Dr. Brett Leedahl BSc, PhD Post-Doctoral Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids

Education

• University of Saskatchewan
  Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
  B.Sc. (Honours) Physics
  May 2013

• University of Saskatchewan
  Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
  Ph. D. Physics
  August 2018

Research Projects

Dilute Magnetic Semiconductors

Dilute magnetic semiconductors are standard semiconducting materials that have been doped with magnetic atoms to give them properties which can be utilized most notably in areas of spintronics and photocatalysis. My goal is to study these transition metal doped semiconductors experimentally and analyze the results using calculations based on the Anderson Impurity Model. This will provide an in depth understanding of how the dopants interact with the semiconductor to modify the electronic and magnetic properties.

Maximum Entropy Deconvolution

Broadening of spectra due to limitations in experimental equipment is generally the convolution of the true underlying signal and some point spread function, this function is roughly a Gaussian for spectrometer broadening. During my NSERC Undergraduate Summer Research position I developed an algorithm, based on the maximum entropy method in information theory, which can deconvolve experimental spectra that have been broadened due to the limitations in instrumental resolution. This purely mathematical approach allows a significant improvement of experimental resolution of spectroscopic data taken at synchrotrons with very low computational cost. This deconvolution algorithm is of particular interest to resonant X-ray emission and scattering techniques due to the broadening being dominated by instrumental factors rather than the more complicated lifetime broadening, which is due to quantum mechanical effects.

Awards

• Gerhard Herzberg Memorial Scholarship (2017)
• Department of Physics and Engineering Physics Scholarship (2016)
• Saskatchewan Innovation and Opportunity Scholarship (2015)
• Saskatchewan Innovation and Opportunity Scholarship (2014)
• Department of Physics and Engineering Physics Scholarship (2013)
• NSERC Undergraduate Summer Research Award (2012)
• James F. Mathison Memorial Scholarship (2012)
• Jennette Gertrude Traynor Award (2011)

Publications

• B. Leedahl, Z. Abooalizadeh, K. LeBlanc, and A. Moewes.
  Tunability of room-temperature ferromagnetism in spintronic semiconductors through nonmagnetic atoms.
  Physical Review B 96 (4), 045202 (2017)
  
  
• B. Leedahl, D. W. Boukhvalov, E. Z. Kurmaev, A. Kukharenko, I. S. Zhidkov, N. V. Gavrilov, S. O. Cholakh, P. Huu Le, C. Wei Luo, and A. Moewes
  Bulk vs. Surface Structure of 3 d Metal Impurities in Topological Insulator Bi₂Te₃
  Scientific Rerports, 7 (1), 5758 (2017)
  
  
• N. Ketabi, T. M. Tolhurst, B. Leedahl, H. Liu, Y. Li, and A. Moewes
  How functional groups change the electronic structure of graphdiyne: Theory and experiment.
  Carbon, (123), 1-6 (2017)
  
  
• T. M. Tolhurst, J. L. Andrews, B. Leedahl, P. Marley, S. Banerjee, and A. Moewes.
  Structure‐induced switching of the band gap, charge order and correlation strength in ternary vanadium oxide bronzes.
  Chemistry A European Journal, (23), 9846 (2017)
  
  
• T. M. Tolhurst, B Leedahl, J. L. Andrews, S Banerjee, and A. Moewes.
  The electronic structure of ε′-V₂O₅: an expanded band gap in a double-layered polymorph with increased interlayer separation.
  Journal of Materials Chemistry A, (5), 23694 (2017).
  
  
• B. Leedahl, A. V. Korolev, I. S. Zhidkov, S. L. Skornyakov, V. I. Anisimov, A. S. Belozerov, A. I. Kukharenko, E. Z. Kurmaev, V. I. Grokhovskii S. O. Cholakhd and A. Moewes
  Searching for pure iron in nature: the Chelyabinsk meteorite
  RSC Advances, (6), 85844 (2016).
  
  
• K. Bouras, G. Schmerber, D. Aureau, H. Rinnert, G. Ferblantier, T. Fix, S. Colis, P. Bazylewski, B. Leedahl, A. Etcheberry, G. S. Chang, A. Dinia and A. Slaoui
  Insight into photon conversion of Nd3+ doped low temperature grown p and n type tin oxide thin films
  RSC Advances, (6), 67157 (2016).
  
  
• T. M. Tolhurst, B. Leedahl, J. L. Andrews, P. M. Marley, S. Banerjeeb and A. Moewes
  Contrasting 1D tunnel-structured and 2D layered polymorphs of V₂O₅: relating crystal structure and bonding to band gaps and electronic structure
  Journal of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, (18), 15798 (2016).
  
  
• P.. Bazylewski, V. L. Nguyen, R. P.C. Bauer, A. H. Hunt, E. J. G. McDermott, B. Leedahl, A. I. Kukharenko, S. O. Cholakh, E. Z. Kurmaev, P. Blaha, A. Moewes, Y. H. Lee & G. S. Chang
  Selective Area Band Engineering of Graphene using Cobalt-Mediated Oxidation
  Scientific Reports, (5), 15380 (2015).
  
  
• R. J. Green, T. Z. Regier, B. Leedahl, J. A. McLeod, X. H. Xu, G. S. Chang, E. Z. Kurmaev, and A. Moewes
  Adjacent Fe-Vacancy Interactions as the Origin of Room Temperature Ferromagnetism in (In_1−xFe_x)₂O₃
  Physical Review Letters, (115), 167401 (2015).
  
  
• B. Leedahl, D. A. Zatsepin, D. W. Boukhvalov, E. Z. Kurmaev, R. J. Green, I. S. Zhidkov, S. S. Kim, L. Cui, N. V. Gavrilov, S. O. Cholakh, and A. Moewes
  Study of the Structural Characteristics of 3d Metals Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu Implanted in ZnO and TiO₂—Experiment and Theory
  Journal of Physical Chemistry C, (118), 28143 (2014).
  
  
• B. Leedahl, D. A. Zatsepin, D. W. Boukhvalov, R. J. Green, J. A. McLeod, S. S. Kim, E. Z. Kurmaev, I. S. Zhidkov, N. V. Gavrilov, S. O. Cholakh, and A. Moewes,
  Structural defects induced by Fe-ion implantation in TiO₂
  Journal of Applied Physics, (115), 053711 (2014).
  
  
• J. A. McLeod, D. W. Boukhvalov, D. A. Zatsepin, R. J. Green, B. Leedahl, L. Cui, E. Z. Kurmaev, I. S. Zhidkov, L. Finkelstein, N. V. Gavrilov, S. O. Cholakh, and A. Moewes,
  Local structure of Fe impurity atoms in ZnO: bulk versus surface
  Journal of Physical Chemistry C (118), 5336-5345 (2014).