Outstanding Bachelor Theses

Chemnitzer Förderverein für Physik e. V. honored outstanding study results of the two Chemnitz students Moritz Lobinski and Peter Henning

The Chemnitzer Förderverein für Physik e. V. (CFP), which has been committed to supporting students interested in physics and young scientists in physics and related disciplines for more than 20 years, awarded its sponsorship prize a few days ago to Moritz Lobinski and Peter Henning from Chemnitz University of Technology (TUC), who successfully completed their bachelor studies in Sensory Science and Cognitive Psychology and Physics, respectively. "Both award winners have shown excellent academic performance in their bachelor studies over the past years," said Prof. Dr. Dietrich R. T. Zahn, chairman of the Chemnitz Förderverein für Physik e. V., explaining the award. The two students remain loyal to TUC even after the very good completion of their bachelor's degree and are currently studying in the master's programs in Physics and Sensory Science and Cognitive Psychology.

Peter Henning has written a bachelor thesis on "Sputter deposition of single crystalline thin films of the high entropy alloy CoCrFeNi" as part of his bachelor course in physics. The research field of high entropy alloys (HEA) is attracting increasing attention due to promising properties for applications and the prospect of fundamental discoveries. HEA consist of at least four different elements, the molar content of which in the alloy is in the range between 5 and 35 percent, with the atomic lattice sites in the crystal being randomly occupied. The resulting variety of compositions and microstructures is of particular interest in a wide range of fields: increased hardness and corrosion resistance are ideal for technical applications, while HEA also serve as catalysts, in the electrolysis of hydrogen. Even though there are already isolated studies on the surface physics of HEA, the electronic and structural properties of HEA surfaces are still very poorly understood because the crystalline HEA required for surface physics studies has not been easy to realize so far. Therefore, the aim of the bachelor thesis was to close this gap and to produce high entropy alloys in single crystalline form. As part of his work, Henning developed a "recipe" to deposit single crystalline CoCrFeNi films on MgO and Al₂O₃ substrates. Of fundamental interest is the question of whether an electronic band structure forms in these materials despite the randomly occupied lattice, which could be clarified in the work by means of photoemission measurements.

Moritz Lobinski wrote a bachelor thesis on the topic "Measuring the association of pitch and brightness using binocular rivalry and eye tracking" in the bachelor program Sensory and Cognitive Psychology. Using binocular rivalry and eye tracking, the goal was to validate previous findings that higher tones are associated with brighter hues and lower tones are associated with darker hues. The results found by Lobinski provide no evidence that the tone frequency of a stimulus has an effect on the perception of areas of different brightness. The perceptual durations of two incongruent stimuli did not differ systematically as a function of a simultaneously presented auditory stimulus. In contrast, subjects assigned higher tones to lighter gray tones and lower tones to darker gray tones in the explicit query.

For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Dietrich R.T. Zahn, tel. +49 (0)371 531-33036, e-mail zahn@physik.tu-chemnitz.de

(Author: Eckhard Fromm / Translation: Brent Benofsky)

Matthias Fejes
21.07.2023

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