Research & Publications
Before moving to industry, I spent over a decade in physics research — a path that took me from Minsk to Marseille to Karlsruhe, and shaped how I approach engineering problems to this day: build a model, test it against reality, iterate.
My field was X-ray diffraction physics and coherent diffraction imaging: developing algorithms that reconstruct strain and displacement fields inside nanostructures from their diffraction patterns — an inverse problem with no direct solution, solved iteratively. (In hindsight, gradient-based optimization of ill-posed inverse problems was good preparation for understanding modern machine learning.)
Research career
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Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Research Scientist, Institute for Photon Science and Synchrotron Radiation (2007–2013)
Developed methods and algorithms for coherent X-ray scattering data analysis at the ANKA synchrotron; conducted experiments at ANKA and ESRF (Grenoble); supervised diploma students and doctoral candidates.
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Université Paul Cézanne / CNRS, Marseille
Postdoctoral Researcher (2005–2007)
Numerical and experimental X-ray diffraction studies of strained microelectronic structures, in collaboration with ST Microelectronics. Developed the iterative phase-retrieval approach for inhomogeneously strained crystals (Phys. Rev. B 76, 104106).
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Belarusian State University, Minsk
PhD Student / Research Fellow (2000–2005)
PhD in Theoretical Physics (2004). Co-developed LEPTOS, a commercial X-ray scattering simulation package, in cooperation with Bruker AXS, Karlsruhe.
Education
- ▸PhD in Theoretical Physics — Belarusian State University, Minsk, 2004
- ▸M.Sc. in Applied Mathematics — Belarusian State University, Minsk, 2000
Selected publications
- A. A. Minkevich, M. Köhl, S. Escoubas, O. Thomas, T. Baumbach. Retrieval of the atomic displacements in the crystal from the coherent X-ray diffraction pattern. Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 21, 774–783 (2014).
- M. Köhl, A. A. Minkevich, T. Baumbach. Improved success rate and stability for phase retrieval by including randomized overrelaxation in the hybrid input output algorithm. Optics Express 20(15), 17093–17106 (2012).
- A. A. Minkevich, E. Fohtung, T. Slobodskyy, M. Riotte, D. Grigoriev, M. Schmidbauer, A. C. Irvine, V. Novák, V. Holý, T. Baumbach. Selective coherent x-ray diffractive imaging of displacement fields in (Ga,Mn)As/GaAs periodical wires. Physical Review B 84, 054113 (2011).
- A. A. Minkevich, T. Baumbach, M. Gailhanou, O. Thomas. Applicability of an iterative inversion algorithm to the diffraction patterns from inhomogeneously strained crystals. Physical Review B 78, 174110 (2008).
- A. A. Minkevich, M. Gailhanou, J.-S. Micha, B. Charlet, V. Chamard, O. Thomas. Inversion of the diffraction pattern from an inhomogeneously strained crystal using an iterative algorithm. Physical Review B 76, 104106 (2007).
- I. D. Feranchuk, S. I. Feranchuk, A. A. Minkevich, A. P. Ulyanenkov. Description of x-ray reflection and diffraction from periodical multilayers and superlattices by the eigenwave method. Physical Review B 68, 235307 (2003).
- I. D. Feranchuk, A. A. Minkevich, A. P. Ulyanenkov. About non-Gaussian behaviour of the Debye-Waller factor at large scattering vectors. European Physical Journal Applied Physics 24, 21–26 (2003).
- I. D. Feranchuk, A. A. Minkevich, A. P. Ulyanenkov. Estimation of the Debye temperature for crystals with polyatomic unit cell. European Physical Journal Applied Physics 19, 95–101 (2002).
Refereed journal articles, plus 15+ conference contributions including invited lectures at XTOP, Coherence, and synchrotron radiation schools.