Overview
Background
This is an automatically generated university page - my real website is https://people.smp.uq.edu.au/BenPowell/
Availability
- Professor Ben Powell is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Works
Search Professor Ben Powell’s works on UQ eSpace
1983
Journal Article
EMPLOYMENT FACTORS IN OUTPATIENT RECOVERY OF ALCOHOLICS - A MULTIVARIATE STUDY
BRAUNSTEIN, WB, POWELL, BJ, MCGOWAN, JF and THORESON, RW (1983). EMPLOYMENT FACTORS IN OUTPATIENT RECOVERY OF ALCOHOLICS - A MULTIVARIATE STUDY. Addictive Behaviors, 8 (4), 345-351. doi: 10.1016/0306-4603(83)90034-5
1978
Journal Article
CLINICAL MANAGEMENT OF FATHER-DAUGHTER INCEST - CRITICAL RE-EXAMINATION
WEITZEL, WD, POWELL, BJ and PENICK, EC (1978). CLINICAL MANAGEMENT OF FATHER-DAUGHTER INCEST - CRITICAL RE-EXAMINATION. American Journal of Diseases of Children, 132 (2), 127-130. doi: 10.1001/archpedi.1978.02120270025004
1976
Journal Article
ACQUIRED PREFERENCE FOR MORPHINE BUT NOT D-AMPHETAMINE AS A RESULT OF SACCHARINE ADULTERATION
HILL, SY and POWELL, BJ (1976). ACQUIRED PREFERENCE FOR MORPHINE BUT NOT D-AMPHETAMINE AS A RESULT OF SACCHARINE ADULTERATION. Psychopharmacology, 50 (3), 309-312. doi: 10.1007/BF00426850
Funding
Current funding
Supervision
Availability
- Professor Ben Powell is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
Available projects
-
New types of particles in spin-crossover materials
Condensed matter physicists sometimes pity our colleagues in high-energy physics. They are limited to studying a single vacuum and its excitations: the particles of the standard model. For condensed matter physicists every new phase of matter brings a new ‘vacuum’. Remarkably the low-energy excitations of these new vacua can be very different from the individual electrons, protons and neutrons that constitute the material. The condensed matter multiverse contains universes where the particle-like excitations carry only a fraction of the elementary electronic charge are magnetic monopole, or are their own antiparticle. None of these properties have ever been observed in the particles found in free space. Often emergent gauge fields accompany these ‘fractionalized’ particles, just as electromagnetic gauge fields accompany charged particles.
In this project you will discover the nature of the particles that emerge a recently phase of matter – the spin-state ice – that is predicted to occur in spin crossover materials. You will develop new theories of these materials and seek to discover other exotic phases in them.
-
Spin crossover materials
Some molecules are magnetic. Others are not. Spin-crossover molecules are unusual because they can be switched between magnetic (high-spin) and non-magnetic (more generally, low-spin) states by temperature, pressure, chemical environment, or irradiation by light. Furthermore, materials containing spin-crossover molecules can display phase transitions between states with different spatial patterns of molecules with high- and low-spin that have similarities to emergent states with magnetic, orbital and charge ordering, such as antiferromagnetism.
The fundamental question you will investigate is: why does this happen? This will require the application of state-of-the-art computational methodologies to describe the quantum behavior of the electrons in these materials. Importantly, the electrons interact strongly with one another in these systems. This means that the behaviors are collective and the standard approaches to chemistry, where we treat each electron independently, fail miserably. Instead you will use supercomputers to model the collective physics.
-
Design and control of quantum materials: metal organic frameworks (MOFs)
Materials are vital for modern technology. Our understanding and control of the physics of silicon enabled the digital revolution. But electron-electron interactions are not important for the physics of silicon. In many other materials quantum mechanical electron-electron interactions determine the properties of the materials. These quantum materials show amazing properties such as high temperature superconductivity and sometime have excitations that are very different from the properties of the vacuum [1]. If we could routinely design and control quantum materials it would revolutionise technologies from electricity distribution to computing. But currently we have very limited abilities to design quantum materials. A new class of materials, MOFs, may be the key to enabling the rational design of quantum materials. Several projects are available in this area using techniques varying from supercomputer calculations to pen and paper theory to help change this in collaboration with world leading synthetic chemists and experimental physicists.
[1] B. J. Powell, The expanding materials multiverse, Science 360, 1074 (2018)
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Can we design a room temperature, ambient pressure superconductor?
A room temperature, ambient pressure superconductor would change the world. We could plant "farms" of solar panels in the outback and losslessly transport the energy generated to capital cities and Asia, dramatically lowering the cost of power generation. But the world record for the highest temperature ambient pressure superconductor hasn't increased in decades.
However, new types of materials have recently emerged that can be clicked together like lego. This offers us the chance to design new materials with taylored propoerties from the ground up. However, doing so is a formidable theoretical challenge that requires understanding the quantum mechanical behaviours of 10^23 electrons simulatneously? In this project you will develop and apply new theoretical techniques to attack this problem.
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Room temperature single molecule switches
Switches are the basis of all modern digital electronics. Binary logic is based on turning switches on (1) and off (0). So miniaturising memories and logic circuits requires miniaturising switches. Societies program of miniaturising switches is so advanced that the next frontier is reaching the molecular scale. This requires a detailed understanding of the quantum physics and chemistry of the molecules at play. Traditional quantum chemical approaches are limited to absolute zero. So they do not describe switching at room temperature, where we would like use our switches. This project will apply state-of-the-art quantum theory to model switching in a class of materials known as Prussian blue analogues.
This would suit a physics student with a strong understanding of quantum mechanics (no previous knowledge of chemistry is required, although chemistry majors are welcome to apply). It will involve learning and apply quantum field theory and both analytical and computational work.
-
Can we design a room temperature, ambient pressure superconductor?
A room temperature, ambient pressure superconductor would change the world. We could plant "farms" of solar panels in the outback and losslessly transport the energy generated to capital cities and Asia, dramatically lowering the cost of power generation. But the world record for the highest temperature ambient pressure superconductor hasn't increased in decades.
However, new types of materials have recently emerged that can be clicked together like lego. This offers us the chance to design new materials with taylored propoerties from the ground up. However, doing so is a formidable theoretical challenge that requires understanding the quantum mechanical behaviours of 10^23 electrons simulatneously? In this project you will develop and apply new theoretical techniques to attack this problem.
-
Design and control of quantum materials: metal organic frameworks (MOFs)
Materials are vital for modern technology. Our understanding and control of the physics of silicon enabled the digital revolution. But electron-electron interactions are not important for the physics of silicon. In many other materials quantum mechanical electron-electron interactions determine the properties of the materials. These quantum materials show amazing properties such as high temperature superconductivity and sometime have excitations that are very different from the properties of the vacuum [1]. If we could routinely design and control quantum materials it would revolutionise technologies from electricity distribution to computing. But currently we have very limited abilities to design quantum materials. A new class of materials, MOFs, may be the key to enabling the rational design of quantum materials. Several projects are available in this area using techniques varying from supercomputer calculations to pen and paper theory to help change this in collaboration with world leading synthetic chemists and experimental physicists.
[1] B. J. Powell, The expanding materials multiverse, Science 360, 1074 (2018)
-
New types of particles in spin-crossover materials
Condensed matter physicists sometimes pity our colleagues in high-energy physics. They are limited to studying a single vacuum and its excitations: the particles of the standard model. For condensed matter physicists every new phase of matter brings a new ‘vacuum’. Remarkably the low-energy excitations of these new vacua can be very different from the individual electrons, protons and neutrons that constitute the material. The condensed matter multiverse contains universes where the particle-like excitations carry only a fraction of the elementary electronic charge are magnetic monopole, or are their own antiparticle. None of these properties have ever been observed in the particles found in free space. Often emergent gauge fields accompany these ‘fractionalized’ particles, just as electromagnetic gauge fields accompany charged particles.
In this project you will discover the nature of the particles that emerge a recently phase of matter – the spin-state ice – that is predicted to occur in spin crossover materials. You will develop new theories of these materials and seek to discover other exotic phases in them.
-
Spin crossover materials
Some molecules are magnetic. Others are not. Spin-crossover molecules are unusual because they can be switched between magnetic (high-spin) and non-magnetic (more generally, low-spin) states by temperature, pressure, chemical environment, or irradiation by light. Furthermore, materials containing spin-crossover molecules can display phase transitions between states with different spatial patterns of molecules with high- and low-spin that have similarities to emergent states with magnetic, orbital and charge ordering, such as antiferromagnetism.
The fundamental question you will investigate is: why does this happen? This will require the application of state-of-the-art computational methodologies to describe the quantum behavior of the electrons in these materials. Importantly, the electrons interact strongly with one another in these systems. This means that the behaviors are collective and the standard approaches to chemistry, where we treat each electron independently, fail miserably. Instead you will use supercomputers to model the collective physics.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Theories of strongly correlated electrons in metal-organic frameworks
Principal Advisor
-
Doctor Philosophy
Theories of strongly correlated electrons in metal-organic frameworks
Principal Advisor
-
Doctor Philosophy
The role of spin-orbit coupling in spin crossover materials
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Jack Clegg
-
Doctor Philosophy
Theories of strongly correlated electrons in metal-organic frameworks
Principal Advisor
-
Doctor Philosophy
Emergence of fractionalised quasiparticles in spin-crossover materials
Principal Advisor
-
Doctor Philosophy
Stimuli Responsive Single Molecule Switches
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Peter Jacobson
-
Doctor Philosophy
Theories of strongly correlated electrons in metal-organic frameworks
Principal Advisor
-
Doctor Philosophy
New Methods for Strongly Correlated Electrons in Chemically Complex Materials
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Carla Verdi
-
Doctor Philosophy
Computer-aided material discovery for light-emitting materials in OLEDs
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Xiuwen Zhou
-
Doctor Philosophy
Electron-phonon coupling in atomic defects for quantum technologies
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Carla Verdi
-
Doctor Philosophy
Computer-aided material discovery for light-emitting materials in OLEDs
Associate Advisor
-
Doctor Philosophy
Novel physics in topological flat-band metal-organic frameworks
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Carla Verdi
-
Doctor Philosophy
Is the superconducting phase compact or not?
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Tom Stace
-
Doctor Philosophy
First principles calculations of defects in solids for quantum technologies
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Carla Verdi
Completed supervision
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Magnetic Raman scattering in quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnets
Principal Advisor
-
2023
Doctor Philosophy
Spin-molecular orbital coupling in multi-nuclear organometallic complexes
Principal Advisor
-
2023
Doctor Philosophy
Collective Dynamics of Trapped Excited Spin-States in Spin Crossover Materials.
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Ross McKenzie
-
2023
Doctor Philosophy
Emergent behaviours in spin crossover materials
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Ross McKenzie
-
2023
Master Philosophy
Investigating first-principle modelling of the electronic structure in metal-organic frameworks
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Xiuwen Zhou
-
2021
Doctor Philosophy
Emergent Phenomena in Spin Crossover Systems
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Xiuwen Zhou
-
2020
Doctor Philosophy
Derivation of effective low-energy Hamiltonians for chemically complex materials from first principles
Principal Advisor
-
2020
Doctor Philosophy
Strongly correlated electrons on the decorated honeycomb lattice studied with rotationally invariant slave-boson mean-field theory
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Ross McKenzie
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2019
Doctor Philosophy
New insights into experiments on unconventional superconductors
Principal Advisor
-
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2011
Doctor Philosophy
Low energy effective Hamiltonians for strongly-correlated organic metals
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Ross McKenzie
-
2010
Doctor Philosophy
Novel Conducting and Superconducting Polymers for Organic Electronics
Principal Advisor
-
-
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2012
Doctor Philosophy
Effective Models for the Photophysical Properties of Organometallic Complexes
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Ross McKenzie
-
2011
Doctor Philosophy
Charge Transport Properties in Eumelanin: Probing the Effect of Hydration on the Ubiquitous Biomacromolecular Pigment via Conductivity, muSR and EPR Experiments
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Ian Gentle
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2009
Master Philosophy
Charge Transport in Eumelanin
Associate Advisor
-
2008
Master Philosophy
Novel Hydrophobic Dendritic Sensitisers for Use in Dye-sensitised Solar Cells: The Effect of Molecular Structure on Performance and Charge Transfer Dynamics
Associate Advisor
-
Doctor Philosophy
The spectroscopic properties of melanin
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Ross McKenzie
Media
Enquiries
Contact Professor Ben Powell directly for media enquiries about:
- Biophysics
- Condensed matter physics
- Low temperature physics
- Magnetism
- Melanin
- Organic electronics
- Quantum mechanics
- Solar cells
- Solid state physics
- Statistical mechanics
- Superconductors
- Theoretical chemistry
- Theoretical physics
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