MPSD News

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) and MIT have successfully created a new, long-lasting magnetic state in an antiferromagnetic material using only light. This breakthrough holds significant promise for advancing information processing and memory chip technology. The team reports the direct stimulation of atoms in an antiferromagnetic material with a terahertz laser—a light source oscillating more than a trillion times per second. By tuning the laser’s frequency to match the natural vibrations of the material’s atoms, they induced an ultrafast change in the atomic structure, ultimately driving the system into a novel magnetic state. Their work has been published in Nature. more

Angel Rubio, Director of the Theory Department at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) and Managing Director of the Institute, has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher 2024 by Clarivate. Joining him on this prestigious list are Jie Shan and Kin Fai Mak from Cornell University, all three of them are Principal Investigators at the Max Planck - New York Center for Non-Equilibrium Quantum Phenomena. These researchers have demonstrated broad and lasting influence, with their publications ranking in the top 1% for citations over the past decade. more

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter have made a groundbreaking advancement in light-controlled superconductivity, demonstrating that superconducting properties can be enhanced by coupling materials with quantum light in optical cavities. This study uses magnesium diboride (MgB₂), a well-known phonon-mediated superconductor, and employs state-of-the-art quantum electrodynamical density-functional theory (QEDFT) to reveal how photon vacuum fluctuations inside an optical cavity can increase its superconducting transition temperature. more

The renewed funding comes from Columbia University, the Flatiron Institute, the MPSD and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany. The New York Center will also expand to include Cornell University as a new partner institution. more

The workshop in northern Spain, organised by the New York City Center on Non-Equilibrium Quantum Phenomena, provided the perfect forum to discuss some key questions for the quantum science era. more

The multiferroic NiI₂ has greater magnetoelectric coupling than any known material of its kind, making it a prime candidate for technology advances, an international research team reports in Nature.  more

Professor Andrea Cavalleri, founding director of the MPSD, is to be honored with the 2024 EPS Europhysics Prize by the European Physical Society. The EPS is awarding the Prize in recognition of his “pioneering studies of photo-induced emergent phases of quantum materials: from enhanced superconductivity to the control of materials topology”. more

Mark Kamper Svendsen has been awarded a Humboldt Research Fellowship to investigate how cavities need to be adapted in order to achieve specific changes in the materials placed inside them. more

Angel Rubio, director of the Theory Department and managing director of the MPSD, has been awarded the prestigious Spanish National Research Prize for his work on computational solid-state physics. more

Measurements of the fluctuations of the atomic positions in SrTiO₃ under mid-infrared light yield new insights into the creation of the material’s ferroelectric state. An MPSD research team reports in Nature Materials that the material transforms into a state of permanently ordered electrical dipoles.  more