Zsolt Rak home page

Research Interests

I am a PhD student at Michigan State University, working in the Theoretical Condensed Matter group of Prof. S. D. Mahanti. My research interest is centered on studying and understanding the structural and electronic properties of materials, by means of first-principles computational methods within density functional theory (DFT). More specifically, I have been studying the nature of defect states introduced by substitutional impurities and vacancies in III-VI layered semiconductors, the mechanism of incorporation of hydrogen in CdTe and its effect on the electronic structure of the host material, the negative-U problem associated with the presence of group - III impurities in PbTe. Furthermore, I have also been investigating the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of novel ternary and quaternary systems, containing both rare-earth and transition metal atoms for their potential thermoelectric properties.

Publications

Zsolt Rak/Khang Hoang and S. D. Mahanti,
Group III impurities in PbTe – the negative-U problem, in preparation.

Zsolt Rak, S. D. Mahanti, Krishna C. Mandal, and Nils C. Fernelius,
Defect induced rigidity enhancement in layered semiconductors, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett.

Zsolt Rak, S. D. Mahanti, and Krishna C. Mandal,
Ab initio modeling of hydrogen defects in CdTe, J. Electron. Mater. 38, 1539 (2009)

A. Tomic, Zsolt Rak, J. P. Veazey, S. D. Mahanti, S. H. Tessmer, C. D. Malliakas, and M. G. Kanatzidis,
Scanning tunneling microscopy study of the CeTe₃ charge density wave, Phys. Rev. B 79, 085422 (2009).

Zsolt Rak, S. D. Mahanti, Krishna C. Mandal, and Nils C. Fernelius,
Electronic structure of substitutional defects and vacancies in GaSe, J. Phys. Chem. Solids 70, 344 (2009).

Zsolt Rak, S. D. Mahanti, Krishna C. Mandal, and Nils C. Fernelius,
Theoretical studies of defect states in GaTe, J. Phys. Cond. Mat. 21, 015504 (2008).

Zsolt Rak, S. D. Mahanti, Krishna C. Mandal, and Nils C. Fernelius,
Theoretical studies of defect states in GaSe and GaTe, Proc. SPIE 7079, 70790Q (2008).

Xiuni Wu, Melanie Francisco, Zsolt Rak, T. Bakas, S.D. Mahanti, and Mercouri G. Kanatzidis,
Synthesis, magnetism and electronic structure of YbNi_2-xFe_xAl₈ (x=0.91) isolated from Al flux, J. Solid State Chem. 181, 2369 (2008).

Zsolt Rak, S. D. Mahanti, Krishna C. Mandal, and Nils C. Fernelius,
Electronic Structure of Cd, In, Sn Substitutional Defects in GaSe, MRS Proc. 0994-F03-10 (2007).

Zsolt Rak

Research Interests

Publications

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