Prof. Dr. Nicola Spaldin

Research area

Research in the Materials Theory group uses a combination of first-principles and phenomenological theoretical techniques to study the fundamental physics of novel materials that are of potential technological importance. Projects combine the development of new theoretical methods, application of the methods to existing materials, design of new materials with specific functionalities and subsequent synthesis of the "designer materials". Specific materials classes of interest are:

Magnetoelectric Multiferroics, which are materials that are simultaneously ferromagnetic and ferroelectric. These fall into our broader interest in Contra-indicated Multifunctional Materials, which combine multiple, technologically desirable functionalities that tend not to co-exist.

Transition-Metal Oxides with "strong correlations", in which the behaviour of each electron explicitly influences that of the others. These strong correlations often result in multiple coupled or competing instabilities, which in turn show strong tunable responses to electric or magnetic fields or strain. Here, we would particularly like to make a room-temperature superconductor.