Career Orientation

School internship in plasma physics

Laboratory - you often see little of it at school. However, one opportunity is during an internship in physics. While in recent years we have often carried out project work on the sputter coater during the week, the programme is now being expanded. This is intended to give students a deeper insight into the laboratories and current research. In addition, they can generate their own authentic data through their own small work on experiments that are otherwise used by bachelor's and master's students. In view of the ever-growing importance of digital data evaluation and safe handling of data on the computer, this area is now also more strongly included in the programme. Thus, interns can gain experience with Excel, Python or other data analysis programmes according to their individual prior knowledge. The data is obtained by means of diagnostics that are also frequently used in everyday laboratory work. Optical emission spectroscopy offers a wide range of applications that generate exciting data, which is also tangible and evaluable for students through its graphical representation.

From 20^th to 24^th June, we welcomed Lilly to the department. After a short theoretical introduction to the basics of plasma physics, we immediately continued with the work on the sputter coater. In addition, several doctoral students and students presented their experiments and laboratories in laboratory tours or offered to work together in the laboratory. For half a day, she worked independently on the COST-Jet and carried out OES measurements for voltage and oxygen admixture variations. After evaluating the data, she and David, who also supervises the experiment for students, discussed and analysed the data together.

In addition to the laboratory work, many interns also ask themselves "Is studying physics the right thing for me?". So, we always try to offer an insight into undergraduate lectures and seminars.