WELCOME TO THE OLSSON MATERIALS MODELLING GROUP
The Materials Theory and Modelling group, led by Associate Professor Dr Emilia Olsson, researches how real materials - disordered, defective, and structurally heterogeneous - acquire their function from the atomic scale. We combine first-principles electronic structure theory, atomistic simulation, and statistical modelling to understand how local environments, charge localisation, and interface shape electronic, ionic, and structural response.
Our group is part of the Materials Department at the Advanced Research Center for Nanolithography (ARCNL) and the Condensed Matter Theory group at the Institute of Theoretical Physics University of Amsterdam.
DISORDER-AWARE MATERIALS DESIGN
Real materials are rarely perfect. Disorder, defects, interaces, and local structural variations can determine how charge moves, where it localises, how atoms rearrange, and how all these play a part in the subsequent material function.
We develop computational approaches to understand and predict these effect from the atomic scale. By combining electronic-structure theory, atomistic simulations, and statistical modelling we connect the local atomic environment to electronic, ionic, and structural behaviour. Our aim is to move beyond idealised structures and individual defects towards predictive descriptions of complex materials, treating disorder as a physical variable rather than an imperfection.
Understanding how disorder governs material behaviour is essential for developing more reliable technologies, be it for the next-generation semiconductors, energy, or high-tech manufacturing equipment, particularly as those technologies are pushed towards ever demanding operating conditions.
