PROF. DR. CARSTEN TIMM Technical University Dresden Institute for Theoretical Physics 01062 Dresden, Germany Office: Zellescher Weg 17, room A 101

Possible diploma theses: Click here Possible doctoral theses, available positions: Please contact me

E-mail: timmphysik.tu-dresden.de Phone: +49-351-463-34822 Fax: +49-351-463-37185 Secretary Ms. Latus Phone: +49-351-463-33843

Office hours: Thursday 15:00-16:00 and by appointment

Welcome to my personal home page at the Technical University Dresden.

I am Professor for Condensed Matter Theory at the Department of Physics of the Technical University Dresden. Until 2008, I was Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Kansas.

Research Interests

I am interested in nanoscopic physics, non-equilibrium phenomena, and systems in which electron-electron interactions play a crucial role. A few characteristic topics are discussed here.

One field of work deals with transport through single molecules. It is now possible to connect small molecules to metallic contacts and measure the current-voltage characteristics of this type of nanoelectronic device. Here, interesting physics is observed, such as the Kondo effect and Coulomb blockade. Internal degrees of freedom of the molecules excited by tunneling electrons, such as vibrations and spin excitations, are important for the transport properties. My work has mainly dealt with molecules carrying local magnetic moments. I try to make methodological progress in the theory of transport through such devices. I am also studying specific molecules, partly in collaboration with experimental groups.

Another field of interest concerns magnetism, in particular in relation to disorder and transport. I investigate diluted magnetic semiconductors, which are created by doping conventional semiconductors like GaAs with magnetic ions such as manganese. One goal is to better understand the mechanism of ferromagnetic ordering in this and related systems. Disorder plays an important role in these materials (they are rather "dirty") and I try to understand how this affects the magnetic ordering and electronic transport (i.e., currents). Electronic correlations are also important. This means that one cannot understand the physics by considering just a single electron interacting with an effective background charge distribution but has to take the interaction between electrons explicitly into account. More information on diluted magnetic semiconductors can be found in a series of five lectures I gave on the subject at the University of Regensburg.

Some details on courses I have taught in the past as well as lecture notes can be found here.