Temperature dependent optical response of plasmonic materials from first principles

The material choice of the near field transducer (NFT) as part of HAMR is critical to the efficiency and effectiveness of future hard drive technologies. The NFT is subjected to intense environmental conditions, high temperature and strain.

Previously, the choice of material was dictated by experimental testing, which can be expensive and time consuming. This project aims to use state of the art ab initio techniques to investigate the properties of plasmonic materials for new applications. Using density functional theory, many-body perturbation theory and electron-phonon interactions, the effect of temperature on the plasmonic performance will be evaluated through a range of temperatures in a fully ab initio way.