Heil Group
Computational Material Design @ TU Graz
Welcome to the internet home of the Computational Material Design (CMD) Lab at the Graz University of Technology (TU Graz).
We are a research group led by Christoph Heil that specializes in using state-of-the-art computational methods to explore and predict physical phenomena in materials. Our focus lies on superconductivity and lattice dynamics, with a strong emphasis on understanding these phenomena entirely from first principles.
If you’re curious about superconductivity and why it’s such an exciting and important field, you can check out this video on TU Graz’s YouTube channel (currently available only in German): What is a Superconductor?, where I talk about superconductivity and its importance.
You can also hear about our work and related topics in these podcast episodes:
- Talk Science to Me (in German)
- Bridge the Gap
Our work extends to utilizing the predictive power of first-principles methods to design new materials with desired properties. Some of the key areas we are currently working on include:
- Investigating superconductivity, charge-density waves, and their competition in reduced dimensions, particularly in transition metal chalcogenides.
- Searching for new carbon-based superconducting materials in the nano-regime, such as nanoribbons and nanosheets.
- Exploring the superconducting phase in high-pressure hydrides and predicting new materials with record-breaking ( T_c ).
For more details about our ongoing projects, visit the Research Topics section. A full list of our publications is available in the Publications section.
If you’re interested in collaborating or looking for Bachelor’s or Master’s thesis opportunities, feel free to contact Christoph Heil.
