Dr. Tim Alexander Butcher

Tim Butcher is a postdoctoral researcher in the Microspectroscopy Group at the Swiss Light Source. He completed a B.Sc. in Physics at the University of Freiburg (Germany) with his bachelor thesis at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM. Subsequently, he obtained his M.Sc. in Physics from TU Dresden (Germany). Throughout his master studies, he was active as a research assistant at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf  (HZDR). For his Master thesis, he performed quantum oscillation measurements at the Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory (HLD) in HZDR. After this, he worked as a Physics PhD student in the Magnetism & Spin Electronics group at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), completing his PhD in 2021. The research for his PhD concerned the study of paramagnetic ionic solutions.

Development of soft X-ray ptychography. Commissioning of the new SOPHIE endstation and user support at the SoftiMAX beamline at MAX IV (Lund, Sweden) during the shutdown of the Swiss Light Source. In addition, magnetic imaging experiments in collaboration with the Max-Born-Institut (Berlin, Germany).

Tim Butcher's scientific research currently focuses on ptychography based X-ray microscopy and spectroscopy of magnetic systems with synchrotron radiation. In the soft X-ray range, these systems are predominately in the form of thin films or nanoparticles.

An extensive overview of publication can be found on Google Scholar or ResearchGate. Publications affiliated with the Paul Scherrer Institute are listed in the repository Dora.

Selected Publications:

• Ptychographic Nanoscale Imaging of the Magnetoelectric Coupling in Freestanding BiFeO₃, Tim A. Butcher, Nicholas W. Phillips, Chun-Chien Chiu, Chia-Chun Wei, Sheng-Zhu Ho, Yi-Chun Chen, Erik Fröjdh, Filippo Baruffaldi, Maria Carulla, Jiaguo Zhang, Anna Bergamaschi, Carlos A. F. Vaz, Armin Kleibert, Simone Finizio, Jan-Chi Yang, Shih-Wen Huang and Jörg Raabe, Advanced Materials (2024); https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202311157
• Magnetic forces in paramagnetic fluids, T. A. Butcher and J. M. D. Coey,  J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 35 053002 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/aca37f
• Neutron Imaging of Paramagnetic Ions: Electrosorption by Carbon Aerogels and Macroscopic Magnetic Forces, T. A. Butcher, L. Prendeville, A. Rafferty, P. Trtik, P. Boillat, J. M. D. Coey,  Journal of Physical Chemistry C 125, 21831-21839 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c06031
• Neutron imaging of liquid-liquid systems containing paramagnetic salt solutions, T. A. Butcher, G. J. M. Formon, P. Dunne, T. M. Hermans, F. Ott, L. Noirez, J. M. D. Coey, Applied Physics Letters 116, 022405 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5135390
• Fermi surface investigation of the semimetal TaAs₂, T. A. Butcher, J. Hornung, T. Förster, M. Uhlarz, J. Klotz, I. Sheikin, J. Wosnitza, and D. Kaczorowski, Physical Review B 99, 245112 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.99.245112