
I am currently a PhD student at the IMT Atlantique Brest within the SEED MSCA COFUND program, working on an "RF circulator based on 3D cavity magnonics" project.
Who are you and what is your background?
My name's Mufti; I am currently a PhD student at the IMT Atlantique Brest within the SEED MSCA COFUND program, working on an "RF circulator based on 3D cavity magnonics" project.
I was born in Indonesia. I spent most of my childhood there before moving to Malaysia. In Malaysia, I went through training as a materials scientist throughout my early higher education before deciding to transition to a more physics-related field (magnonics) during my master's and finally settled on it for my PhD.
I liked science and reading for as long as I can remember. As such, becoming a researcher, I thought, is a natural choice. Hence, I have decided to continue pursuing a PhD degree in science.
What is your PhD research/ topic about?
I'm investigating light-matter interaction in cavity systems. Precisely, the interaction between microwave radiation inside a cavity resonator with a ferrimagnetic material (i.e., cavity microwave and magnons, while the quasi-particle resulting from the interaction is termed cavity-magnon polaritons). These kinds of studies fall within a field called cavity magnonics.
The project asks questions such as, how do the cavity-magnon polaritons behave when we apply a Floquet-type drive? How do anti-resonant modes form, and what causes it? What kind of behavior do the cavity-magnon polaritons have within some cavity resonators of novel shape? And other questions that may pop up in the future.
Currently, we are at the stage of studying the 1st question above. Using a readily available cavity resonator from a previous project, we are trying to emulate the same effect found in earlier works.
What are the big challenges to be tackled and possible future impacts?
The biggest challenge is understanding how the system works on a fundamental level. We rely on simulations and analytical methods to reliably predict how the subsystems (cavity microwave and ferrimagnets) couple with each other. The challenge requires us to learn many things from scratch, from fabricating the cavities, conducting RF experiments, simulating the system, interpreting our results into theory (or vice versa), and then making sense of these separate parts into coherent information. The conclusion of this project can then be used to develop more robust quantum computing systems that will accommodate more energy-efficient, environmentally friendly technologies that will transform the digital landscape.
What is the configuration of your PhD research?
In my case, the supervision is shared between 2 supervisors. One is in IMT Atlantique in Brest, and the other is at the University of Western Australia in Perth. This supervision scheme allows me to do a secondment in Perth, Australia, which helps me take advantage of the available facilities in both institutions (and experience different cultures). I believe this plan of spending time in multiple research groups will broaden my perspective on my research subject (and life).
After a few weeks embarked as PhD fellow at IMT Atlantique, what is your first feeling about the programme and your institution?
It is indeed exciting! Everyone is friendly and will not hesitate to help you with problems. The environment is well-suited for students. It is calm and refreshing since it is in a relatively remote location. Adjusting in the early stages of the PhD was a breeze. The campus has almost everything, including a sports hall and a music room, and you can even always visit the beach just 5 minutes walk from the main campus, though you won't find a supermarket within walking distance.
The program itself offers plenty of training that is organized by the institution and mandatory ones that are organized by the program. So, not only can we intellectually challenge ourselves in research, but we can also improve other valuable skills that might be useful in our future careers.