At the Materials and Earth Sciences Department of the Technical University of Darmstadt in the Materials Modelling Division four positions as
Researcher/PhD student (all genders)are available within the Collaborative Research Centre 1548 – FLAIR. The position starts as soon as possible and is a fixed-term contract for 3 years.
The collaborative research center (CRC) 1548 – FLAIR deals with Fermi Level Engineering Applied to Oxide Electroceramics and consists of 13 research groups distributed over five Universities within Germany and Austria. The goal of this CRC is to develop an understanding of the relation between Fermi level and materials properties of electroceramics and apply it as a new toolkit for designing a wide variety of materials and applications.
The Materials Modelling Division contributes to this CRC with atomistic simulations (classical and machine-learning potentials) and electronic- structure calculations (density functional theory) within four projects. Thereby two projects ( project A01 and A02 ) are dealing with bulk properties and two projects ( project B01 and B02 ) focus on interfaces properties. All projects share common topics and methodologies and are carried out in close collaboration with individual experimentally running projects.
Project A01 will tackle the defect physics in perovskite-type oxides in a systematic way based on accurate electronic structure calculations, focusing on the influence of the Fermi energy on the charge states and lattice relaxation of dopants, impurities, and defect complexes, including their kinetic behavior. Moreover, a formalism to describe the crossover from the dilute limit to hyperdoping and phase formation will be developed. Different materials and defects will be studied and compared in collaboration with the other projects of research area A. The results of this project on point defects in the bulk phase are also most relevant as a benchmark for various projects in area B, where interface effects are studied.
Project A02 will study formation of free and bound polarons in different doped perovskite-type oxides. The goal is to understand the effect of self- trapped charges and bound polarons on the Fermi level tolerance of these materials and accordingly to predict compositional variations, which lead to Fermi level stabilization at desired energy. A suitable exchange-correlation functional will be determined in collaboration with other calculation-based projects and the results will be compared with the data from experimental projects. These results include charge transition levels and doping behavior of polarons as well as the conductivity of the studied materials.
Project B01 will develop a computational framework for studying mechanical, entropic and space-charge effects at grain boundaries in BaTiO3 by combining electronic structure calculations with Monte-Carlo methods and machine learning approaches. The focus will be on the interplay of bulk (Fermi-level) and grain boundary effects by studying dopant distributions under equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions as well as the formation grain-boundary phases. The theoretical results will be compared to the experimental data from research area B and serve as input for the other theory projects.
Project B02 will explore to what extent the surface Fermi levels of perovskites and related structures can be tailored by targeted incorporation of defects, solutes, and dopants, in order to enhance (electro-) catalytic reactions (oxygen evolution and exchange reactions). This exploration will be achieved by means of high-throughput density-functional-theory (DFT) calculations, evolutionary structure search algorithms and thermodynamic and kinetic modelling. The project employs BaTiO3 and BaInO2.5 as model systems and directly couples to experimental efforts of catalysis-related projects.
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Opportunity for further qualification (doctoral dissertation) is given. The fulfillment of the duties likewise enables the scientific qualifications of the candidate.
The Technische Universität Darmstadt intends to increase the number of female employees and encourages female candidates to apply. In case of equal qualifications applicants with a degree of disability of at least 50 or equal will be given preference. Wages and salaries are according to the collective agreements on salary scales, which apply to the Technische Universität Darmstadt (TV-TU Darmstadt). Part-time employment is generally possible.
Please send your electronic application including CV, copy of certificates and grades, and a letter of motivation (all in a single PDF-file) stating the code no. to [email protected]. You may want to indicate a preferred project.
For further information you may contact Prof. Dr. Karsten Albe ([email protected] darmstadt.de, project A01/A02/B01) and Jochen Rohrer ([email protected] darmstadt.de, project B02).
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Code No. 843
Published onDecember 21, 2022
Application deadlineJanuary 15, 2023