Atomistic simulation of materials, with emphasis on ferroelectric and multiferroic materials
Research
We do research at the intersection between materials science, physics, and chemistry. Our field of research is the atomistic simulation of materials, where we make extensive use of computers to learn about the properties of materials starting from different models for the interaction between the atoms in those materials.
Currently, our group is most active in three lines of research:
- Understanding the role of epitaxial strain in the properties of thin films. Many of the materials in use for technological applications are synthesized in film form. The substrate where the films are deposited exerts a strain that can be used to taylor the structural, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties of the film. We investigate how in materials that range from perovskite oxides, to chalcogenides, to transition-metal silicides.
- Designing new magnetoelectric multiferroic materials. Magnetoelectric multiferroics are materials where magnetic and electrical ordering coexist. This rare property lends itself to potential applications where an electric field can be used to switch the magnetization of a material, for example. In our group we design new materials and computationally test them to learn about their properties, with the goal of finding a room-temperature multiferroic with significant coupling between electrical and magnetic order parameters.
- Simulating materials in collaboration with experimentalists. Being part of the new Department of Materials Science and Engineering of Tel Aviv University affords us the opportunity to collaborate with our experimental colleagues in the research of materials for state-of-the-art applications. Our collaborations have led us to simulate metallic alloys for corrosion applications, particles that act in similar ways as molecular motors, and materials for clean energy.
