David Krapohl

David Krapohl is working as a postdoctoral fellow at Mid Sweden University. Part of his time is spent teaching electronics and metrology. As a researcher, David is involved in WP4 of the BrightnESS project. His research interests are semiconductor detectors and Monte Carlo and FEM simulation of pixel detectors. Before David came to Mid Sweden University as a PhD student, he studied physics and graduated in Mechatronics at the University of Applied Sciences in Aachen, Germany. During that time, he also worked at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology in Aachen, Germany.

- Before BrightnESS, I worked as a PhD student at Mid Sweden University, where I focused on simulation of neutron detectors and converters as well as pixel detectors, in particular Timepix. When the project commenced, it was natural for me to continue as a postdoc on the project, here at MiUN.

I am involved in Task 4.1 of WP4 in BrightnESS, where the goal is to realise higher resolution detectors for ESS. When I am not teaching at the University, my work involves a lot of planning, as this is a new research field as well as a lot of communication with our partners at ESS, CERN and IEAP CTU in Prague. You can also often find me in the lab or our clean room, where I experiment with applying different convertors to the detectors. 

What I like most about the project is the freedom we have to do different testing and see what works and what does not. I also really like the atmosphere between the project partners in our task. I have worked a lot with the group at IEAP CTU in Prague, also before BrightnESS began.  We have had some of their students visiting us and I am planning to visit them soon. In that sense, BrightnESS also provides a good platform for knowledge exchange between our universities.

Our key challenge in BrightnESS will be to prove that we are capable of reaching a higher resolution and to show that it actually is achievable with solid state detectors. This will bring many interesting opportunities and I think the potential for what BrightnESS can contribute with to neutron research is even bigger than hat we are seeing right now.