Oskar Stepancic
My name is Oskar Stepančić and I come from Croatia where I received my MSc degree at the Department of Physics, University of Zagreb. During my studies at Zagreb I worked on materials that display the thermosalient effect, also known as “jumping crystals”. There I acquired experience in experimental methods such as impedance spectroscopy, powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction. I received a Rector’s award for the work I did on the 1,3,5-tetrabromo-tetrachlorobenzene system. I then continued working in this area, searching for new materials with similar properties, for my MSc thesis with the title ‘Newly discovered thermosalient effect in 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride’.
I have now moved to the Division for Synchrotron Radiation Research at Lund University to work on my Swedness Ph.D project. This focuses on a multiferroic class of materials know as Y-type hexaferrites. These materials have rich magnetic structures that typically extend over tens of unit cells. These magnetic structures can be affected and controlled by external magnetic fields, and correspondingly, the electric polarization in the sample can be controlled by external magnetic fields. This gives rise to a wide variety of applications, such as precise magnetic detectors, microwave devices, and most recently, radar absorbing materials. The first steps of my project are to synthesize powder samples of a range of these materials, to firmly establish the chemical and magnetic properties, and this is well underway. I will then move on to exploring the magnetoelectric properties in detail, using a variety of lab-based and facility-based techniques, including small angle neutron scattering and inelastic neutron spectroscopy.

University: Lund University
Project Title: Tuning the magnetoelectric effects in Y-type hexaferrites
E-mail: oskar.stepancic@sljus.lu.se