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.
Electrons oscillate around the nucleus of an atom on extremely short timescales, typically completing a cycle in just a few hundred attoseconds. Because of their ultrafast motions, directly observing electron behavior in ...
Quantum Physics
Feb 19, 2025
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The role of electrons and their negative charge in electric current is well established. Electrons also exhibit other intrinsic properties that are associated, for example, with considerable potential for enhancing data storage ...
Condensed Matter
Jan 30, 2025
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131
Half-metals are unique magnetic compounds that have been attracting interest in the development of mass-storage technologies. Some of the materials in the family of Heusler alloys were predicted to have a half-metallic nature, ...
Condensed Matter
Jan 28, 2025
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So-called "infinite-layer" nickelate materials, characterized by their unique crystal and electronic structures, exhibit significant potential as high-temperature superconductors. Studying these materials remains challenging ...
Condensed Matter
Jan 17, 2025
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86
Molecular crystals with conductivity and magnetism, due to their low impurity concentrations, provide valuable insights into valence electrons. They have helped link charge ordering to superconductivity and to explore quantum ...
Condensed Matter
Jan 10, 2025
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78
A research team at Yokohama National University has developed a way to study how the orientation and behavior of electrons in titanium influence its physical characteristics. Their findings, published in Communications Physics ...
Nanophysics
Jan 6, 2025
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120
In the search for new materials that can enable more efficient electronics, scientists are exploring so-called 2D materials. These are sheets of just one atom thick, that may have all kinds of interesting electronic properties. ...
Nanophysics
Dec 30, 2024
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MIT physicists and colleagues have for the first time measured the geometry, or shape, of electrons in solids at the quantum level. Scientists have long known how to measure the energies and velocities of electrons in crystalline ...
Condensed Matter
Dec 22, 2024
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1976
In-plane magnetic fields are responsible for inducing anomalous Hall effect in EuCd2Sb2 films, report researchers from the Institute of Science Tokyo. By studying how these fields change electronic structures, the team discovered ...
Condensed Matter
Dec 19, 2024
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96
Figuring out certain aspects of a material's electron structure can take a lot out of a computer—up to a million CPU hours, in fact. A team of Yale researchers, though, are using a type of artificial intelligence to make ...
Condensed Matter
Dec 19, 2024
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