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Islam, Md

Fixed-Term Faculty

FIXED-TERM FACULTY

More about Md Islam

View a full list of publications here.
  • MS - Southern Illinois University, Illinois, USA (2001)
  • Ph.D: Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA (2007)

My research in recent years is focused on understanding electronic, magnetic, and transport properties of single molecule magnets and topological quantum materials. A brief overview of my main research interests:

Topological Materials

The discovery of topological quantum materials, namely topological insulators, Dirac and Weyl semimetals, has led to exciting advances in condensed matter physics in recent years. Topologically protected electronic states of these systems are predicted to provide new routes to realize novel quantum phases with potential application in spintronics. My research in this field is focused on understanding: i) the topological nature of different TIs when magnetism is incorporated into the system, either by doping with magnetic impurity or by depositing magnetic thin films on the surface ii) the nature of phase transitions in topological semimetals. The goal is to understand the coupling between the topological states and magnetic materials, and their consequences in material properties.

Molecular Magnetism

I have studied electronic and magnetic properties of different spin 1/2 triangular molecular systems, such as {Cu3}, {V3}, {V15} complexes using density functional theory. This class of frustrated single molecule magnets are exciting since the chiral ground states of these molecules can be used as qubits for quantum information processing. Specifically, I am interested in calculating coupling of the chiral ground states of these frustrated systems with the external electric field using first-principles methods, which is crucial for manipulating the qubit states by an external electric field. Molecular magnets can be also important for developing low energy spintronic devices such as single electron transistor.