Dr Thomas Walther

Reader

email : t.walther@sheffield.ac.uk

tel: +44 (0) 114 222 5891

Current Position

• Senior lecturer in semiconductor materials characterisation (2006-9)
• Director of the Kroto Centre for High Resolution Imaging and Analysis (since 2009)

Qualifications and Previous Positions

• Dipl.-Phys. (MSc equiv.), RWTH Aachen, Germany (1993): physics
• PhD, University of Cambridge, UK (1996 / 97): materials science
• Postdoc at CEA Grenoble and Université d’Aix-Marseille III, France (1997): metallurgy
• Scientist (1998-2003) and from 2000 also Hochschulassistent (lecturer / assistant prof. equiv.) at Universität Bonn, Germany: inorganic chemistry
• Project leader (2003-6) at Center of Advanced European Studies and Research, Bonn, Germany: nano-technology
• Postgraduate tutor of Department of EEE (2008-11)

Professional Society Memberships

• Member of the Institute of Physics (IoP), London
• Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, Oxford
• Member of the European MicroBeam Analysis Society (EMAS), Karlsruhe
• Member of the German Physics Society (Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft, DPG)
• Member of the German Society for Electron Microscopy (DGE)

Research Interests

Trying to understand how materials grow by investigating their microstructure, their crystallography and chemistry; measurement of diffusion and segregation in solids by:

• Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM)
• High-Resolution Electron Microscopy (HREM)
• Annular Dark-Field imaging (ADF) and Z-contrast in Scanning TEM (STEM)
• Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy (EELS), including Energy-Loss Near-Edge Structure (ELNES)
• Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDXS)

Research Projects

• Quantitative chemical mapping of embedded semiconductor nano-structures (islands, quantum dots), using advanced analytical TEM methods
• Development of new methods for quantitative TEM investigations
• Modelling of X-ray emission in thin films and fluorescence by stray X-rays in electron microscopy, using Monte Carlo simulations (MSc projects available)
• cathodoluminescence
• aberration correction in (S)TEM