Scientific Initiation Studentships - (BL174/2022-IST-ID) (# of pos: 5)

Applications are open for 5 Scientific Initiation Studentships, within the framework of project/R&D institution Quantum Matter Summer Program 2021, reference (1801P.01204.1.01) QMSP2022 - VeraoComCiencia CEFEMA - IST-ID financed by national funds through FCT

Workplan:

Project 1. Title: Synthesis of bipolar membranes for application in direct liquid fuel cells Advisor: Diogo Santos (CeFEMA, IST); Mónica Faria (CeFEMA, IST) Program: This project intends to develop bipolar membranes for application in low-temperature liquid fuel cells, namely in the direct borohydride fuel cell (DBFC). This device uses a fuel and an oxidant that are liquid at room temperature, making it an ideal power source for space and underwater applications.

Project 2. Title: : Performance of polyxometalates for oxygen evolution reaction for application in metal-air batteries Advisor: Biljana Šljukić Paunković (CeFEMA, IST); Diogo Santos (CeFEMA, IST) Program: The existing electrochemical energy storage/conversion devices need further improvement to meet the ever-rising energy demand. Metal-air batteries hold great promise for application in electric vehicles. Still, high-cost noble metal-based electrocatalysts are typically employed in these batteries, thus impeding their large-scale use in vehicles. Continuing ongoing research in CeFEMA, the proposed project aims to test polyoxometalates (POM) and their composites with carbon materials as electrocatalysts for oxygen electrode of metal-air batteries. Materials composition and morphology will be examined by SEM/TEM. Following materials characterization, their activity for oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline solution will be examined by electrochemical methods.

Project 3. Title: Emergent (non-)Markovianity in random open quantum systems Advisor: Pedro Ribeiro (CeFEMA, IST); Lucas Sá (CeFEMA, IST) Program: In many-particle quantum systems, interaction may entail such complex structure that the Hamiltonian behaves in several aspects as a large random matrix. This striking result, which has its roots in the pioneering works of Wigner in the 1950s, linked the areas of random matrix theory and quantum chaos and helped establish several statistical properties of closed chaotic quantum systems.

Project 4. Title: Quantum-coherent non-equilibrium current-carrying states Advisor: Pedro Ribeiro (CeFEMA, IST); Jens Paaske (Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen) Program: Applying a voltage bias across the metallic sample induces a charge current changes and qualitatively changes the electronic distribution away from its equilibrium value. Although quantum transport dates back to Landauer and Büttiker, properties of the current-carrying state induced in this way have been disregarded. Most studies focus on dissipative transport regimes where local equilibrium can be assumed. The properties of current-carrying states in mesoscopic setups, where the electron’s mean free path is of the order of the system size, remain fairly unexplored. Only a few works have studied how Friedel oscillations differ in current-carrying metallic phases. Furthermore, even for the simplest example of a non-equilibrium Fermi gas, the characterization of its spatial correlations and entanglement properties is fairly recent.

Project 5. Title: Spin Groups in Condensed Matter Physics Advisor: Pedro Ribeiro (CeFEMA, IST); Paul Mcclarty (Max Planck, Dresden) Program: Symmetries play such a foundational role in physics and group theory is a powerful framework for handling them. More than one hundred years ago people classified all possible crystal symmetries. It turns out that all crystals fall into one of 230 space groups. These groups form the core of much of condensed matter physics helping to explain a huge range of quantum mechanical phenomena. The purpose of this project is to generalize these groups to the case where magnetism is included. Unusually for an undergraduate project, this has the potential to close a one hundred year old chapter in theoretical physics.

Duration: The research fellowship(s) will have the duration of 1 months It’s expected to begin in September 2022 and it is not renewable.

It is mandatory to formalize applications with the submission of the following documents: i) B1 Form – Fellowship application (https://ist-id.pt/concursos/bolsas/ ); ii) Curriculum Vitae; iii) academic degree certificate.

Applications must be submitted to the email: ribeiro.pedro@tecnico.ulisboa.pt