News – Ultra Fast Dynamics

April 2024- Congratulations to Emma for earning an honorable mention in the NSF GRFP for her proposal “Elucidating ultrafast laser-induced magnetic domain dynamics”
March 2024 – Nushrat was featured in an article for International Women’s Day by the College of Engineering here at UC Davis. Check out the MSE highlight here (link)
February 2024 – Rahul’s article “Extreme Domain Wall Speeds under Ultrafast Optical Excitation” was featured by the Elettra Synchrotron in Triste, Italy. Read it here (link)
January 2024 – Rahul’s article “Extreme Domain Wall Speeds under Ultrafast Optical Excitation” was featured by the Department of Materials Science, the College of Engineering, and the University in a press release you can read here!
December 2023 – Check out this article showcasing Rahul’s manuscript “Extreme domain wall speeds under ultrafast optical excitation” in the APS Physics Viewpoint (link).
December 2023 – Congratulations to Rahul for his publication “Extreme domain wall speeds under ultrafast optical excitation” with a feature in Physics and Editors’ Suggestion.
November 2023 – Congratulations to Rahul for his manuscript, “Extreme domain wall speeds under ultrafast optical excitation” being accepted in Physical Review Letters
September 2023– “Photoinduced structural recovery dynamics of rare-earth nickelate thin films” is now published in Physical Review Materials (link). Congratulations to Jugal for his first author article.
September 2023 – Prof. Kukreja gave invited talk on ultrafast magnetism at 2023 Spin Electronics and Nanoelectronics conference in Nancy, France
August 2023– Congratulations to Nushrat for successfully passing her Qualifying Exam!
August 2023– Congratulations to Jugal for his manuscript, “Photoinduced structural recovery dynamics of rare-earth nickelate thin films” being accepted in Physical Review Materials
July 2023 – MESA students presented their internship work in Kukreja group on thin film growth in annual MESA day

Jorge presenting at the MESA Symposium

Gahi presenting at the MESA Symposium

Alex presenting at the MESA Symposium

July 2023 – Welcome to MESA students Gahi, Jorge and Alex to Kukreja group!
June 2023 – Congratulations to Rahul on exit seminar and graduation!

Rahul presenting his research at his PhD Exit Seminar

Rahul, Prof Kukreja, and Spencer at Graduation, 2023

June 2023– Congratulations to Spencer on graduation!
June 2023 – Prof. Kukreja gave invited talk on ultrafast magnetism at 2023 Ultrafast Dynamics and Ultrafast Bandgap conference at Crete, Greece
May 2023 – Congratulations to Emma for successfully passing prelim exam!
March 2023 – Our article on ‘Evidence of extreme domain wall speeds under ultrafast optical excitation’ was published on arXiv. You can read the full article here.
March 2023 – Congratulations to Meera for her manuscript, “Behavior of soda-lime silicate glass under laser driven shock compression up to 315 GPa” being accepted in Journal of Applied Physics.
March 2023 – Kukreja Group@APS March Meeting: Meera, Nanna, Rahul, Scott and Jugal presented their research at the APS March Meeting in Las Vegas! Prof. Kukreja gave an invited talk on “Imaging ultrafast and ultrasmall: Capturing magnetization dynamics using fs x-rays” in the Ultrafast Magnetization Dynamics Symposium at the APS March Meeting.

Meera presenting her research on Ultrafast non-equilibrium dynamics in silicate glasses at ultrahigh pressures
March 2023- Check out the Graduate Student Spotlight featuring Meera for International Women’s Day (link)
January 2023 – Positions available for graduate PhD and MS students. Interested students please email at: rkukreja@ucdavis.edu.
December 2022 – Warm welcome to new member to the group, Emma.
October 2022 – Warm welcome to new postdoctorate scholar to the group, Dr. Nanna Zhou Hagström.
September 2022 – Positions available for graduate PhD and MS students. Interested students please email rkukreja@ucdavis.edu
September 2022 – Congratulations to Prof. Kukreja on receiving Outstanding Junior Faculty Award! You can read the full article published on college of engineering website here.
September 2022 – Prof. Kukreja gives an invited talk at New York University on ‘Imaging Ultrafast and Ultrasmall’
September 2022 – Prof. Kukreja presents a seminar on ‘Imaging Ultrafast and Ultrasmall’ at Argonne National Laboratory.
August 2022 – Congratulations to Rahul on receiving UCD Graduate Research Award and Alfred Marie Gibeling Fellowship
July 2022 – Our article on ‘Observation of Collective Molecular Dynamics in a Chalcogenide Glass: Results from X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy’ was on the cover of JPCB. You can read the full article here.
July 2022 – Meera receives Advanced Light Source (ALS) Doctoral Fellowship to perform X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) studies on correlated oxide thin films! Congratulations to Meera!
June 2022 – Our article on ‘Observation of Collective Molecular Dynamics in a Chalcogenide Glass: Results from X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy’ was published in JPCB. You can read the full article here.
June 2022 – Congratulations to Pooja on winning the 2022 MSE Department Citiation! Read more about Pooja’s experience at UC Davis and her future plans here.
June 2022 – Congratulations to Nushrat on a successful Prelim Exam!
May 2022 – Congratulations to undergraduate student Pooja on her internship at Lam Research!
May 2022 – Dr. Kukreja and Kukreja group’s research on functional oxides using XPCS was featured on NSLS-II newsletter and website.
April 2022 – Congratulations to Jianheng on acceptance of his manuscript, ‘Observation of Collective Molecular Dynamics in a Chalcogenide glass: Results from XPCS’ in Journal of Physical Chemistry B
March 2022 – Prof. Kukreja gave invited seminars on ‘Imaging Ultrafast and Ultrasmall’ at different universities in Colorado including CU Boulder, DU, CSU Fort Collins, UCCS and University of Wyoming, Laramie
Feburary 2022 – Prof. Kukreja gave invited seminars at University of Wisconsin-Madison and Texas A &M on ‘Imaging Ultrafast and Ultrasmall’
January 2022 – Warm welcome to new members in the group, Nushrat and Surya
December 2021 – Our group currently has an open postdoctoral position focusing on coherent x-ray scattering of quantum materials! If you are interested please email to Prof. Kukreja at rkukreja@ucdavis.edu
December 2021 – Congratulations to Jianheng on successful exit seminar! Congratulations soon-to-be Dr. Li!
November 2021 – Prof. Kukreja is awarded the NSF CAREER Award! This project will focus on studying electronic, magnetic and structural properties of High Entropy Alloys using x-ray spectroscopy techniques.
October 2021 – Our article on ‘Capturing ultrafast magnetization phenomenon using femtosecond x-rays’ was published in APL Materials. You can read the full article here.
September 2021 – Prof. Kukreja in collaboration with MESA organized STEM career day which brought 20-25 high school students on UC Davis campus to learn about careers in STEM, visit MSE labs and engage in hands-on activities.
September 2021 – Congratulations to Scott on a successful Qualifying Exam!
August 2021 – MSE department website published a story on Prof. Kukreja DOE Career Award. You can find read the full article here.
August 2021 – Prof. Kukreja talks to community college students on zoom webinar on career choices in STEM.
July 2021 – Warm welcome to new members to the group, Pooja and Yu-Hsing.
June 2021 – Undergraduate student Joyce’s research was showcased on the MSE website! Her publication was featured on the cover of the Journal of Synchrotron Radiation. You can read her interview on the MSE website here.
May 2021 – Prof. Kukreja is awarded the DOE Early Career Award! This project will focus on studying electronic, magnetic, and structural properties of quantum materials at nanoscale using coherent x-ray scattering techniques. Detailed description for the award can be found on the DOE and UC Davis websites
April 2021 – Prof. Kukreja gives an invited talk on Coherent X-ray scattering studies of dynamics in functional materials at Advanced Photon Source (APS) Users’ Meeting
April 2021 – Prof. Kukreja gives an invited seminar on Laser-induced non-equilibrium transformation pathways in soda-lime glass at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
April 2021 – Prof. Kukreja gives an invited seminar on Nanoscale correlations in complex oxide heterostructures at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
March 2021 – Graduate students Jianheng and Jugal, and Prof. Kukreja presented their research at APS March Meeting Virtual 2020
January 2021 – Congratulations to Jianheng and Jugal for getting the departmental fellowship!
January 2021 – Our manuscript ‘Understanding nanoscale structural distortions in Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ by utilizing x-ray nanodiffracton and clustering algorithm analysis‘, has been published in the Journal of Synchrotron Radiation. It was also featured on the cover of the January 2021 issue of the Journal of Synchrotron Radiation. You can find the paper here.
December 2020 – Congratulations to Jugal on a successful Qualifying Exam!
November 2020 – Our manuscript ‘Domain fluctuations in ferroelectric low-strain BaTiO₃ thin film‘, has been published in PR Materials. You can find the paper here.
October 2020 – Our manuscript ‘Understanding nanoscale structural distortions in Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ by utilizing x-ray nanodiffracton and clustering algorithm analysis‘, has been accepted in the Journal of Synchrotron Radiation.
September 2020 – Congratulations to Meera on a successful Qualifying Exam!
September 2020 – Our manuscript ‘Domain fluctuations in ferroelectric low-strain BaTiO₃ thin film‘, has been accepted in PR Materials.
June 2020 – Many Many Heartiest Congratulations to Louie and Raegan on graduation and winning the 2020 MSE Department Citiation! Lots and lots of warm wishes! Following graduation Louie is planning to continue his studies and will be joining the Materials Science and Engineering department at Stanford University in Fall 2020. Read more about Louie’s experience at UC Davis and his future plans here.
May 2020 – Warm welcome to Saeed as a new postdoc in our group!
May 2020 – Prof. Kukreja gives invited zoom colloquium on ‘Nanoscale correlations in complex oxide heterostructures’ in physics department at University of Denver
May 2020 – Congratulations to Jugal on a successful Prelim Exam!
April 2020 – Our manuscript ‘Dynamics at the crystal-melt interface in a super-cooled chalcogenide liquid near the glass transition‘, has been published in Scientific Reports
March 2020 – Congratulations to Rahul on a successful Qualifying Exam!
March 2020 – Our manuscript ‘Dynamics at the crystal-melt interface in a super-cooled chalcogenide liquid near the glass transition‘, has been accepted in Scientific Reports
Feburary 2020 – Prof. Kukreja has been invited to present a talk on ‘Ionic control of phase separation in cobaltites’ at APS March Meeting 2020, Denver.
January 2020 – Our manuscript ‘Magnetic and Structural Properties of FeCoCrMnSi multi-prinicipal element alloy‘, has been published as an Invited Feature Paper in Journal of Materials Research
January 2020 – Prof. Kukreja participates as a faculty candidate in the faculty development grant funded by Nuclear Regulatory Committee (NRC). Here is a link to news article published about the grant.
December 2020 – Our manuscript ‘Magnetic and Structural Properties of FeCoCrMnSi multi-prinicipal element alloy‘, has been accepted as an Invited Feature Paper in Journal of Materials Research
December 2019 – Warm welcome to Spencer as a new graduate student member in our group!
November 2019 – Rahul gives a talk on ‘Magnetic properties of FeCoCrMnSi multi-principal element alloy’ at Magnetism and Magnetic Mateirals Conference in Las Vegas
November 2019 – Prof. Kukreja gives an invited talk on ‘Ionic control of phase separation in cobaltites’ in Magneto-Ionics Symposium at Magnetism and Magnetic Materials Conference in Las Vegas
October 2019 – Jianheng starts with his Advanced Light Source (ALS) Doctoral Fellowship to perform coherent x-ray studies on correlated oxide thin films. Here is a link to news article published about his fellowship award!
Position available for Postdoc with ultrafast optical pump probe expertise – Intersted candidates, please email at rkukreja@ucdavis.edu
October 2019 – Prof. Kukreja gives an invited seminar on ‘Ultrafast X-ray imaging of Spin Dynamics’ at University of Paris-Sud, France
October 2019 – Prof. Kukreja gives an invited talk on ‘Ultrafast X-ray imaging of Magnetic Materials’ at X-ray Spectroscopy of Magnetic Materials Workshop, at Grenoble, France
October 2019 – Jianheng starts his fellowship residency at Advance Light Source, Berkeley
October 2019 – Jianheng gives an invited talk on ‘Orbital domain dynamics in magnetite’ at ALS User’s Meeting
October 2019 – Prof. Kukreja gives an invited talk on ‘Coherent x-ray scattering of electronic materials’ at ALS Users’ Meeting
September 2019 – Prof. Kukreja gives an invited talk on ‘Manipulating photostriction in ferroelectric devices’ at LCLS/SSRL User’s Meeting
August 2019 – Our manuscript ‘X-ray nanodiffraction studies of ionically-controlled nanoscale phase separation in cobaltites‘, has been published in Physical Review Materials
August 2019 – Jianheng receives Advanced Light Source (ALS) Doctoral Fellowship to perform coherent x-ray studies on correlated oxide thin films! Congratulations to Jianheng!
July 2019 – Prof. Kukreja discusses STEM fields and materials science and engineering with high school students at the UC Davis MESA summer camp.
July 2019 – Our manuscript ‘X-ray nanodiffraction studies of ionically-controlled nanoscale phase separation in cobaltites‘, has been accepted in Physical Review Materials
June 2019 – Jianheng presents at Resonant Elastic X-ray Scattering Conference
June 2019 – Many Many Congratulations to Joyce, Nadia, DJ and Josh on their graduation! (Graduate Class of 2018!)

June 2019 – Congratulations to Kenneth on his graduation (M.S.)!
May 2019 – Rahul and Prof. Kukreja participate in European XFEL beamtime focused on imaging magnetization dynamics in magnetic multilayers (Collaborative Proposal 2222)
May 2019 – Prof. Kukreja talks about ‘solving puzzles in magnetism‘ on material science department website
May 2019 – Article ‘Controlling shape memory effects in NiTi thin films grown on Ru seed layer‘ is now published in Sensors and Actuators: A. Physical
April 2019 – Our manuscript on ‘Controlling shape memory effects in NiTi thin films grown on Ru seed layer‘, has been accepted in Sensors and Actuators: A. Physical
April 2019 – Our manuscript on ‘Tuning Ultrafast Photoinduced Strain in Ferroelectric Based Devices’has been accepted in Advanced Electronic Materials!
March 2019 – Jianheng presents his research at APS March Meeting Conference in Boston

Feb. 2019 – Prof. Kukreja participates in ‘Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day’ initiative as part of National Engineers Week. https://engineering.ucdavis.edu/blog/introduce-girl-engineering-day-2019/
Jan. 2019 – Joyce and Nadia present their research at APS Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP)

Jan. 2019 – Congratulations to Rahul on his publication on ‘The formation of alpha at triple junctions of parent beta phase in titanium alloys’. The article was published in Philosophical Magazine and can be found here.
Dec. 2018 – Warm welcome to new graduate student members of our group, Meera, Scott and Jugal!
Nov. 2018 – Unlocking the Secrets of Metal-Insulator Transitions, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) website showcases our studies on Verwey transition in magnetite.

By using an x-ray technique available at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), scientists found that the metal-insulator transition in the correlated material magnetite is a two-step process. The researchers from the University of California Davis published their paper in the journal Physical Review Letters. Read the complete news article here. (Source: Allison Gasparini, Peter Genzer, BNL)

Oct. 2018 – Our manuscript on Orbital domain dynamics in magnetite below the Verwey transition was published in Physical Review Letters today!
Oct. 2018 – Prof. Kukreja gives invited seminar at University of California Riverside.
Oct. 2018 – Prof. Kukreja gives invited talk at ALS User Meeting.
Oct. 2018 – Welcome to Dr. Kristoffer Haldrup from Technical University of Denmark, Department of Physics. He will be joining our group for 4 months during his sabbatical.
Sept. 2018 – Prof. Kukreja receives Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award!
Sept 2018 – Our manuscript on ‘Orbital domain dynamics in magnetite below the Verwey transition’ has been accepted by PRL!
Sept. 2018 – Prof. Kukreja gives invited talk at NSLS-II.
Sept. 2018 – Congratulations to Jianheng on successful Qualifying Exam!
July 2018 – Prof. Kukreja participates as a panelist at Career Workshop ‘I Graduated-What Now?’ at SLAC Accelerator National Laboratory, Menlo Park.

June 2018 – Many Many Congratulations to Morris, Chris and Lacey on their graduation! (Graduate Class of 2018!)

Photos from MSE Senior Send-Off Event Top Left: Lacey, Chris, Prof. Kukreja and Morris, Top Right: Department Chair Prof. Gibeling and Morris, Morris was awarded MSE Outstanding Senior! Bottom Left: Prof. Gibeling addressing the Class of 2018, their families and friends.

June 2018 – Prof. Kukreja participates in NSF DMR Young Investigators Workshop
May 2018 – Heartiest Congratulations to Morris! Morris has been honored by Undergraduate Education as Materials Science and Engineering’s Outstanding Senior. https://mse.engineering.ucdavis.edu/blog/congratulations-to-morris-yang-for-being-honored-as-mses-outstanding-senior/
May 2018 – Prof. Kukreja gives invited talk at NSLS II/CFN Users’ Meetin g
May 2018 – Undergraduate Students Nadia, Joyce and DJ join our group! Welcome!
May 2018 – Prof. Kukreja gives invited seminar at ALBA Synchrotron in Spain
April 2018 – Congratulations to Jianheng and Ian! Jianheng and Ian receive travel scholarship from PULSE Institute in the Energy Science Directorate of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) to attend Ultrafast X-ray Summer School (UXSS).
April 2018 – Our magnetite cover picture gets highlighted in the DOE report!

Basic Energy Sciences Roundtable Opportunities for Basic Research at the frontiers of XFEL ultrafast Science: This report is based on a BES roundtable on Opportunities for Basic Research at the Frontiers of XFEL Ultrafast Science, which was held October 25-26, 2017. (Source: DOE website)

https://science.energy.gov/bes/community-resources/reports/

March 2018 – Prof. Kukreja delivers APS March Meeting talk
January 2018 – Prof. Kukreja delivers Physics Colloquium talk at UC Santa Cruz
January 2018 – Graduate Students Kenneth and Rahul join our group! Welcome!
December 2017 – Prof. Kukreja gets elected as an Executive Committee Member for Far West APS section
October 2017 – Prof. Kukreja gets elected as an Executive Committee Member for Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Division of AVS: Science and Technology of Materials, Interface and Processing
August 2017 – Congratulations to Morris for getting selected for French Exchange Program!
April 2017 – Prof. Kukreja gives invited seminar at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
May 2017 – Congratulations to Jianheng on successful prelim exam!
March 2017 – Prof. Kukreja gives invited talk at THZ Ultrafast Electron Diffraction workshop at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park
January 2017 – Prof. Kukreja gives invited talk at Advanced Light Source, Berkeley
January 2017 – Graduate Students Jianheng and Ian join our group – Jan 2017
Positions Available for Graduate Students

Interested students can email to rkukreja@ucdavis.edu

July 2016 – Assistant Professor Roopali Kukreja joins the Materials Science & Engineering Dept.

https://mse.engineering.ucdavis.edu/blog/roopali-kukreja-joins-materials-science-engineering-dept-assistant-professor/

Meera presenting her research on Ultrafast non-equilibrium dynamics in silicate glasses at ultrahigh pressures