Dr David Bowler

Biography

• Modelling bismuth nanolines on Si(001)
• Electronic structure of nanolines on surfaces
• Development of the Conquest linear scaling DFT code
• Development of the correlated electron-ion dynamics (CEID) formalism
• Interaction with experiments

Research Interest

Atomic and electronic structure of nanowires; electronic structure calculations; development of novel techniques; linear scaling DFT; interaction with surface science experiments

Other activities

• Teaching (3rd year electromagnetism PHAS3201); Supervising students (5 PhD, 1 MSc); Management committees (IRC in Nanotechnology; Thomas Young Centre)

Recent Publications

• A description of the Conquest linear scaling DFT code
• Investigation of the In-Bi chain formed on Si(001) after deposition of In on Bi nanolines
•  Description of a scheme for open boundary calculations of current-induced heating in nanowires

Biography

• B.A.(Hons) from Cambridge University (1991)
• D. Phil from Oxford University (1997)
• Post-doctoral research at Keele University and UCL (1997-1999)
• EPSRC and Royal Society Fellowships at UCL (1999-present)
• Lecturer at UCL (2005-present)

Research

The electronic charge density for a “hut cluster” of germanium on Si(001) (colour shows height).  This feature forms due to stress between Ge and Si during epitaxial growth, and required 23,000 atoms in the calculation, which used the linear-scaling Conquest code (developed at UCL and NIMS, Japan) run on the Earth Simulator in Yokohama, Japan.  Conquest  solves the Schrodinger equation for the electrons in the system using an approach called Density Functional Theory.  The hut cluster system may have applications as quantum dots or in nanoelectronics.