Petra Majewski was member of the Gross group at WMI as a Ph.D. student between 2003 and 2006.

Ph.D. Thesis: Magnetischer Austauschmechanismus und Magnetotransport in ferromagnetischen Doppelperowskiten A₂BB'O₆ (2006)

In her Ph.D. thesis, Petra Majewski was growing epitaxial thin films of the double perowskite Sr₂CrWO ₆ and studied the magnetic and magnetotransport properties of double perowkites in more general. Among the double perovskites, materials with a diverse spectrum of physical properties are known. In particular, ferromagnetic double perovskites with a high Curie-temperature well above room temperature and with half-metallic properties, which were predicted by theory, are interesting candidates for possible applications in spintronic devices. Petra Majewski studied the mechanism responsible for the magnetic exchange in these materials. By using X-ray magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy and SQUID-Magnetometry, she could confirm the predictions of recent theoretical models.