HPC-Europa3 visit: Optical properties of ultra-thin monoelemental semiconductors

I'm working and doing my research at the Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek. My thesis deals with ultra-thin monoelemental materials and their properties. One of the most important properties to consider for the application of such materials are their optical properties. 

For my research I'm using Density Functional Theory (DFT) implemented with Quantum Espresso. To get better results for optical properties, inclusion of hybrid functionals is needed. Hybrid functionals require more processing power than I had available back home in Croatia and that is the primary reason why I applied for the HPC-Europa 3 visit.

Currently, I'm at Cardiff University, under the supervision of Prof. Nora De Leeuw, and I'm collaborating with parts of her group that already have experience with similar calculations.

At the start of my visit to the UK, I visited EPCC at the University of Edinburgh. Everyone I've met was welcoming and full of hospitality and I'm really glad I had an opportunity to visit EPCC even for a few short days. If anyone is considering applying for a visit to EPCC I would highly recommend it as it was nothing but a positive experience for me.