By Stephanie Laird

The Ohio University Research Committee recently awarded Wojciech Jadwisienczak, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, a grant for $8,000 to build an instrument capable of measuring magneto-optical properties of ferromagnetic materials.

Jadwisienczak, a Nanoscale and Quantum Phenomena Institute partner, received notification in May that he would be receiving this highly competitive award, which he has applied for three times since becoming a faculty member at Ohio University.

According to Jadwisienczak, an OURC award is generally recognized as seed money for faculty to support creative activities, research and to start new projects. Since 1995, OURC has awarded $1.15 million in start-up funds from the Vice President for Research to bolster faculty research and creative enterprises on campus. This spring, the OURC awarded ten grants ranging from $4,300 to $8,000 each to faculty from a variety of disciplines.

The OURC award is particularly helpful to new faculty who are starting their research at the university, said Jadwisienczak. “Typically it is for starting new projects, which should eventually attract more funding from outside the university based on the data collected with the OURC award.”

As one of the OURC grant recipients, Jadwisienczak plans to build an instrument to measure magneto-optical properties of materials, which will be available to researchers within the Russ College of Engineering and Technology and the College of Arts and Sciences, according to Jadwisienczak.

The budget Jadwisienczak proposed for this grant requested funding to expand his experimental magneto-optic Kerr Effect (MOKE) spectrometer, a piece of equipment that is part of his experimental database. For Jadwisienczak's research in magneto-optics, this “in-house” constructed instrument will give him an additional angle in experimental work and new flexibility, he said.

Jadwisienczak feels lucky to have an electro-magnet in his lab, which is part of a system that works in conjunction with other equipment already in place. With the addition of a MOKE in his lab, Jadwisienczak “hopes to get a chance to investigate magneto-optical properties of materials grown on campus,” he said.

Jadwisienczak relies on the materials grown by others, he said. “I believe my colleagues will be supported in their research,” said Jadwisienczak on the addition of this new component to his lab and research. In assembling the equipment available to Jadwisienczak to measure magneto-optical properties of semiconductors, this OURC grant award will strengthen his personal research capacity and that of his colleagues.

“I am very pleased that my effort was recognized, and hope that I will succeed with what I proposed,” said Jadwisienczak. “We are already getting the preliminary data, however there are some limits with using the current system, such as the old electromagnet power supply. The first step is to collect preliminary data and then attract more money to get a brand new system, fully computerized and capable of conducting experiments at low temperatures” to further his research, said Jadwisienczak.

The OURC program will expand this fall to include a second cycle of funding opportunities for faculty members who are paving the way for a brighter future for Ohio University and its affiliates.