last but not least, established new contacts that could lead to collaborations with other research institutions.
The internship was supported by the project „Study, Research, and Innovation – Development of Natural Science and Technical Doctoral Programs at the Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem“, reg. no. CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/16_018/0002735.
