PhD: High-throughput screening of 2D spintronic materials

In the context of the PEPR Spin aiming at the development of spintronics at the French national level, we are offering funding for a PhD thesis in the fields of computational materials science, condensed matter theory and device physics applied to spintronics. The aim of the PhD project is to identify and characterise useful 2D materials for various spin-orbitronics applications relevant to the PEPR Spin, based on ab initio simulations. We will use high-performance computing and high-throughput techniques to screen a database of exfoliable 2D materials (Materials Cloud) and compute a set of relevant parameters for the most promising candidates. This will require the development of ab initio workflows to compute meaningful descriptors, using the AiiDA (https://www.aiida.net) code. Finally, the 2D materials combining the best properties for targeted applications will be studied in full with state-of-the-art ab initio simulations. We will pay special attention to enabling valuable exchanges with different work packages of the whole PEPR Spin consortium. This includes taking inputs from other experimental and theoretical work packages and disseminating the results of our work through a simple interface. The motivated candidate must hold a masters degree and is expected to have a strong background in computational science and condensed matter theory. Computational skills are a must, as the PhD will involve a significant amount of coding (mostly in Python). Experience with supercomputers and ab initio calculation is a plus. This should be combined with the ability to absorb complex quantum physical concepts to develop meaningful ab initio models. A good understanding of the mechanisms involved in prospective spintronic devices will be preferable to identify the best materials. The PhD takes place at Laboratoire Charles Coulomb in the University of Montpellier (France), under the supervision of T. Sohier (L2C Montpellier) and M. Chshiev (Spintec Grenoble).