Massimiliano Stengel

Materials Department University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5050 Tel.: (805) 893-5602 Fax.: (805) 893-8971 stengel@mrl.ucsb.edu

Research Interests

During my PhD I worked on the first-principles study of metal-supported nanostructures, with a particular focus on ultrathin insulating films, supramolecular self-assembled clusters and complex overlayer-induced substrate reconstructions. In addition to the application of existing methods and algorithms to new physical problems, an important part of my work has been devoted to the exploration of new techniques and their implementation into the high-performance electronic structure package that I personally maintain (see below). I'm currently interested in the modern theory of polarization, finite electric fields and magnetic phenomena, with applications to metal/perovskite interfaces and novel magnetoelectric devices.

Publications

• Supramolecular self assembly driven by electrostatic repulsion: The 1D aggregation of rubrene pentagons on Au(111).
  G. Tomba, M. Stengel, M.-C. Bluem, W.-D. Schneider, A. Baldereschi and A. de Vita
  Submitted.
• Self-interaction correction with Wannier functions
  M. Stengel and N. A. Spaldin
  arXiv:0706.3210
• Carrier-mediated magnetoelectricity in complex oxide heterostructures
  J. M. Rondinelli, M. Stengel and N. A. Spaldin
  arXiv:0706.2199
• Ab-initio theory of metal-insulator interfaces in a finite electric field
  M. Stengel and N. A. Spaldin
  Phys. Rev. B 75, 205121 (2007).
• Origin of the dielectric dead layer in nanoscale capacitors
  M. Stengel and N. A. Spaldin
  Nature (London) 443, 679 (2006).
• Accurate polarization within a unified Wannier function formalism
  M. Stengel and N. A. Spaldin
  Phys. Rev. B 73, 075121 (2006).
• Local work function Moire pattern on ultrathin ionic films: NaCl on Ag(100)
  M. Pivetta, F. Patthey, M. Stengel, A. Baldereschi and W.-D. Schneider
  Phys. Rev. B 72, 115404 (2005).
• Modeling nucleation and insulating properties of oxide surfaces and ultra-thin films
  S. Schintke, M. Stengel, L. C. Ciacchi, W.-D. Schneider, M. Svetina, J. V. Barth, O. Sbaizero, S. Roitti, S. Meriani and A. De Vita
  Key Engineering Materials 264-268: 485-488, Part 1-3 (2004).
• Adatom-vacancy mechanisms for the C₆₀/Al(111)-(6x6) reconstruction
  M. Stengel, A. De Vita and A. Baldereschi
  Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 166101 (2003).
• Parameterisation to tailor commodity clusters to applications
  R. Gruber, P. Volgers, A. De Vita, M. Stengel and T.-M. Tran
  Fut. Gen. Comp. Sys. 19, 111 (2003).
• Insulator at the ultrathin limit: MgO on Ag(001)
  S. Schintke, S. Messerli, M. Pivetta, F. Patthey, L. Libioulle, M. Stengel, A. De Vita and W.-D. Schneider
  Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 276801 (2001)
  (reviewed by Nature Physics Portal as a research highlight)
• Supramolecular self-assembly and selective step decoration on the Au(111) surface
  M. Vladimirova, M. Stengel, A. De Vita, A. Baldereschi, M. Bohringer, K. Morgenstern, R. Berndt, W.-D. Schneider
  Europhys. Lett. 56, 254 (2001),
• First-principles molecular dynamics of metals: A Lagrangian formulation
  M. Stengel and A. De Vita
  Phys. Rev. B 62, 15283 (2001)

Software

Since 1999 I've been developing and using a parallel ab-initio package called LAUTREC. Before my intervention it used to be a neat and powerful piece of software, featuring state-of-the-art performance in large-scale Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics with norm-conserving pseudopotentials. Now it is a messy and powerful piece of software, featuring state-of-the-art performance in large- and small-scale Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics with PAW datasets and/or norm-conserving pseudopotentials. You can find it here.

Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

Education

Research Experience

02/2005 - present

Postdoctoral position, Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, in the group of Prof. Nicola Spaldin

01/2000 - 06/2004

Ph.D. thesis: First-principles molecular-dynamics study of metal-supported nanosystems
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland. Advisor: Prof. Alfonso Baldereschi