The fourth Berlin edition of the “HoW exciting! Workshop on excitations in solids” took place in the Campus Adlershof of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin between July 31^st to August 9^th, 2018. Excitations in solids, which were the core topic of the workshop, are among the most exciting phenomena in condensed-matter physics. In this context, the electronic-structure approach provided by density-functional theory (DFT) is only the first level in a hierarchical set of models which are needed to quantitatively describe and understand these phenomena in real materials. The main goal of the “HoW exciting! Workshop on excitations in solids” was to address these issues and to establish a robust relationship between the most recent advances in theoretical and computational methods and the different domains of applicability with respect to experiments. Specifically, in this workshop the state-of-the-art of theoretical and computational approaches to describe different kinds of excitations (optical, magnetic, vibrational, etc.) in solid-state materials were presented. Future perspectives of these methodologies and their applications in different research fields were discussed and new connections between theoretical and experimental groups, who are investigating excitations in materials from different perspectives were established. The main topics spanned the whole range of first-principles methods for excitation processes in solids, including electronic excitations, electron-phonon coupling, core-excitations, and non-equilibrium processes. Continue reading SCIENTIFIC REPORT ON “HOW EXCITING! WORKSHOP ON EXCITATIONS IN SOLIDS HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN”, BERLIN, GERMANY, JULY 31 – AUGUST 9, 2018 →

The third Berlin edition of the “HoW exciting! Workshop on excitations in solids” was a very successful event. It took place in the Campus Adlershof of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The subject of the workshop, namely excitations in solids, is extremely up-to-date, attracting the attention of a vast interdisciplinary community. Technological applications based on excitations in solids are closely interconnected with the fundamental physical mechanisms ruling them. A deep understanding of such basic properties is therefore essential and makes the role of theory crucial in this respect. Assessing the state of the art of the theoretical approaches to address excited-state properties of materials and establishing their link with the most recent experimental observations were the main goals of this workshop, which can be considered successfully achieved. Continue reading Scientific report on “HoW exciting! Workshop on excitations in solids Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin”, Berlin, Germany August 3 – 11, 2016 →