Kathie E. Newman

Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics

Kathie Newman's research interests center on the statistical mechanics of semiconductor systems. Past work included the study of the interplay between elastic interactions and the phenomena of ordering or phase separation in lattice-mismatched alloys. Recent interests include the use of Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations to understand complex systems. In collaboration with Steven A. Corcelli of Chemistry and Biochemistry and William F. Schneider of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, she is studying the structure and reactivity of transition metal oxides in water as it relates to converting light into chemical energy. This project includes the development of techniques to extract tight-binding molecular dynamics parameters from density functional theory. Other new work includes the simulation of the growth of gold-catalyzed semiconductor nanowires and studies of phase transitions in ice.

Selected Publications:

"Commensurate and Incommensurate Phases of Epitaxial Semiconductor Antiferromagnets with ‘Built-In' Strain," R.J. Cohen and K.E. Newman, Phys. Rev. B 46, 14282 (1992).

"Atomic Rearrangement of Interfaces in ZnTe/CdSe Super-lattices," K.M. Kemner, B.A. Bunker, H. Luo, N. Samarth, J.K. Furdyna, M.R. Weidmann, and K.E. Newman, Phys. Rev. B 50, 4327 (1994).

"Effects of Site Correlations on the Local Structure of Strain-Relaxed Semiconductor Alloys," M.R. Weidmann and K.E. Newman, Phys. Rev. B 51, 4962-4981 (1995).

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