Electronic structure as a research area focuses on the quantum-mechanical description of electrons in atoms, molecules, solids, and nanostructures, and on how this governs their structural, spectroscopic, and transport properties. It encompasses the development and application of theoretical methods such as density functional theory, wavefunction-based quantum chemistry, many-body perturbation theory, and quantum Monte Carlo to compute energies, charge densities, band structures, and excited states. The field underpins predictive materials design, catalysis, electronic and photonic device engineering, and strongly correlated systems research by linking microscopic electron behavior to macroscopic observables and emergent phenomena.
Just a few years ago, researchers discovered that changing the angle between two layers of graphene, an atom-thick sheet of carbon, also changed the material's electronic and optical properties. They then learned that a "twist" ...
Nanophysics
Aug 22, 2024
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147
A research group led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has uncovered details about the formation and behavior of mobile, microscopic, particle-like objects called "excitons" ...
Condensed Matter
Aug 19, 2024
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129
Researchers from Skoltech, Ural Federal University, and Mikheev Institute of Metal Physics, UB RAS, have furnished a fundamental theoretical description of important properties of chemical bonding in materials—namely, the ...
Condensed Matter
Aug 6, 2024
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84
MIT physicists and colleagues report new insights into exotic particles key to a form of magnetism that has attracted growing interest because it originates from ultrathin materials only a few atomic layers thick. The work, ...
General Physics
Aug 1, 2024
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254
If you make a material thinner and thinner, at a certain point it undergoes a seemingly miraculous transformation: A two-dimensional material that consists of only one or two layers of molecules sometimes has completely different ...
Condensed Matter
Jul 24, 2024
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103
Recently a super-strain nanoporous material, barium calcium zirconium titanate composition (Ba0.85Ca0.15)(Ti0.9Zr0.1)O3 (BCZT) was created, which showcases an extraordinary piezoelectric response (d33 ≈7500 pm V-1) . This ...
Nanophysics
Jun 26, 2024
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90
In a study published in Nature Communications, a team of scientists led by Rice University's Qimiao Si predicts the existence of flat electronic bands at the Fermi level, a finding that could enable new forms of quantum computing ...
Condensed Matter
Jun 25, 2024
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228
In a paper published today in Nature Communications, researchers unveiled previously unobserved phenomena in an ultra-clean sample of the correlated metal SrVO3. The study offers experimental insights that challenge the prevailing ...
Condensed Matter
Jun 24, 2024
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105
Tri-layer may be better than bi-layer for manufacturing, improving the speed and capacity of electrochemical and electrocatalytic devices.
Nanomaterials
Jun 21, 2024
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419
A new study published in Nature Physics introduces a theory of electron-phonon coupling that is affected by the quantum geometry of the electronic wavefunctions.
