2024 Fall Density Functional Theory (Prof. Chai Jeng-Da)

Lecturer: Professor Chai, Jeng-Da 蔡政達
Grade: A+
Department: PHYS GRAD
Credit(s): 2
Course Materials: Self-prepared notes

Density functional theory (DFT) was developed by Walter Kohn, (1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate), Lu Jeu Sham, and Pierre Hohenberg to study the ground-state (GS) properties of large systems using first principle methods. DFT can be used to study electronic systems, including atoms, molecules, and solids…

Taking the course as a sophomore proved to be a huge challenge, but it was very worth it! The course included two homework sets and a final report, which asks us to choose a recent paper in the field and present an 8-minute oral report, along with a written report in PRL style. At the end, I came back with a whole lot of knowledge on first-principle solid state physics calculations.

I update my notes from time to time.

See my notes here

See course content here

For my final report, I presented the paper Dion, M. et al. (2004). Van der Waals density functional for general geometries. You can see the paper here. If you’d like to see my final presentation slides and my final report, feel free to contact me!