The research in Prof. Hod's group focuses on computational nano materials science. As part of his work he studies the electronic, magnetic, mechanical, and electro-mechanical properties of materials at the nanoscale. Using advanced computational platforms his group studies many physical phenomena including electron dynamics in open quantum systems, quantum interference and coherent phenomena in circular molecular junctions, friction at nanoscale interfaces between layered materials and chemisorption on various surfaces including graphene, nanodiamonds, and nanotubes of silicon and boron-nitride.
Prof. Hod's research interests merge curiosity driven and applied science. The applicational potential of his research encompasses a wide range of technological areas including the world of molecular electronics and spintronics, nanotribology – a field that advances the development of solid lubricants based on layered nano-particles, ultra-sensitive chemical detectors, and nano-electro-mechanical devices for navigation and control purposes.
The group uses a variety of computational methods of varying levels of complexity according to the problem at hand. The span of tools available to the group members includes advanced quantum computational models based on density functional theory, classical molecular dynamics simulations, and simplified phenomenological models that provide physical intuition on the studied systems. A combination of codes developed within the group along with commercial computational chemistry packages, operating on a highly parallelizable high-performance computer cluster, allows us to address a wide range of problems in the fields of chemistry, physics, and material's science at the nanoscale.
