FRANKFURT. At the center of Olena Fedchenko’s research interest are modern quantum materials. Developing them is one of the key challenges in the field of information technology. They will be used in the future for novel types of computer hardware, quantum sensors and control systems, and highly efficient solar cells, for example.

Quantum materials exhibit fascinating phenomena in response to external stimuli, such as superconductivity, spontaneous magnetic ordering and charge ordering. These phenomena have inspired the research community to explore even more exotic effects for potential applications. The deep understanding of magnetic, thermal, optical and electrical properties of those materials can be only achieved with comprehensive insight into electrons’ behaviour within these substances and how they affect the observable microscopic effects. The distribution of electrons within the material is unique like a fingerprint. By tuning the electronic distribution of quantum materials, it is possible to dramatically change or even create new exotic physical properties of those materials for the needs of modern electronics.

Olena Fedchenko investigates peculiarities in the electronic structure of quantum materials utilising various photon sources, such as lasers, X-ray beams and discharge lamps, in laboratories and large research facilities, such as synchrotrons. Photons with specific kinetic energies cause ejection of individual electrons from materials in a process known as photoelectric effect. The properties of the ejected electrons (such as their energy and angular distribution) reveal to researchers how electrons behave within the quantum material and what its structure is.

To measure photoelectrons Fedchenko uses modern powerful technique: angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with efficient time-of-flight detection scheme. Her aim is to develop a deep understanding of the interconnection between the electronic structure, exotic macroscopic properties and behaviour of quantum materials. Answering this question will lay the foundation for producing and controlling such modern materials.

Prof. Enrico Schleiff, President of Goethe University Frankfurt, says: “Thanks to the Volkswagen Foundation, we are able to provide the Gisela and Wilfried Eckhardt Endowed Professorship for Experimental Physics with a sustainable and attractive endowment, thereby creating optimal research conditions. By appointing Olena Fedchenko, we have further expanded the future field of research into quantum materials as a key to important future technologies and strengthened our cooperation with Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz within the Rhine-Main Universities alliance.”

President Schleiff continues: “The fact that we were able to establish such an important professorship for experimental physics in times of increasingly scarce funding for universities is thanks to the generosity of our alumna Gisela Eckhardt, who was very successful as a physicist and donated her assets to us as the foundation for this endowed professorship. In Olena Fedchenko, we have gained a colleague who is in no way inferior to the innovative spirit of the donor—Ms. Eckhardt would certainly be more than proud!”

Professor Jens Müller, Managing Director of the Institute of Physics at Goethe University, is convinced: “As an important pillar of our research focus ‘Condensed Matter and Quantum Materials’, Olena Fedchenko’s analytical research serves as a link between the production and the experimental characterization of correlated quantum materials and theoretical solid-state physics. In addition, she will establish photoelectron spectroscopy within the framework of a service center for materials research at Goethe University.”

Dr. Georg Schütte, Chairman of the Volkswagen Foundation: “With our funding, we are supporting an outstanding researcher in a scientifically highly exciting and forward-looking field of basic research. At the same time, this field of research involves considerable expenditure on equipment and materials – we therefore know that our funding in Frankfurt is not only very well invested, but also necessary to sustainably establish this research area there. This funding also marks the conclusion of our very successful Lichtenberg Program, whose development since 2002 we can look back on today with pride.”

Olena Fedchenko, born in 1987, studied electronics at Sumy State University in Ukraine. In 2014, she completed her doctorate there in physics and mathematics and subsequently worked as a professor assistant in the Department of Applied Physics. From 2015 to 2024, she conducted research in experimental solid-state physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, where she contributed, among other things, to the development of photoemission techniques at the DESY accelerator center in Hamburg. In 2025, Olena Fedchenko was appointed to the Gisela and Wilfried Eckhardt Endowed Professorship for Experimental Physics in the field of solid-state spectroscopy of electronically correlated materials at Goethe University Frankfurt.
Together with French colleagues, she holds a patent for a system developed for studying the surfaces of modern materials using a pulsed monochromatic source with a very high energy resolution based on a cold atom trap ("Pulsed electron source and surface analysis system comprising such a pulsed source").

Background information:
One of late laser pioneer Gisela Eckhardt’s legacies: A new endowed physics professorship at Goethe University (2025)
https://aktuelles.uni-frankfurt.de/english/one-of-late-laser-pioneer-gisela-eckhardts-legacies-a-new-endowed-physics-professorship-at-goethe-university

Quantum leaps in materials research
https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/166140039/forschung-frankfurt-1-2023-alien-worlds.pdf#page=30