Materials Research Lecture

Electronic structure calculations have become part of the standard toolbox in materials science. The latest development in theory, computer code, and computational resources now makes it possible to move beyond the ground state with such modeling, opening up for studies of excited states and transport of e.g. ions, electrons, and phonons. Importantly, results can now be compared directly to experiments at realistic conditions. We have employed such tools to study non-equilibrium and transport phenomena in a variety of materials and systems. Much effort has been devoted to thermoelectric materials, which offer challenging scientific tasks related to the transport of electrons and phonons as well as promising technological applications. Examples include the Zn-Sb system, half-Heusler alloys, and Na- and Ca-cobalt oxides. Interfaces in solar cells are another exciting system, where geometric and electronic interface structures at the atomistic level are increasingly decisive for charge carrier transport as devices become thinner and more complex. Finally, a study on Pd-based membranes for hydrogen production and separation will be presented, where segregation at surfaces and grain boundary interfaces turn out to be of fundamental importance for transport of hydrogen through these alloys.

More about the speaker:

Ole Martin Løvvik is senior scientist at SINTEF Materials and Chemistry in Oslo, Norway since 2008 and professor at the University of Oslo since 2012. He received the degree of dr.scient. at the University of Oslo in 1998, and came back there as associate professor in 2008 after positions at the Norwegian Univ. of Life Science (Ås), Institute of Energy (Kjeller, Norway), and the Research Council of Norway. He was visiting scientist at Univ. Hiroshima (Japan) and visiting professor at Osaka Univ. (Japan), and is currently on a one year sabbatical at Caltech, visiting the group of Austin Minnich.

Prof. Løvvik has been serving in the board of the Norwegian Physical Society since 2006, and was leading their division for Condensed Matter Physics from 2006-2009. He was the Norwegian expert in European Science Foundation's COST Domain Comittee on Materials, Physics, and Nanoscience from 2008-2010. He is currently a Fulbright Scholar Grantee in connection with his visit at Caltech.

Løvvik is actively promoting science, and has been featured in a number of National TV and radio shows, in addition to science web sites, magazines, and newspapers. He has a passion for music, and studied the Clarinet at the University of Oslo, composed several pieces of music including a musical, and worked as a musician in Concerts Norway, the Norwegian communicator company of live music.