Activity Report – Antti-Pekka Jauho, Mikroelektronik Centret, DTU

At the Höör Meeting during 13-15 September APJ presented a review of theoretical research carried out at Mikroelektronik Centret. The following groups are active at MIC:

• Molecular Electronics, led by Associate Professor Kurt Stokbro. The group has developed (together with a group in Barcelona) a program package “TRANSIESTA”, which combines transport calculations based on nonequilibrium Green’s functions with at initio electronic structure calculation, and they have applied it to a number of nanostructures of current interest, such as the Tour wire. The computational tool allows a detailed understanding of the voltage drop across a contact-molecule-contact structure as well as the broadening of the molecular levels due to coupling to the contacts. The work in this group is of immediate interest to the work of Network Member Jari Kinaret at Chalmers, and a meeting between the MIC and Chalmers researchers will take place during 21-22 November 2002, where further collaboration issues will be discussed.
  
  

• Microfluidics (Theory and Simulation), led by Associate Professor Henrik Bruus concentrates on hydrodynamic simulations of fluid flow in novel devices, such as the “lab-on-chip” concept. Issues addressed include studies of surface tension, contact angle, wetting phenomenon, moving bubbles, clogging pressure, and impact of different channel geometries.
  
  

• Mesoscopic Transport, led by Research Professor Antti-Pekka Jauho has a long tradition in theoretical studies of transport in nanostructures (issues recently addressed include the phenomenon of Coulomb drag, and spintronics). More recently a project has been launched whose target is NEMS (Nanoelectromechanical systems), where the mesoscopic transport is affected by mechanical degrees of freedom. A topic of special interest is the electron shuttle, pioneered by the Chalmers group. The long term plan is to extend the theory to magnetic NEMS. A meeting has been set up for December 16 – 17, when three researchers from MIC will visit Chalmers to discuss topics of common interest.