Dr Cedric Weber

Strongly correlated materials are a wide class of electronic materials that show unusual (often technologically useful) electronic and magnetic properties, such as metal-insulator transitions at room temperature or half-metallicity. The essential feature that defines these materials is that the behavior of their electrons cannot be described effectively in terms of non-interacting entities. Theoretical models of the electronic structure of strongly correlated materials must include electronic correlation to be accurate. Transition metal oxides belong into this class which may be subdivided according to their behavior, e.g. high temperature superconductors, spintronic materials, Mott insulators, spin Peierls materials, heavy fermion materials, quasi-low-dimensional materials, etc. The single most intensively studied effect is probably high-temperature superconductivity in doped copper oxides. Other ordering or magnetic phenomena and temperature-induced phase transitions in many transition-metal oxides are also gathered under the term "strongly correlated materials".

Solving the strongly correlated many-body problem with the Green's function approach

At King's College London, we develop new innovative theoretical approaches to describe solids and molecules from a quantum mechanical perspective, via so-called ab initio approaches (starting from no given information). Our research involves using advanced mathematical formulations of quantum mechanics (path integral representation, Feynman integrals, Green's function techniques...) and using super-computers to make reliable predictions for complex materials' properties.

We have an open PhD position currently available (see below).

Materials

We have a particular interest in transition metal oxides, in particular high temperature superconductors

Molecules

Transition metal molecular systems, such as myoglobin, are remarkable test-beds to expand our ideas to quantum biology

Methods

We are experts in dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) , a recently developed theory that bridges many-body calculations and density functional theory (DFT).

Recently, we have combined DMFT and a linear-scaling DFT method (ONETEP), which allow to tackle large molecular assembly, such as nanocrystals.

Other techniques developed in the group are based on Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC), variational techniques with broken symmetry states, numerical approaches for stochastic systems (classical magnetism, DNA electrophoretic migration, ...).,

As theorists, we do not carry out on-site experiments, but we have running collaborations with exerpimentalists. Recent projects involve in particular projects with the Diamond Light Source (DLS) facility, and with X-ray and neutron experts from Oxford.

Join our group

We have an open position for a PhD studentship currently available. Please get in touch by email (see Contact section) and/or apply online [link], guidelines to fill in your application form can be found here. Feel free to get in touch if any questions regarding how to fill in the online application form.