This PhD project will develop and apply multi-scale modelling approaches to investigate thermal fluctuation effects in magnetic materials. The emphasis will be put on understanding the static and dynamics phase transition behaviour, and the finite size effects in magnetic particles as they originate from the volume reduction to nanometre scales. The multi-scale approach will employ a spectrum of high performance computational methods incorporating the 1) first principles models based on the density functional theory (DFT), 2) large-scale spin models of statistical mechanics solved by the spin dynamics and Monte-Carlo methods, in combination with 3) mathematical tools of the modern phase transitions theory. The relevance of the project is to the development of emerging nanotechnology trends in magnetic information storage (heat assisted magnetic recording), and in biomedicine such as in cancer therapy based on the hyperthermia heating effect.

If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Dr Ondrej Hovorka, Computational Engineering and Design research group, Email: o.hovorka@soton.ac.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 2380 59 4898.

This project is run through participation in the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Next Generation Computational Modelling (http://ngcm.soton.ac.uk). For details of our 4 Year PhD programme, please see http://www.findaphd.com/search/PhDDetails.aspx?CAID=331&LID=2652

For a details of available projects click here http://www.ngcm.soton.ac.uk/projects/index.html

NGCM Open Day on Monday 31 March 2014 at Southampton http://www.ngcm.soton.ac.uk/openday.html