Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics

Contact Details

jab303@le.ac.uk
j.a.blackman@reading.ac.uk

website at Reading

Background

John Blackman is emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics at Reading and is a Visiting Professor at the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Leicester. His research is in theoretical physics and computational modelling. He has worked in the areas of disordered materials, polymers, the electronic theory and statistical physics of magnetism (in bulk materials and nanoclusters), and in the scaling behaviour of growth and aggregation phenomena.

Research

Nanoscale Magnetic Clusters

Magnetic nanostructures are interesting systems in which to study finite size effects in magnetism. They are also important potential components in high-density data storage media and read/write heads, and furthermore they have possible biomedical applications. The design of high magnetic moment and high anisotropy materials is one of the goals of research in this area. We employ electronic structure techniques to study the properties of single element, binary and encapsulated clusters of sizes up to about 1000 atoms. A particular focus for encapsulated clusters is the sensitivity of the properties to the interface between the two components. During the last decade we have been leading one of the activities in each of two EC supported international research collaborations (AMMARE and NANOSPIN).

Droplet Growth and Coalescence

The nucleation, aggregation and growth of droplets on a surface is a basic process that occurs in a wide range of phenomena from the nano to the larger scale. A current focus of our work is the high surface coverage regime where droplet coalescence processes are rate determining. The system has analogues in higher dimensions, and in particular in 3 dimensions where it is related to the problem of the dense packing of a polydisperse sphere assembly, and in turn to porosity problems.

Selected Publications

1. “Magnetism in binary and encapsulated Co-Mn clusters” A.M. Asaduzzaman and J.A. Blackman, Phys. Rev. B 82 (2010) 134417.

2. “Interface exchange coupling in Co nanoparticles dispersed in a Mn matrix” C. Binns, N. Domingo, A.M. Testa, D. Fiorani, K.N. Trohidou, M. Vasilakaki, J.A. Blackman, A.M. Asaduzzaman, S. Baker, M. Roy and D. Peddis, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 22 (2010) 436005.

3. “Metallic Nanoparticles” J.A. Blackman (ed.), Elsevier, Amsterdam (2009), ISBN 10: 0-444-51240-3; ISBN 13: 978-0-444-51240-6.