Institute and Research 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

Mariana Rossi, head of a Lise-Meitner Excellence group in MPSD, has been awarded a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant worth €2 million. The funding will support her project, “Steering the Quantum Dynamics of Confined Molecular Materials” (QUADYMM), over the next five years.  The research aims to uncover how to drive the atomic motion of molecular materials in confinement, in order to modify reaction rates and electronic transport properties with the goal of finding new ways to optimize sustainable technological materials. more

MPSD Director Angel Rubio along with an elite team of world-renowned scientists— Tal Schwartz (Tel Aviv University), Thomas Ebbesen (University of Strasbourg), and Abraham Nitzan (University of Pennsylvania)—has been awarded a highly competitive ERC Synergy Grant valued at €10 million. This funding will support their research into the electromagnetic effects in molecular systems under strong light-matter coupling, a field at the cutting edge of chemistry and quantum physics.
Michael Ruggenthaler and Dominik Sidler, both Group Leaders in Rubio’s team, will play a central role in achieving the ambitious goals of this project. more

MPSD Director Philip Moll has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) for his achievements in the field of microstructured quantum matter. 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

Researchers at the MPSD and Brookhaven National Laboratory used two-dimensional terahertz spectroscopy (2DTS) in a non-collinear geometry for the first time to isolate specific terahertz nonlinearities in the cuprate superconductor La_1.83Sr_0.17CuO₄ by their emission direction. Their work has been published in Nature Physics. more

With the ERC Starting Grant, Chunyu Guo will investigate the novel effects of electronic correlations in the recently discovered AV₃Sb₅ family of Kagome superconductors using a high-precision framework that isolates the samples from external influences. more

George Trenins, a postdoctoral researcher in the Lise Meitner research group Simulations from Ab Initio Approaches: Structure and Dynamics from Quantum Mechanics, has been selected for a Humboldt Research Fellowship. more