Please have a look at:

http://physics.aps.org/announcements/trends_in_physics_2012
I must admit that I do not feel very comfortable.
G.

Rianne vd Berg's thesis defense

This morning, Rianne van den Berg has given a presentation about her
long Casimir Project. Students in the Casimir track do a long project
(36 EC) in addition to two smaller ones. Rianne did this large project
under my supervision. In her presentation, she explained how she has
used master equations for the density matrix in order to analyze
transport through a chain of coupled sites with possibly Coulomb
interactions. Though somewhat on the technical side, her presentation
was sound, well structured and clear for the group members (if I may
speak for them here). Also the exam afterwards went very well, and
Rianne was awarded a high mark. Congratulations Rianne, and good luck
with your next projects: first one with Sander Otte (MED) and then with
Mark Ratner at Northwestern University in Evanston!

--
Jos Thijssen
Associate Professor
Programme Director Applied Physics
Kavli Institute for Physics
Faculty of Applied Science
Delft University of Technology

A strangely familiar guest speaker

Today Gerrit gave a talk on Spin Caloritronics. For all his long career, this was his second talk in Delft: such things does not happen too often.  This was clear, entertaining and even applied (!) close to the end. I'll remember mills, fans, and especially electric orange boots. Thanks, Gerrit! Yuli

P.S. I post the abstract for the sake of completness:

The spin degree of freedom of the electron affects not only charge, but also heat and thermoelectric transport, leading to new effects in small structures that are studied in the field of spin caloritronics (from calor, the Latin word for heat). This lecture addresses the basic physics of spin caloritronics. Starting with an introduction into thermoelectrics and Onsager’s reciprocity relations, the generalization to include the spin dependence in the presence of metallic ferromagnets will be addressed. Using this foundation I will describe several recently discovered spin-dependent effects in metallic nanostructures and tunneling junctions as well as a zoo of spin-related thermal Hall effects in terms of a two spin-current model of non-interacting electrons.

Next, I will argue that different classes of spin caloritronic effects exists that can be explained only by the collective spin dynamics in ferromagnets. The thermal spin transfer torque that allows excitation and switching of the magnetization in spin valves as well as the operation of nanoscale heat engines is complemented by thermal spin pumping. The latter generates the so-called spin Seebeck effect, which is generated by a heat current-induced non-equilibrium of magnons at a contact between an insulating or conducting ferromagnet and a normal metal. Under these conditions a net spin current is injected or extracted from the normal metal that can be detected by the inverse spin Hall effect.

Both classes can be formulated by scattering theory of transport in the adiabatic approximation for the magnetization dynamics and computed in terms of material-dependent electronic structures. Further issues to be addressed are the relation between electric, thermal and acoustic actuation, as well as the application potential of spin caloritronics.

Skating - Theory and Applications 102

And because we enjoyed our skating adventures as much as we did ... allow us to express our great appreciation to the one who made it all possible ...

Thanks, from the whole group, Marjolein!

Skating - Theory and Applications 101

Theorists on Ice!

We had been looking forward to this moment for more than a week. The prospect of experiencing the Dutch tradition of skating on natural ice was plenty exciting (yes, we are "well-ingeburgerd"), but the image of a group of theoretical physics colleagues skating all around, testing new theories of friction, made it doubly so! Or at least: some factor of two...

So any anxieties we might have had concerning skating skills, ice thickness (and lack of thickness of our skating blades) were put firmly aside when the day arrived, and despite all opposition by the NS there was record attendance.

We theorists gave up the morning cup of coffee in favor of taking our skates to the closest body of frozen water we deemed sufficiently trustworthy.

Once we got there, it was the easiest thing to get our skates on and launch ourselves onto the ice surface. Here we are, confidently mastering our skating gear, one foot at a time.

And half an hour later: success! One more foot to go...

But those who were able to get up on their skates quickly turned out to be pretty good after all...

and so we soon recognized who is in charge of teaching duties, who needs a tutorial, and who should be free for research. Our gracious teachers were of course gentle in their instruction to the less experienced...

Miriam had brought a pair of Dutch blades, and her confidence on the ice was reassuring to the anxious first-timers.

But Akash and Rodrigo, both hailing from the far north of India and Mexico respectively, truly took the lead in the research team, studying new ways to spin on skates.

As the senior member of our skating group, Yaroslav, too, showed the way...

and we shared some of our great traditions in return ...

So let us seal this memory with a last shot of the group, and the final experiment of the day.... it was at this point that we first heard the sound of ice cracking. With simply one data point, however, no conclusions could be drawn. The second and third cracking sounds (within the space of a few seconds), however, reminded us all of the true meaning of pressure, promptly ending the photo shoot.

First post

Hello, world. Hello, friends. So I've made a new blog and invited everybody in the group to be an author. I hope we have something to say to each other and to the world. I could not at the moment provide an automatic sending of the posts to your e-mail addresses since we are too many. Perhaps we will do this later. Look forward to the coverage of tomorrow event (since cannot be there)
Best, Yuli