Chandrima Banerjee obtained her Masters degree in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. She completed her PhD in 2017 at the S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, India, under the supervision of Prof. Anjan Barman, on the magneto-optical study of spin waves in ferromagnetic thin films and nanostructures using Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy. In 2018, she moved to Trinity College, Dublin, as an Irish Research Council–Government of Ireland-funded postdoctoral fellow, to pursue her research in the group of Prof. Michael Coey, studying the ultrafast magnetic response of ferrimagnetic half metallic Heusler alloy to ultrashort high energy optical pulses. She discovered all-optical magnetic switching in this sample, the fastest magnetic switching known thus far. Her research was highlighted on the website of the Irish Research Council.

 

Chandrima is currently doing postdoctoral research in Prof. Oren Cohen’s group at the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology. Her focus is on obtaining a microscopic understanding of the interaction of ultrashort light pulses with magnetic properties on very short time scales (10-15 sec). In particular, she will address the non-equilibrium response of different constituent elements in different magnetic systems. The results obtained will potentially be useful for realizing ultrafast magnetic switches in future spintronics technology, which can be coupled to existing fiber optic network communications.