Mgr. Evgenia Chitrova, Ph.D.

Research Interests and Key Expertise

• Magnetism and electronic structure in strongly correlated materials: f-electron (rare earths, uranium) and d-electron systems, where spin–orbit coupling, crystal-field effects and electronic correlations give rise to complex magnetic states and emergent phenomena
• Experimental investigation across scales and conditions: combined macroscopic (magnetic, magnetoelastic, thermal and transport) and microscopic (X-ray/neutron diffraction, XMCD, photoemission) techniques, including studies under extreme conditions (high magnetic fields, low temperatures, high pressure)
• Materials design from bulk to thin films and interfaces: synthesis and structural control of intermetallics and epitaxial films, including strain and microstructure engineering to tune transport, magnetism and superconductivity, and interface-driven phenomena (e.g. exchange bias in UO₂/Fe₃O₄ heterostructures (see Fig. 1)
• Nuclear and energy-related materials: actinide systems for nuclear applications (e.g. UO₂ and related compounds); metal hydrides based on rare-earth and actinide compounds with efficient hydrogen absorption; and rare-earth-based functional materials (magnetocaloric, magnetostrictive, thermoelectric) with coupled electronic and lattice responses.

Image

Description

Fig. 1: Illustration of the spin arrangements in cubic and tetragonally distorted UO₂ and the effect of magnetic exchange shift in UO_₂/Fe_₃O_₄ bilayers resulting from the magnetic configurations in antiferromagnetic UO_₂ (E. Tereshina-Chitrova et al., Advanced Functional Materials 2311895 (2024)).