Congratulation to Jacopo Simoni, who defended his PhD thesis on December the 21st in front of internal examiner, Prof. Paul Eastham, and external examiner, Prof. Hardy Gross (Max Plank Institute in Halle). Jacopo’s thesis is focused on the development of an ab initio theory for ultra-fast spin dynamics. In particular he looked at time-dependent density functional theory as a tool for predicting the dynamics of the magnetization of a magnet following the action of an intense laser pulse. This contains groundbreaking work that shapes our understanding on how the spin angular momentum is transferred at the femtosecond time scale. Published works from the thesis include:
- Role of spin-orbit interaction in the ultrafast demagnetization of small iron clusters, Maria Stamenova, Jacopo Simoni, and Stefano Sanvito Phys. Rev. B 94, 014423 (2016)
- Non-equilibrium magnetic fields in ab initio spin dynamics Jacopo Simoni, Maria Stamenova, Stefano Sanvito, to appear in Phys. Rev. B, also arXiv:1604.06262