Project title: Evolution of non-collinear magnetism in hot iron
 
Supervisors: Andrew Horsfield and Matthew Foulkes
 

Project description:

The magnetic properties of hot steel, used in fusion reactors and next generation fission reactors, are very important for understanding its mechanical properties, including the behaviour of its defects. Both the direction and magnitude of the magnetic moments play a significant role and thus any realistic model must describe non-collinear magnetism. The goal of the project is to build an accurate time-dependent non-collinear magnetic tight binding model that can be used to benchmark, design and parameterise larger scale models, such as spin-lattice-electron dynamics [1], that can be used to characterise the properties of irradiated steel. As far as we are aware no one else has performed time-dependent magnetic tight binding simulations in this context before.

[1] P.W. Ma, SL Dudarev, and CH Woo. Spin-lattice-electron dynamics simulations of magnetic materials. Physical Review B, 85(18):184301, 2012.