Division of Quantum Condensed Matter Physics

Chief

YABANA Kazuhiro, Professor

Professor Kazuhiro Yabana graduated from Kyoto University in 1987, with a doctor degree in theoretical nuclear physics. He joined the Faculty of Science, Niigata University as an assistant professor in 1988, moved to Institute of Physics at the University of Tsukuba as an associate professor in 1999, then a full professor since 2002. He specializes in computational material sciences and nuclear theory and works on first-principles calculations of electron dynamics and interactions of strong pulsed light with materials.

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Overview

All the materials around us are composed of atoms, and atoms are composed of nuclei and electrons. Materials exhibit various properties reflecting their composition and structures and they are widely used in today’s science and technology. In this division, we study quantum many-body systems–the substances coupled by Coulomb interaction–by solving quantum mechanical equations of motion numerically. Our goals are to elucidate various properties of materials, to find devices of new functions, and to search a way to control the dynamical processes. Such a research is the foundation for the future technology.

Research topics

Light-matter interactions

Lights have been used to measure the properties of materials accurately. Recently, in optical sciences, a strong ultrashort pulsed light is used to measure the fast electronic motion in real time and to control the electronic motion. We develop a simulation code based on the first-principles calculations such as the time-dependent density functional theory to investigate the electronic dynamics and to understand the mechanism of the light-matter interactions.

Development of first-principles, real-time and real-space simulation code for optical science

In current frontiers of optical science, innovative simulation methods describing light-matter interaction from microscopic electronic dynamics are required. As such computer code, we develop a first-principles computational code SALMON (Scalable Ab-initio Light-Matter simulator for Optics and Nanoscience) that is based on density functional theory and utilizes real-space and real-time method, under close collaborations with computer scientists in the Center and researchers in physics and optics world-wide. SALMON is developed as an open-source software, and can be downloaded from the website, https://salmon-tddft.jp.

Strongly correlated materials and topological materials

Strongly correlated materials or topological materials whose properties depend on the shape of the material exhibit interesting properties that cannot be explained by the band theory. We develop a numerical method to study properties of these systems including electronic states, phase transitions, optical responses, and perform a research toward developing new quantum information devices.

Web sites

Yabana Group

KOIZUMI Laboratory (Japanese)

Tong Research Group

Hino-Maeshima Laboratory

(Update: Dec. 18, 2019)