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Final project

What is

For admission to the graduate examination, you must have completed all the credits required by the educational regulations of your degree program.

The undergraduate examination consists of the discussion, before a committee, of an experimental thesis:

  • written under the supervision of a thesis advisor
  • taken in a university research laboratory or an external institution, public or private, affiliated with UniGe

The thesis, corresponding to 30 CFU, must report the results of your research work.

N.B. Part of the educational activities (6 CFU) may be linked with the preparation of the thesis.

What to do to graduate

If you are an undergraduate student, you must:

  1. Choose the graduation session
  2. Deposit the title of your thesis
  3. Fill out the graduation application online within 30 days from the date of the exam
  4. Fill out the AlmaLaurea questionnaire online
  5. In case you have books on loan, return them to the library
  6. Fill out the assessment questionnaire for your degree.

Remember to:

  1. Check that you are current with payment of fees
  2. Pay the stamp duty of €16 for the issuance of the Graduate Diploma (payable through the online services-payment of fees and contributions)
  3. Check that you have taken all exams and educational activities
  4. Check that they are all marked on your online career.

What to do to graduate

If you are an undergraduate, you must:

  1. Choose the degree session
  2. Enter the title of your thesis
    3. .
  3. Fill out the degree application online
    4. .
  4. Fill out the questionnaire AlmaLaurea online
  5. In case you have books on loan, return them to the library
    6. .
  6. Fill out the questionnaire to evaluate your study course
    7. .

Remember:

    .
  1. Check that you are current on your tax payments
    2. .
  2. Pay the stamp tax of € 16 for the issuance of the degree diploma (pay here)
    3. .
  3. Check that you have taken all your exams and training activities
  4. Check that they are all marked on your online career no later than 15 days before the date of your graduation session

Thesis proposals

Syntesis of (Ba,K)Fe2As2 superconducting phase for applications

The discovery of superconductivity in Fe-based superconductors has generated enormous excitement in the field of superconductor applications. Many families of Fe-based materials that exhibit high-temperature superconductivity on appropriate doping have been discovered so far including REOFeAs(1111) (RE=rare earth element), FeSe (11) and BaFe2As2 (122). In addition to having high transition temperature, these compounds have very high upper critical fields, Hc2, making them promising for high filed applications. Among them the 122 family exhibits smaller anisotropy than the cuprate superconductors, making them attractive for magnet applications, because they are expected to have high irreversibility field, Hirr.. Furthermore this compound, in form of wire and bulk, has already shown the best performance in terms of Critical Current Density, JC, in applied magnetic field, maintaining values as high as 104 A/cm2 at field up to 15 T. To evaluate their real potential for practical applications, it is essential to develop a viable wire processing technique. Several groups from China and Japan are fabricating wires adapting the so called Powder-In-Tube (PIT) technique, already developed for the cuprates. However, large work is still needed to understand and solve several issues, both scientific and technological, such as grain connectivity, in order to realize wires with higher performances through an industrial appealing process. Our is the first European research group which is carrying on an activity on Fe-based superconducting wires and we propose a thesis whose aim is the realization of superconducting powders of the 122 family which can be used in the PIT technique for the fabrication of superconducting wires. The candidate will work on the synthesis and analysis of the powders, gaining familiarity with the use of glove-box and furnaces at high temperature in controlled atmosphere. Moreover, he will be involved on their characterization through several techniques: magnetic measurements by means of a Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID), structural analysis through X-Ray diffraction, chemical analysis through Scanning Electron Microscopy and Energy Dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy. Eventually, the candidate will be involved in the preparation and characterization of the first superconducting wire based on the best performing powders. The activities will take place at the CNR-SPIN laboratory and Physics Department.

Referring: Dr. Malagoli, Prof. Putti
Research group:Applied superconductivity' applied
Location: CNR Spin, DIFI
Identification Code: 3
Presented on 19/04/2021
Available from 01/05/2021

Oriented metallic substrates for Fe-based superconductors

The high field magnets are devices that "cannot do without" superconducting materials. They are used in many fields, from healthcare, in the nuclear magnetic resonance systems, to the plasma magnetic confinement, which is the basic concept of Fusion Power Reactors for energy generation, to energy storage systems. Moreover, accelerators for high energy physics push the development of magnets with increasing power. The challenge launched by CERN and China to build, by 2050, innovative accelerators more than ten times powerful with respect to LHC is currently driving the development of superconducting materials with increased performances. High-field magnets are still based on low temperature superconductors (LTS) and nowadays the main focus is on Nb3Sn, with maximum operating field of 20 T at 4.2 K. This value matches the current requests but sets a limit on further improvements. High temperature superconductors (HTS) present exceptional superconducting properties, which largely overcome these limits, but their performances decline fast with the structural disorder and they exhibit large anisotropy in their superconducting properties. Thus, fabrication of superconducting HTS wires/tapes is complicated and requires high cost.
Iron-based superconductors (IBS)have characteristics in between LTS and HTS: relatively high critical temperatures Tc, up to 58 K, and huge upper critical fields Bc2 > 100 T. Moreover, they possess small anisotropy, superior inter-grain connectivity, tolerance to disorder and simplicity in the sample synthesis. These encouraging properties have pushed the research to explore the feasibility of IBS in practical conductors either wrapped inside a metal sheath through the powders in tube method (PIT) or deposited with textured microstructure on technical metallic substrates, the so-called coated conductors (CC). It has been shown that critical current density (Jc) values of 105 A/cm2 at 4.2K and 10 T, which is considered the target for industrial applications, can be achieved and surpassed.
UniGe and CNR-SPIN institute are partners in a national PRIN (Projects of Significant National Interest) project named HiBiSCUS whose final aim is the realization of IBS-conductor prototypes that meet, in a reproducible way, the Jc requirements for industrial applications through reliable, simple and cheap techniques, as compared to the state-of-the-art technology. This project plans to implement the CC technology in order to overcome the current state-of-the-art. In such a context, we propose a thesis whose main aim is, through an innovative approach, the realization of a technical metallic substrates useful for the fabrication of cheaper, optimized and production-time-saving flexible IBS-CCs.
More in detail, the candidate will work on the development of biaxially textured metallic substrates such as FeNi (INVAR) or Cu alloys. These templates, although much simpler to prepare than the complex heterostructures developed for YBCO-CC, will allow textured growth of IBSs, thus providing CCs free of grain boundaries acting as weak links to supercurrents. He will gain familiarity with the use of the machines for cold deformation as well as furnaces at high temperature in controlled atmosphere. Moreover, he will be involved on the substrate characterization through several techniques, such as structural analysis through X-Ray diffraction, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy. Eventually, the candidate will be involved in the preparation and characterization of the superconducting IBS-CCs grown on the best prepared metallic substrate. A close collaboration with other institutes such as ENEA, Politecnico di Torino and Università degli Studi ROMA 3 is planned as well. The activities will take place at the CNR-SPIN laboratory and Physics Department.

Referents: Dr. Malagoli, Prof. Putti
Research group:Applied superconductivity' applied
Location: CNR Spin, DIFI
Identification code: 2
Presented on 19/04/2021
Available from 01/05/2021

.

Syntesis of (Ba,K)Fe2As2 superconducting phase for applications

The discovery of superconductivity in Fe-based superconductors has generated enormous excitement in the field of superconductor applications. Many families of Fe-based materials that exhibit high-temperature superconductivity on appropriate doping have been discovered so far including REOFeAs(1111) (RE=rare earth element), FeSe (11) and BaFe2As2 (122). In addition to having high transition temperature, these compounds have very high upper critical fields, Hc2, making them promising for high filed applications. Among them the 122 family exhibits smaller anisotropy than the cuprate superconductors, making them attractive for magnet applications, because they are expected to have high irreversibility field, Hirr.. Furthermore this compound, in form of wire and bulk, has already shown the best performance in terms of Critical Current Density, JC, in applied magnetic field, maintaining values as high as 104 A/cm2 at field up to 15 T. To evaluate their real potential for practical applications, it is essential to develop a viable wire processing technique. Several groups from China and Japan are fabricating wires adapting the so called Powder-In-Tube (PIT) technique, already developed for the cuprates. However, large work is still needed to understand and solve several issues, both scientific and technological, such as grain connectivity, in order to realize wires with higher performances through an industrial appealing process. Our is the first European research group which is carrying on an activity on Fe-based superconducting wires and we propose a thesis whose aim is the realization of superconducting powders of the 122 family which can be used in the PIT technique for the fabrication of superconducting wires. The candidate will work on the synthesis and analysis of the powders, gaining familiarity with the use of glove-box and furnaces at high temperature in controlled atmosphere. Moreover, he will be involved on their characterization through several techniques: magnetic measurements by means of a Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID), structural analysis through X-Ray diffraction, chemical analysis through Scanning Electron Microscopy and Energy Dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy. Eventually, the candidate will be involved in the preparation and characterization of the first superconducting wire based on the best performing powders. The activities will take place at the CNR-SPIN laboratory and Physics Department.

Referents: Dr. Malagoli, Prof. Putti
Research group:Applied superconductivity' applied
Location: CNR Spin, DIFI
Identification Code: 3
Presented on 19/04/2021
Available from 01/05/2021

Oriented metallic substrates for Fe-based superconductors

The high field magnets are devices that "cannot do without" superconducting materials. They are used in many fields, from healthcare, in the nuclear magnetic resonance systems, to the plasma magnetic confinement, which is the basic concept of Fusion Power Reactors for energy generation, to energy storage systems. Moreover, accelerators for high energy physics push the development of magnets with increasing power. The challenge launched by CERN and China to build, by 2050, innovative accelerators more than ten times powerful with respect to LHC is currently driving the development of superconducting materials with increased performances. High-field magnets are still based on low temperature superconductors (LTS) and nowadays the main focus is on Nb3Sn, with maximum operating field of 20 T at 4.2 K. This value matches the current requests but sets a limit on further improvements. High temperature superconductors (HTS) present exceptional superconducting properties, which largely overcome these limits, but their performances decline fast with the structural disorder and they exhibit large anisotropy in their superconducting properties. Thus, fabrication of superconducting HTS wires/tapes is complicated and requires high cost.
Iron-based superconductors (IBS)have characteristics in between LTS and HTS: relatively high critical temperatures Tc, up to 58 K, and huge upper critical fields Bc2 > 100 T. Moreover, they possess small anisotropy, superior inter-grain connectivity, tolerance to disorder and simplicity in the sample synthesis. These encouraging properties have pushed the research to explore the feasibility of IBS in practical conductors either wrapped inside a metal sheath through the powders in tube method (PIT) or deposited with textured microstructure on technical metallic substrates, the so-called coated conductors (CC). It has been shown that critical current density (Jc) values of 105 A/cm2 at 4.2K and 10 T, which is considered the target for industrial applications, can be achieved and surpassed.
UniGe and CNR-SPIN institute are partners in a national PRIN (Projects of Significant National Interest) project named HiBiSCUS whose final aim is the realization of IBS-conductor prototypes that meet, in a reproducible way, the Jc requirements for industrial applications through reliable, simple and cheap techniques, as compared to the state-of-the-art technology. This project plans to implement the CC technology in order to overcome the current state-of-the-art. In such a context, we propose a thesis whose main aim is, through an innovative approach, the realization of a technical metallic substrates useful for the fabrication of cheaper, optimized and production-time-saving flexible IBS-CCs.
More in detail, the candidate will work on the development of biaxially textured metallic substrates such as FeNi (INVAR) or Cu alloys. These templates, although much simpler to prepare than the complex heterostructures developed for YBCO-CC, will allow textured growth of IBSs, thus providing CCs free of grain boundaries acting as weak links to supercurrents. He will gain familiarity with the use of the machines for cold deformation as well as furnaces at high temperature in controlled atmosphere. Moreover, he will be involved on the substrate characterization through several techniques, such as structural analysis through X-Ray diffraction, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy. Eventually, the candidate will be involved in the preparation and characterization of the superconducting IBS-CCs grown on the best prepared metallic substrate. A close collaboration with other institutes such as ENEA, Politecnico di Torino and Università degli Studi ROMA 3 is planned as well. The activities will take place at the CNR-SPIN laboratory and Physics Department.


Referents: Dr. Malagoli, Prof. Putti
Research group:Applied superconductivity' applied
Location: CNR Spin, DIFI
Identification code: 2
Presented on 19/04/2021
Available from 01/05/2021

.

Evaluation

The graduation grade is expressed in hundredths and includes:

  • evaluation of your curriculum
  • evaluation of the thesis and its presentation and discussion

The grade is determined by the sum of:

  • weighted average
  • 8 points maximum, determined as follows:
    • assessment of degree examination: maximum of 3 points
    • lodes: maximum of 1 point
    • Erasmus or recognized international educational activities: maximum of 3 points (0 to 1 point for each semester, in relation to CFUs acquired)
    • time taken to earn the degree: maximum of 1 point
    • participation in institutional committees (CCS, Department, School, University): up to 1 point
    • external internship: up to 0.5 point

The evaluation of the thesis and final paper takes into account your own:

  • knowledge and understanding of the subject matter
  • ability to apply the knowledge acquired
  • ability to make independent judgments
  • ability to communicate concisely and comprehensively in written and oral form
  • ability to locate sources of information and learn the content
  • ability to fit into a work environment (internal or external to the university)

NB. If you are a student in the international SERP+ curriculum, you must pass the final exam by the summer session at the University of Paris Sud. The grade related to the thesis will be given to you by the final exam committee SERP+.

The final test is passed if you obtained a grade of not less than 66 points out of 110.

Honor may be awarded by unanimous opinion of the committee if you have achieved a final score greater than or equal to 110/ 110.

Withdrawal of parchments

The collection of Degree, Master's, Doctorate and Postgraduate Parchments for all schools takes place by appointment at the 'UniGe World' premises at Via Balbi 40-42 r - ground floor (opposite Via Balbi 5).

Info, timetable and booking on the page Diploma collection