Pierre Darancet

Helios Postdoctoral Fellow
Theory of Nanostructured Materials Facility, Molecular Foundry
pdarancet@lbl.gov

Education:
2008 Ph.D., Physics,
Institut Néel CNRS/UJF, Grenoble, France.
Supervisors: Didier Mayou and Valerio Olevano.
2005 M. Sc., Physics,
Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France.
2005 Engineering Degree, Materials Science,
Institut National des Sciences Appliquées INSA, Toulouse, France.

Research Interests

My research interests are focused on the development and the implementation of new ab initio methodologies in the field of quantum transport; as well as their application to the tremendous problem of electronic transport at the nanoscale.

The Holy Graal of this field is to predict the I-V characteristic of a system simply starting from its atomic configuration and the quantum mechanics equations.

More specifically, my ongoing project at the Molecular Foundry, under the Helios project, is focused on the theoretical description of electronic transport properties of nanojunctions in the presence of light. A systematic "first-principles" method to address this essential problem is still missing, and would provide new insights in the field of third-generation photovoltaic technologies. Complementary to the use of well-established Landauer formalisms, we are using a "real-time" framework for computing the quantum transport properties of nanoscale junctions, which has been recently proposed by Di Ventra and Todorov.

Keywords:

  • Quantum transport: Semiclassical theory, Landauer Formalism, NEGF, Time-dependent approaches, Microcanonical approach.
  • Theories: Many-Body: GW Approximation, Keldish formulation of Non Equilibrium Green’s Functions Theory (NEGF), Renormalisation effects, Excited State Lifetimes. Time Dependent Density Functional Theory.
  • Systems: Graphene, Nanojunctions, Third-generation solar cells.

Previous projects

  • Inclusion of many-body electron-electron interaction and correlation effects on Quantum transport beyond Landauer formalism, by an ab initio GW Self-energy in the framework of NEGF.
  • Development and implementation of a new recursion method to calculate in an exact way contact resistance effects.
  • Theory of magnetotransport properties of ”bulk” epitaxial graphene, and explanation of the weakness of Shubnikov de Haas oscillations and the quenching of quantum Hall effect.
  • Theory of electronic transport properties of graphene nanojunctions, and optical analogies in contact resistance phenomena.

Selected Publications

  • P. Darancet, V. Olevano, and D. Mayou, "Effective one dimensional theory of quantum transport at nanoscale contacts", submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett.
  • P. Darancet, V. Olevano, and D. Mayou, "Coherent electronic transport through graphene constrictions: sub-wavelength regime and optical analogy", submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett.
  • P. Darancet, N. Wipf, C. Berger, W. A. de Heer, and D. Mayou, "Quenching of the Quantum Hall Effect in Multilayered Epitaxial Graphene: The Role of Undoped Planes ", Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 116806 (2008).
  • P. Darancet, A. Ferretti, D. Mayou, and V. Olevano, "Ab initio GW electron-electron interaction effects in quantum transport", Phys. Rev. B 75, 075102 (2007).