Temperature dependent optical response of plasmonic materials from first principles

  • Daniel Conor Murphy

Student thesis: Doctoral ThesisDoctor of Philosophy

Abstract

As part of the next generation of hard drive technologies for Seagate Technologies, heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) relies on the novel combination of plasmonics and material design. The material choice of the near field transducer (NFT) as part of HAMR is critical to the efficiency and effectiveness of future hard drive technologies. The NFT is subjected to intense environmental conditions, high temperature and strain. Previously, the choice of material was dictated by experimental testing, which can be expensive and time consuming. This project aims to use state of the art ab initio techniques to investigate the properties of plasmonic materials for new applications. Using density functional theory, many-body perturbation theory and electron-phonon interactions, the effect of temperature on the plasmonic performance will be evaluated through a range of temperatures in a fully ab initio way.
Date of AwardJul 2024
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • Queen's University Belfast
SponsorsEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
SupervisorMyrta Grüning (Supervisor) & Lorenzo Stella (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • plasmonic
  • gw
  • density functional theory
  • material science
  • ab-initio
  • first principles
  • TiN
  • aluminum
  • phonon
  • electronic structure theory

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