Department of Thin Film Physics (No. 02)

[History], [Research Activity], [Staff]

Department Chair – D. Sc. Anatolii Kravets

The Department includes:
Laboratory of Magnetostructural Transformation (No. 11)
Laboratory of Biosensors (No. 12)

History of the Department

The Department of Thin Film Physics at the Institute of Magnetism was established in 1995. The scientific activity of the Department is focused on fundamental and applied problems of the physics of low-dimensional magnets, as well as on the development and study of nanomaterials for microwave electronics, spintronics, and medicine.

The first Head of the Department was Professor Anatolii Pogorily – founder of the scientific school “Physics of Low-Dimensional Magnets”. With his participation and under his leadership, studies of multilayer and modulated film structures based on heterogeneous magnets were carried out, which made it possible to reveal the special influence of interfaces on the formation of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. A number of pioneering experimental and theoretical studies of giant and tunnel magnetoresistance phenomena in layered and granular magnetic nanostructures, as well as colossal magnetoresistance in thin films of substituted manganites, were performed. An important place in the activities of A. Pogorily and his students is occupied by research on the creation of magnetic media with a “left-handed” refractive index in the millimeter-wave range.

In 2007, on the initiative of A. Pogorily, the Laboratory of Spintronics Materials was established within the Department and headed by Vitalii Nevdacha. Due to the reorganization of the Institute in 2016, the structure of the Department was reformatted, and the staff of the Laboratory became part of the Department.

The Department implements the full cycle of creation, experimental investigation, and theoretical description of thin-film materials and heterostructures.

During the Department’s existence, it was headed by:
Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine Anatolii Pogorily (1995–2016)
Prof. Oleksandr Tovstolytkin (2016–2021)
D. Sc. Anatolii Kravets (2021–present)

Research Activity

For many years, the scientific activity of the Department’s staff has been focused on the development of methods for controlling the thermomagnetic and magnetoelectric properties of nanostructured objects (multilayer films, composites, nanoparticles), as well as on creating the physical foundations for the development of modern functional elements of information systems, microwave electronics systems, and biomedical nano-objects. Research has been conducted in the following main areas:
• Fabrication and investigation of multilayer nanostructures with thermally controlled switching of magnetic configurations – promising components for systems utilizing the heating effect of electric current passing through a nanostructure. This mechanism provides the possibility of electrical control of the magnetic states of the system. Achieving reliable thermally controlled switching opens prospects for the creation of thermoelectronic control elements for thermal stabilization systems, information storage (magnetic random-access memory), and electronically controlled oscillators.
• Development of single-component and multicomponent (composite) nanostructures with multiferroic properties – materials simultaneously exhibiting (anti)ferromagnetic and (anti)ferroelectric ordering. An important advantage of such materials is the possibility of controlling magnetic parameters by means of an electric field, as well as influencing electrical characteristics through changes in the magnetic field. Research in this area is aimed at finding methods for controlling interactions and parameters of multiferroics in order to achieve new functional capabilities. The most promising applications of multiferroics are nanoelectronics, spintronics, microwave electronics, as well as next-generation memory elements implementing electrical writing and magnetoresistive reading of information.
• Development and investigation of composite nanomagnets for self-controlled magnetic hyperthermia and other biomedical applications. Research is aimed at establishing the regularities of the influence of chemical substitutions and synthesis conditions on the static and dynamic magnetic properties of composites based on spinel ferrites and substituted manganites as promising materials for medicine, particularly for magnetic hyperthermia. Magnetic hyperthermia is a non-invasive method of cancer therapy based on local heating of tumors by an alternating magnetic field to temperatures of 43–45 °C due to nano-objects localized in tumor tissue. The obtained results make it possible to optimize the parameters of nanomagnets and predict their behavior, which is important for the practical use of such materials in medicine, in particular in the creation of magnetic fluids for self-controlled magnetic hyperthermia.

Current Principal Research Fields

At present, the main research directions of the Department are:
– Investigation of magnetotransport properties and spin-transfer phenomena in heterogeneous magnets, as well as in spin-valve, spin-tunnel, and spin-injection nanostructures.
– Development and investigation of metamaterials, multiferroics, functional magnetic materials, and structures for microwave electronics.
– Control of the magnetic state of spintronic nanostructures and development of physical principles for creating magnetic random-access memory.

Principal Research Projects of the Department

Ongoing projects:
– NRFU Grant No. 2025.07/0003 “Investigation of the mechanisms of magnetogradient modification of structural and mechanical properties of soft biotissue models containing magnetic nanoparticles in the context of nanotheranostic applications”;
– In-house project (fundamental) № 0122U001885 “Magnetic dynamics of composite nanostructures with antiferromagnetic coupling”;
– In-house project (fundamental) № 0122U001885 “Hybrid nanostructures based on ferromagnets, antiferromagnets and superconductors with controlled exchange interaction for novel spintronics and magnonics”.

Acomplished Projects:
– Competitive Research Project of the NAS of Ukraine № 0120U100457 “Nanostructured magnetic composites for thermoelectronic control and thermostabilization systems”, 2020–2021.

Selected Scientific Results

– Low-temperature magnetic properties of Al-substituted yttrium iron garnets were investigated [read more]
– Transformations of interactions in layered nanostructures with an antiferromagnetic interlayer of different thicknesses were identified and explained [read more]

Department Staff:

Head of the Department, D. Sc. Anatolii Kravets
Senior Researcher, Dr. Yaryna Lytvynenko
Senior Researcher, Dr. Dmytro Polishchuk
Researcher, Dr. Yurii Troshchenkov
Junior Researcher, Dr. Iryna Kozak
Junior Researcher Oleksandr Rykhalskyi
Junior Researcher Dmytro Yaremkevych
PhD Student Oleksii Svitailo
Senior Researcher (part-time), Prof. Viktor Kalita
Senior Researcher (part-time), Dr. Orest Kuzmak
Senior Researcher (part-time), D. Sc. Olesia Nakonechna
Engineer Petro Vasylenko