Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2022); Advisor: Prof. Bilge Yildiz
B. Tech. in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, National Institute of Technology-Trichy, India (2016)
Professional Affiliations
Member of the Materials Research Society (MRS)
Member of the American Physical Society (APS)
Areas of Interest
Points defects and interfaces
Electronic structure and excited state properties
Ab initio thermodynamics
Oxides for quantum technologies and renewable energy applications
Experience
2023-Present: Maria Goeppert Mayer Postdoctoral Fellow, Argonne National Laboratory
2022-2023: Postdoctoral Appointee, Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
2022 Summer: Postdoctoral researcher, Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Advisor: Prof. Bilge Yildiz
2016-2022: PhD candidate and MIT Energy Initiative Fellow, Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Advisor: Prof. Bilge Yildiz
2015-2016: Undergraduate research assistant, National Institute of Technology-Trichy, India; Advisor: Prof. S. Natarajan
2015 Summer: DAAD-WISE scholar, Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials, Freiburg, Germany; Advisor: Dr. Dirk Helm
2014 Summer: Research intern, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras; Advisor: Prof. K. C. Hari Kumar
Publications
V. Somjit, J. Davidsson, Y. Jin, and G. Galli An NV-center in magnesium oxide as a spin qubit for hybrid quantum technologies arXiv:2409.00246 (2024).
V. Somjit and B. Yildiz Charge trapping at Al/Al2O3 interface facilitates hydrogen-induced superabundant metal vacancy formation Phys. Rev. Mater. 7, L072001 (2023).
V. Somjit and B. Yildiz Atomic and electronic structure of Al2O3/Al interface during oxide propagation probed by ab initio Grand Canonical Monte Carlo. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 14, 42613 (2022)
Z. J. Tan*, V. Somjit*, B. Yildiz and N. X. Fang (*equal contribution) Electronegative metal dopants improve switching consistency in Al2O3 resistive switching devices. Phys. Rev. Mater. 6, 10500 (2022).
K. Daehn, B. Ravi, J. Gregory, M. Berlinger, V. Somjit and E. Olivetti Innovations to decarbonize materials industries. Nat. Rev. Mater. 7, 275 (2022)
V. Somjit and B. Yildiz Doping α-Al2O3 to reduce its hydrogen permeability: Thermodynamic assessment of hydrogen defects and solubility from first principles. Acta Materialia, 169, 172 (2019)