Research Interests

My main research interest is the complex relationship between the microstructure, the magnetic or other functional properties of a material and the processing conditions. In order to understand the functional properties of a material, microstructural features in the size range pm-mm must be examined and therefore a multi-scale approach utilising various charactersiation techniques is necessary. The extraction of quantitative parameters from these techniques as input for materials modelling on multiple length scales is a critical part of my work.

I carry out aberration-corrected transmission and scanning transmission electron microscopy (TEM and STEM) combined with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) in order to study interfaces and phase boundaries at the atomic scale in terms of local crystal structure and chemistry.

On a larger length scale, I use techniques in the scanning electron microscope (SEM) such as imaging, EDX and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and x-ray and synchrotron diffraction based techniques in order to examine the properties of groups of grains, rather than individual interfaces. The magnetic domain structure is also of importance and I use magneto-optical Kerr microscopy and magnetic force microscopy (MFM) to study this.

In addition, I am interested in novel data analysis based on computational methods, particularly using the Python language. Thermodynamic phase stability and metastable phase formation also belong to my interests.

For more details, please have a look at our group homepage: Magnetic Materials.

Further Professional Activities

• Editorial Assistant for the Journal of Alloys and Compounds (2010-2020)

• Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the open access journal: Results in Physics.

• Member of the TMS Magnetic Materials Committee (Secretary from 2014-2016)

• Co-Organiser of the Mini-Colloquium Nanomagnetism: Permanent Magnets, Applications and Sustainability at CMD2020GEFES-online

• Symposium organiser at the TMS Annual Meeting 2013 and 2014.

• Program Committee Member for Intermag 2014, MMM-Intermag 2016, Intermag 2017, Intermag 2018 and Intermag 2020.

• Proceedings Editor for the International Conference on Magnetism (ICM) 2018

• Proceedings Editor for the Joint MMM-Intermag 2022

• Member of the Institute of Physics, UK.

• Member of the IEEE Magnetics Society.

Background

I received my Master's Degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Sheffield, UK. My PhD is from the University of Birmingham, UK. Following my PhD, I moved to IFW Dresden as a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow and joined the Magnetic Materials Group in 2007.

Some Recent Publications

S. Kar, Y. Ikeda, K. Lünser, T.G. Woodcock, K. Nielsch, H. Reith, R. Maaß and S. Fäher, Growth Twins and Premartensite Microstructure in Epitxial Ni-Mn-Ga Films, Acta Materialia 252 (2023) 118902 doi

P. Zhao, M. Gusenbauer, H. Oezelt, D. Wolf, T. Gemming, T. Schrefl, K. Nielsch and T.G. Woodcock, Nanoscale Chemical Segregation to Twin Interfaces in tau-MnAl-C and Resulting Effects on the Magnetic Properties, Journal of Materials Science and Technology 134 (2023) 22-21 doi

L. Feng, J. Freudenberger, K. Nielsch and T.G. Woodcock, Elimination of the Non-Recrystallised Regions in Extruded MnAl-C-Ni Magnets using Pulverised Melt-Spun Ribbons, Journal of Alloys and Compounds 897 (2022) 163248 doi

L. Feng, K. Nielsch and T.G. Woodcock, The effect of Ti or Zr additions on the microstructure and magnetic properties of MnAl-C alloys, Results in Physics 29 (2021) 104756 doi

L. Feng, K. Nielsch and T.G. Woodcock, Enhanced Thermal Stability of the tau-Phase in MnAl-C Alloys with Ni Additions, Journal of Alloys and Compounds 871 (2021) 159554 doi

P. Zhao, L. Feng, K. Nielsch and T.G. Woodcock, Microstructural Defects in Hot Deformed and As-Transformed tau-MnAl-C, Journal of Alloys and Compounds 852 (2021) 156998 doi

L. Feng, J. Freudenberger, T. Mix, K. Nielsch and T.G. Woodcock, Rare-Earth-Free MnAl-C-Ni Permanent Magnets Produced by Extrusion of Powder Milled from Bulk, Acta Materialia 199 (2020) 155-168 doi

M. Gusenbauer, H. Özelt, J. Fischbacher, A. Kovacs, P. Zhao, T.G. Woodcock and T. Schrefl, Extracting Local Nucelation Fields in Permanent Magnets using Machine Learning, NPJ Computational Materials 6 (2020) 89 doi

F. Jürries, J. Freudenberger, K. Nielsch and T.G. Woodcock, The Influence of Cu-Additions on the Microstructure, Mechanical and Magnetic Properties of MnAl-C Alloys, Scientific Reports 10 (2020) 7897 doi

T. Mix and T.G. Woodcock, Advanced Thermal Stability Investigations of the Mn-Al-Ga System, Results in Materials 5 (2020) 100068 doi

M. Gusenbauer, J. Fischbacher, A. Kovacs, H. Oezelt, S. Bance, P. Zhao, T.G. Woodcock and T. Schrefl, Automated Meshing of Electron Backscatter Diffraction Data and Application to Finite Element Micromagnetics, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 486 (2019) 165256 doi

F. Bittner, L. Schultz and T.G. Woodcock, The Role of the Interface Distribution in the Decomposition of Metastable  L10-Mn54Al46, J. Alloys Cmpds. 727 (2017) 1095-1099 doi

S. Bance, F. Bittner, T.G. Woodcock, L. Schultz and T. Schrefl, Role of Twin and Anti-Phase Defects in MnAl Permanent Magnets, Acta Mater. 131 (2017) 48-86 doi

A. Chirkova, F. Bittner, K. Nenkov, N.V. Baranov, L. Schultz, K. Nielsch and T.G. Woodcock, The Effect of the Microstructure on the Antiferromagnetic to Ferromagnetic Transition in FeRh Alloys, Acta Mater. 131 (2017) 31-38 doi

T. Mix, F. Bittner, K.-H. Müller, L. Schultz and T.G. Woodcock, Alloying with a few atomic percent of Ga makes MnAl thermodynamically stable, Acta Mater. 128 (2017) 160-165 doi

F. Bittner, J. Freudenberger, L. Schultz and T.G. Woodcock, The Impact of Dislocations on Coercivity in L10-MnAl, J. Alloys Cmpds. 704 (2017) 528-536 doi

J. Thielsch, F. Bittner and T.G. Woodcock, Magnetization Revesal Processes in Hot-Extruded τ-MnAl-C, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 426 (2017) 25-31 doi

F. Bittner, L. Schultz and T.G. Woodcock, Twin-like Defects in L1₀ Ordered τ-MnAl-C Studied by EBSD, Acta Mater. 101 (2015) 48-54 doi

T. Mix, K.-H. Müller, L. Schultz and T.G. Woodcock, Formation and Magnetic Properties of the L1₀ Phase in Bulk, Powder and Hot Compacted Mn-Ga Alloys, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 391 (2015) 89-95 doi

T.G. Woodcock, Q.M. Ramasse, G. Hrkac, T. Shoji, M. Yano, A. Kato and O. Gutfleisch, Atomic Scale Features of Phase Boundaries in Hot Deformed Nd-Fe-Co-B-Ga Magnets Infiltrated with a Nd-Cu Eutectic Liquid, Acta Mater. 77 (2014) 111-124 doi

T.G. Woodcock, F. Bittner, T. Mix, K.-H. Müller, S. Sawatzki and O. Gutfleisch, On the Reversible and Fully Repeatable Increase in Coercive Field of Sintered Nd-Fe-B Magnets Following Post Sinter Annealing, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 360 (2014) 157-164, doi

G. Hrkac, T.G. Woodcock, K.T. Butler, L. Saharan, M.T. Bryan, T. Schrefl and O. Gutfleisch, Impact of Different Nd-rich Crystal-phases on the Coercivity of Nd-Fe-B Grain Ensembles, Scripta Mater. 70 (2014) 35-38, doi

N.M. Dempsey, T.G. Woodcock, H. Sepehri-Amin, Y. Zhang, H. Kennedy, D. Givord, K. Hono and O. Gutfleisch, High-Coercivity Nd-Fe-B Thick Films Without Heavy Rare Earth Additions, Acta Mater. 61 (2013) 4920-4927, doi

T.G. Woodcock, Y. Zhang, G. Hrkac, G. Ciuta, N.M. Dempsey, T. Schrefl, O. Gutfleisch and D. Givord, Understanding Coercivity and Microstructure in High Performance NdFeB-Based Magnets, Invited Viewpoint Paper in Scripta Materialia 67 (2012) 536-541, doi

T.G. Woodcock, J. Wright, N. Scheerbaum, J. Liu and O. Gutfleisch, The Texture of Nd Oxide Grains in Nd-Fe-B Sintered Magnets Studied by Synchrotron Radiation, Journal of Applied Physics 110 (2011), 026103, doi

T.G. Woodcock and O. Gutfleisch, Multi-Phase EBSD Mapping and Local Texture Analysis in NdFeB Sintered Magnets, Acta Materialia 59  (2011) 1026-1036, doi