Dr. Isabel Harrysson Rodrigues is a nanotechnology scientist specializing in fabricating and developing state-of-the-art microdevices, such as electrical components for sensing and detection. Unlike Earth, with its protecting atmosphere, a significant percentage of our solar system provides too harsh surroundings for everyday electronics to survive. To address this, her current research focuses on robust III-V material-based microdevices for the extreme environments found in space.
Currently, Isabel Harrysson Rodrigues is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at JPL, NASA, collaborating with Dr. Mina Rais-Zadeh's group (at JPL) in the Microdevices and Sensor Systems’ Microdevice Laboratory, where they are developing sensors and detectors for harsh space environments, such as elevated temperatures (< 600 deg C) and intense radiation. The components will be used mainly for UV detection and magnetic field sensing, providing invaluable science readouts, helping us understand our solar system’s formation, and gathering information for future missions to yet unexplored planetary bodies.
Ultraviolet observations obtained via the UV detector would allow for analyzing auroras on other planets, capturing fast-moving materials tightly orbiting massive stars, and identifying areas of new star formation in nearby galaxies. Observing ultraviolet light also enables the detection of hydrogen, e.g., clouds of hydrogen evaporating from a planet exposed to extreme radiation, offering clues on how planets could form. The magnetometer can help us understand planets' interiors by sensing their magnetic field's direction and strength. It provides a deeper understanding of the planet's magnetosphere, which can significantly affect its surrounding moons, dust, or gas. It could permit insight into internal compositions and dynamics in extreme cold and extreme heat close to the surface of planetary bodies (e.g., Europa, Titan, Mercury, Venus, etc.). Investigating planetary bodies for scientific exploration, such as probing the interior of planets to gain insight into internal compositions, dynamics, and the evolution of the planetary body, has long been a goal and an interest of NASA.
While earning valuable experience during her research visit at Stanford University, in David Goldhaber-Gordon's Group, and her Ph.D. from Chalmers University of Technology, Isabel Harrysson Rodrigues worked on various device fabrication techniques, as well as development and performance of these devices, mainly high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and 2D-materials, such as AlGaAs/InP HEMTs and twisted bilayer graphene, including hexagonal boron nitride. She spent numerous hours in high-quality cleanroom facilities fabricating microdevices for various applications, such as low-noise amplifiers, terahertz biosensing, and fundamental research in carrier transport, spintronics and superconductivity. She also worked on simulations of electron transport, analysis of charge carrier defects affecting device performance, and data analysis of the DC characteristics in various transistor configurations, all pivotal parts of her thesis.
When not involved in research, Isabel Harrysson Rodrigues has pursued sports and art in her spare time, playing high-level soccer for many years and representing Sweden in the national team of footvolley until her move to the US (2023). Staying mentally and physically healthy has always been a consistent interest in her life, where making art has constituted her time to relax and unwind. Upon encouragement to share her art, she created a webpage to display some of her pieces: www.isabelharryssonrodrigues.com. Other key ingredients in her life are spending time with family and loved ones, including her dog, preferably outdoors in the forest or by the beach.
Stanford University (United States)
- Visiting Researcher in David Goldhaber-Gordon group (March 2022-August 2022)
Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden)
- Ph.D. in Microtechnology and Nanoscience (2019-2022, year 3-5), Thesis: “Study of charge carrier transport in field-effect transistors with two-dimensional electron gas using geometrical magnetoresistance effect.”
- Lic. in Engineering and Microtechnology and Nanoscience (2017-2019, year 1-2), Thesis: “Cryogenic InP High Electron Mobility Transistors in a Magnetic Field”
- MSc. in Nanotechnology (2015-2017), Thesis: “Quantum Transport in Materials with Strong Spin-orbit Coupling”
- 2012-2015: BSc. in Engineering Physics
Katrinelund Elite Sports High School (Sweden)
- Sports (soccer) and Natural Science (2009-2012)
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (United States)
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Section 38; Microdevices and Sensor Systems, Microdevice Laboratory (2023-present:)
Ericsson AB (Sweden): 2022-2023: Microwave designer for 6G testbed
Collaborations (Sweden)
- Fingerprint Cards AB: Design and fabrication of THz sensors/detectors for skin dept fingerprint scanning (2021)
- Low Noise Factory AB: Fabrication and optimization of high electron mobility transistors and low noise amplifiers (2017-2019)
- Quantum Device Physics Laboratory at Chalmers: low noise amplifiers for a quantum computer read-out (2017-2019)
- Project assistant: Fabrication of AlGaAs/InP HEMTs, microwave technology. (2017)
Conference contributions:
- Abstract & Poster at conf.: Compound Semiconductor Week 2022, Ann Arbor, MI, USA (June 2022), "Charge carrier transport in graphene field-effect transistor scaled down to submicron gate lengths"
- Abstract & Poster at the conf.: Graphene Week 2021, (Online) (Sep. 2021), "Evaluation and Study of Mobility in GFETs by geometrical magnetoresistance"
- Abstract & talk at conf. workshop: WOCSDICE 2019, Cabourg, France (June 2019), "Strong Geometrical Magnetoresistance and Angular Dependence in InP HEMTs for cryogenic LNAs"
- Abstract & Poster, Nominated for best paper, at conf.: Compound Semiconductor Week 2019, Nara, Japan (May 2019), "Angular Dependence of InP High Electron Mobility Transistors for Cryogenic Low Noise Amplifiers under a magnetic field"
- Abstract & talk at conf.: Compound Semiconductor Week 2018, (Boston) Cambridge, MA, USA (June 2018), "Magnetic Influence on Cryogenic InP HEMT DC Characteristics"
Project Assistant (Sweden): Fabrication of AlGaAs/InP HEMTs, microwave technology (2017)
Teaching assistant (Sweden): Course in Micro Electronics at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg (2017-2021)
Mentor (Sweden): In Mathematics and physics for high school students (2015-2016)
- Recipient of Ericsson Research Scholarship, LM Ericsson research foundation of SEK 140 000 (May 2022)
- Swedish representative in the European Championship in Footvolley (2022)
- 1st place and the first woman to win Stockholm Footvolley Tournament (May 2022)
- Grant: Göran Wallbergs minnesfond of SEK 50 000 (Nov. 2021)
- Research Scholarship The Osher Endowment of SEK 150 000 (Nov. 2021)
- Grant: Alice och Lars Erik Landahls stipendiefond of SEK 31 190 (Nov. 2021)
- Swedish National Champion in Footvolley (Aug. 2021)
- Recipient of Ericsson Research Scholarship, LM Ericsson research foundation of SEK 200 000 (March 2021)
- Travel Grant for Women in Graphene-event, Bologna, Italy (Feb. 2020)
- Diploma in Applied Project Management (Jan. 2020)
- Nation Champion in Footvolley, Sweden (Dec. 2019)
- Swedish representative in the European Championship in Footvolley (2018)
- Best student paper (finalist), Compound Semiconductor Week 2019, Nara, Japan (May 2019)
- Swedish representative in the European Championship in Footvolley (2018)
- Best Poster Prize Award (1st place), MC2 Ph.D. Autumn event (Nov. 2018)
- Finalist and 2nd place in Norway Footvolley Cup (July 2018)
- Diploma in Visualize your science (Spring 2018)
- Finalist and 2nd place in Footvolley World Cup, Israel (March 2018)
- Award for Best Student Results of SEK 20 000, Katrinelund Elite Sports High School, Gothenburg, Sweden (2012)
- Charge carrier transport in field-effect transistors with two-dimensional electron gas channels studied using geometrical magnetoresistance effect”, I. Harrysson Rodrigues, Ph.D. Thesis, Chalmers University of Technology, (2022)
- “Mobility and quasi-ballistic charge carrier transport in graphene field-effect transistors,” I. Harrysson Rodrigues, N. Rorsman, and A. Vorobiev, Journal of Applied Physics (2022)
- “Geometrical magnetoresistance effect and mobility in graphene field-effect transistors,” I. Harrysson Rodrigues, A. Generalov, A. Md. Hoque, M. Soikkeli, A. Murros, S. Arpiainen, and A. Vorobiev, Applied Physics Letters, (2022)
- “Low-field Mobility and High-Field Velocity of Charge Carriers in InGaAs/InP HEMTs,” I. Harrysson Rodrigues and A. Vorobiev, IEEE Transactions of Electron Devices, (2021)
- “On the angular dependence of InP high electron mobility transistors for cryogenic low noise amplifiers in a magnetic field,” I. Harrysson Rodrigues, D. Niepce, A. Pourkabirian, G. Moschetti, J. Schleeh, T. Bauch, and J. Grahn, AIP Advances 9, 085004 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5107493
- “Origin and evolution of surface spin current in topological insulators,” A. Dankert, P. Bhaskar, D. Khokhriakov, I. Harrysson Rodrigues, B. Karpiak, M. V. Kamalakar, S. Charpentier, I. Garate, S. P., Dash, Physics Review B (2018)