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| Name |
Nieminen, Risto M. |
| Location
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Aalto University School of Science and Technology |
| Primary Field
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Applied Physical Sciences |
| Secondary Field
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Physics |
 Election Citation
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Nieminen has been the world leader in understanding the behavior of positrons in solids. He created the first theories of positrons in metals, semiconductors, and at surfaces. Recently he has developed theories and novel computational methods for breaking bottlenecks in studies of complex-defect and multiscale phenomena of important optoelectronic materials. |
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Research Interests
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Risto Nieminen's research area is condensed-matter and materials physics, especially theoretical and computational methods as applied to multiscale materials modelling. Computational materials science enables predictive calculation of physical and chemical properties from electronic and atomic scales, governed by quantum physics, to continuum. He has developed widely used methods and applied them in interpreting a variety of experimental results for e.g. atomic-scale defects, surfaces and interfaces of solids and for nanoscale structures and assemblies. Density-functional theory and its extensions to multi-component and time-dependent cases is the framework for extensive first-principles computation of electronic structure and properties, including dynamical and non-equilibrium properties of condensed matter. Among the many applications are electronic, magnetic, transport, thermodynamic and mechanical properties, accessible for a number of spectroscopic and other probes. An important application area has been defects and doping in semiconductors and two-dimensional materials. The research has contributed to the understanding of carrier concentration and compensation, defect metastability, doping limits, diffusivity, and complex formation, important for (opto)electronics applications. This work includes wide-gap and insulating materials, nitrides, complex oxides, perovskites, and chalcopyrites, as well as graphene and related materials. Large-scale computation can also be combined with extensive databases and machine-learning methods to systematically search and discover new materials. Risto Nieminen is the founding editor of two research journals, Computational Materials Science and Electronic Structure.
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