BLUMBERGER1	Development of pseudopotentials for electron transport calculations
Type	Theoretical
#students	1
Orientation	Why is the scientific problem of interest at all? Electron transport is a common phenomenon in many energy converting processes, including solar and fuel cells, biomolecular machines, respiration and photosynthesis. In essence, an electron, initially located on a donor group, tunnels through the medium and ends up on the electron accepting group.
How	How is the research going to shed light on the given problem?. In complex systems the total number of electrons is too large to be simulated explicitly. Thus, we seek to describe the interaction of the tunneling electron with the surrounding matter via an effective one-electron potential, termed pseudopotential. The latter is a local potential that replaces the complicated N-electron potential in the electronic Schrodinger equation.
What	What is the specific thing that the student will do. and how does it fit inside the overall project? In the project you will develop a pseudopotential for an organic molecule that has potential applications in polymer solar cells. For this purpose you will use and possibly extend our in-house written computer code. Group web site: http://www.cmmp.ucl.ac.uk/~jb/
Special Knowledge	Basic knowledge and interest in quantum mechanics and programming is an advantage.
Supervisor	Dr Jochen Blumberger j.blumberger@ucl.ac.uk