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SUMMARY:Non-Covalent van der Waals Interactions in Molecules and Materials
 : A Solved Problem ?
DTSTART:20160502T131500
DTEND:20160502T141500
DTSTAMP:20260510T183500Z
UID:49705d5b7bf3b17f12a5f2935b0e60ef32f42348936af401e530b5f8
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Alexandre Tkatchenko\, Theory Department Fritz Haber Ins
 titute of the Max Planck Society\nNon-covalent van der Waals (vdW) interac
 tions are ubiquitous in molecules and materials. The influence of vdW forc
 es extends well beyond binding energies and encompasses the structural\, m
 echanical\, spectroscopic\, and even electronic signatures of molecular sy
 stems and condensed matter. Our conceptual understanding of these interact
 ions is largely based on perturbative models\, which are often unable to c
 apture the full extent of non-local quantum-mechanical fluctuations which 
 can extend up to tens of nanometers in real systems [1]. The origin of suc
 h many-body fluctuations will be discussed and their importance demonstrat
 ed for a hierarchy of systems\, ranging from simple gas-phase dimers\, sup
 ramolecular host-guest complexes\, extended molecular crystals\, to layere
 d 2D heterostructures. The development of efficient many-body methods that
  explicitly address the non-local collective nature of quantum fluctuation
 s not only leads to significant improvements in the accuracy of calculatio
 ns [2\,3\,4]\, but also allows us to discover novel conceptual insights th
 at give us the ability to control these fluctuations in the design of intr
 icate materials. These facts will be highlighted by presenting a few selec
 ted examples from our recent work [3\,4].\n[1] A. Ambrosetti\, N. Ferri\, 
 R. A. DiStasio Jr.\, and A. Tkatchenko\, Science\, in print (2016).\n[http
 ://th.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/site/uploads/Publications/aae0509.pdf]\n[2] A. Tka
 tchenko\, R. A. DiStasio Jr.\, R. Car\, and M. Scheffler\, Phys. Rev. Lett
 . 108\, 236402 (2012).\n[3] A. Tkatchenko\, Adv. Func. Mat. 25\, 2054 (201
 5).\n[4] A. M. Reilly and A. Tkatchenko\, Chem. Sci. 6\, 3289 (2015).\nBio
 : Alexandre Tkatchenko is a full professor in theoretical condensed-matter
  physics at the University\nof Luxembourg and group leader at the Fritz Ha
 ber Institute (FHI) of the Max Planck Society in Berlin.\nHe obtained his 
 bachelor degree in computer science and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry\nat 
 the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana\, Mexico. During 2008--2010\, he wa
 s an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow\nin the Theory Department at FHI\, Berl
 in. Since 2011\, he is leading a group on Functional Materials and Intermo
 lecular\nInteractions at FHI\, partially funded through a Starting Grant f
 rom the European Research Council. He has given more\nthan 60 invited talk
 s plus 60 seminars and colloquia worldwide. He has received the Gerhard Er
 tl Young Investigator Award\nof the German Physical Society (2011).
LOCATION:MXF 1 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==MXF%201
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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