Symposium brings together physicists, chemists and material scientists

The secretary of the symposium, Taavi Vaikjärv said: "As a physicist I'm interested in nature, down to its fundamental building blocks. Nature is especially interesting when something unexpected happens. For that we have to go beyond simple models, that's when it all becomes complex and interesting." The Jahn-Teller effect is exactly one of those complex models by which to explain the unexpectedness of nature. 

The Jahn-Teller effect, pseudo Jahn-Teller effect, and related vibronic coupling and electron-phonon interactions are responsible for structural instabilities and dynamics in polyatomic systems, and play a key role in the explanation of seemingly diverse phenomena, such as spontaneous symmetry breaking, structural phase transitions, colossal magnetoresistance, peculiar molecular magnetism, superconductivity in fullerides, giant permittivity and flexoelectricity, and chemical reactions after thermo- or photoexcitation.

The series of mostly biannual Jahn-Teller symposia started in 1976 and addresses topics involving the coupling between electronic and nuclear motions in molecules and solids in conditions of electronic degeneracy and pseudodegeneracy. 

Topics of the symposium include:

• Fundamental theory, computation, and experimental observation of vibronic coupling Jahn-Teller (JT), pseudo JT (PJT), and Renner-Teller effects
• Vibronic coupling effects in structural, reactivity, and spectroscopy properties of molecules and clusters, fullerenes and fullerides, graphene, silicene, and related systems
• Conical intersections, geometric phase effects, and nonadiabatic dynamics on intersecting potential energy surfaces; implications in photophysical and decay processes
• Local and cooperative JT and PJT effects and electron-phonon interactions in solids: impurity centers, ferroelectrics, multiferroics, topological insulators, superconductors, spin-orbital and spin-crossover effects
• Further applications of the JT and PJT effects in materials science: spintronics, magnetic-dipolar bistability, molecular magnets, permittivity, flexoelectricity, and electrostriction

Symposium is supported by the European Union through the Regional Development Fund.

More information: https://ttl.ut.ee/jt16/  

Vladimir Hižnjakov, chairman of the organizing committee, hizh@ut.ee
Taavi Vaikjärv, secretary of the symposium, taavi.vaikjarv@ut.ee, tel. +372 51946373