Volker Blum

@aimsduke.bsky.social

Ab initio materials simulations at Duke University. Associate professor, Duke MEMS & Chemistry. https://aims.pratt.duke.edu/ . Opinions my own. Unlike the shirt on the right side of the profile image, which is not my own. The number on the shirt is 10.

This paper is a huge success IMO - thanks to Rayan Chakraborty, Yifan Dong and everyone involved: doi.org/10.1038/s415... The significance (my view) is that hidden spin polarization really does translate into very long spin life times for carriers in a semiconductor at room temperature!

Hidden spin-valley locking stabilizes nanosecond spin polarization in 2D perovskites - Nature Nanotechnology

Inversion-symmetric 2D hybrid perovskite semiconductors exhibit optically excited spin lifetimes of 0.7–4.7 ns at room temperature due to intrinsic local symmetry breaking and spin-valley formation.

doi.org

Hooray! doi.org/10.1088/2516...

Roadmap on Advancements of the FHI-aims Software Package

Roadmap on Advancements of the FHI-aims Software Package, Blum, Volker, Kokott, Sebastian, Rossi, Mariana, Scheffler, Matthias, Abbott, Joseph W. W., Mera Acosta, Carlos, Akkoush, Alaa, Ambrosetti, Alberto, Atalla, Viktor, Bagrets, Alexej, Behler, Joerg, Berger, Daniel, Bieniek, Björn, Björk, Jonas, Bohloul, Saeed, Box, Connor L., Boyer, Nicholas James, Brambila, Danilo Simoes, Bramley, Gabriel A., Bryenton, Kyle R., Camarasa-Gómez, María, Carbogno, Christian, Caruso, Fabio, Chutia, Sucismita, Ceriotti, Michele, Csányi, Gábor, Dawson, William, Delesma, Francisco A., della sala, fabio, Delley, Bernard, DiStasio, Robert, Dragoumi, Maria, Driessen, Sander, Dvorak, Marc, Erker, Simon, Evers, Ferdinand, Fabiano, Eduardo, Farrow, Matthew R., Fiebig, Florian, Filser, Jakob, Foppa, Lucas, Gallandi, Lukas, Garcia, Alberto, Gehrke, Ralf, Ghan, Simiam, Ghiringhelli, Luca, Glass, Mark, Goedecker, Stefan, Golze, Dorothea, Green, James A., Grisafi, Andrea, Grüneis, Andreas, Günzl, Johannes Jan, Gutzeit, Stefan, Hall, Samuel J., Hanke, Felix, Havu, Ville, He, Xingtao, Hekele, Joscha, Hellman, Olle, Herath, Uthpala, Hermann, Jan, Hernangómez-Pérez, Daniel, Hofmann, Oliver T, Hoja, Johannes, Hollweger, Simon, Hörmann, Lukas, Hourahine, Benjamin, How, Wei Bin, Huhn, William P., Hülsberg, Marcel, Panahian Jand, Sara, Jiang, Hongbing, Johnson, Erin, Jürgens, Werner, Kahk, Juhan Matthias, Kanai, Yosuke, Kang, Kisung, Karpov, Petr, Kempt, Roman, Khan, Danish, Kick, Matthias, Klein, Benedikt P., Kloppenburg, Jan, Knoll, Alexander, Knoop, Florian, Knuth, Franz, Köcher, Simone S., Kockläuner, Jannis, Körzdörfer, Thomas, Kowalski, Hagen-Henrik, Kratzer, Peter, Kus, Pavel, Laasner, Raul, Lang, Bruno, Lange, Björn, Langer, Marcel F, Larsen, Ask Hjorth, Lederer, Hermann

doi.org

AND the FHI-aims Roadmap article was provisionally accepted by Electronic Structure during the opening afternoon of the workshop. 206 coauthors and the most comprehensive overview we ever wrote (21+ years!). Can't wait to see the journal version - hopefully really soon now. arxiv.org/abs/2505.00125

Roadmap on Advancements of the FHI-aims Software Package

Electronic-structure theory is the foundation of the description of materials including multiscale modeling of their properties and functions. Obviously, without sufficient accuracy at the base, relia...

arxiv.org

Volker Blum@aimsduke.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Amazing @fhi-aims.bsky.social Developer and User Workshop last week. I knew the program was packed with good things but I was still amazed by how far we've come. events.ms1p.org/event/18/pag...

As I said earlier. In my view, this will gravely harm US science competitiveness and it will harm US families. It's also fully inconsistent with the election rhetoric that was focused on alleged criminal immigrants. This here simply harms good people. Our country, the U.S., is better than that.

Mark Lemley@marklemley.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This is astonishingly evil and cruel. It targets the people who have come here lawfully, done everything right, and qualify for a path to citizenship. It means they must leave the families who live here and the jobs that are the very reason they can work here. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

If this is true, then in my view, this policy will inflict irreparable harm on US science competitiveness. As far as I can tell, this policy will also gravely harm many U.S. families in which one family member is not a citizen. It would have damaged my own family. apnews.com/article/immi...

Trump administration to force foreigners in the US to apply for a green card abroad

The Trump administration is announcing a new policy that requires foreigners in the U.S. to leave and apply for a green card from their home country.

apnews.com

For someone who bike commutes to work, next to vehicles, like me, this news is a cruel joke: www.wral.com/news/state/n... One does not remove emissions testing because air quality is consistently good while having tests. Air quality is good *because* we have emissions tests.

EPA agrees: NC drivers no longer need emissions test each year, change would save them $$

According to the agency, eliminating the program would save North Carolina drivers nearly $20 million a year without significantly harming air quality.

wral.com

Reposting our webinar tomorrow, April 23, 12 pm - 1 pm US EST. hybrid3.duke.edu/workshops/20... Thank you all!

2026 HybriD3 Database Webinar

2026 HybriD3 Database Webinar

hybrid3.duke.edu

Volker Blum@aimsduke.bsky.social · 4mo ago

For those interested in #perovskites, we will be holding a webinar on our Hybrid^3 database, hybrid3.duke.edu, of hybrid organic-inorganic semiconductors on April 23. Please register for the zoom link and please repost. Thank you!

For those interested in #perovskites, we will be holding a webinar on our Hybrid^3 database, hybrid3.duke.edu, of hybrid organic-inorganic semiconductors on April 23. Please register for the zoom link and please repost. Thank you!

HybriD3

The HybriD3 project accelerates the Design, Discovery and Dissemination (D3) of new crystalline organic-inorganic hybrid semiconductors in a collaborative effort between six teams of researchers locat...

hybrid3.duke.edu

In 1999, researchers found that certain organic molecules preferentially transmit electrons with a particular spin orientation. Many experiments have followed, but the physics underlying the chiral-induced spin selectivity effect remains mysterious. #physics #chirality

How the twist of a molecule affects electron spin

Since the discovery was first reported in 1999, researchers have uncovered many aspects of the chiral-induced spin selectivity effect, but its underlying mechanisms remain unclear.

physicstoday.aip.org

For chemistry and physics majors, Duke Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science would like to say that our Master's programs are for them, too. Please share with anyone who might be interested. (And yes, we really do care about our Master's students.)

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