Research News

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

Predictions of how light interacts with real materials can consume vast computing resources. By reshaping the equation so that some quantum light is integrated in the matter component from the outset, scientists have developed a far more efficient approach. more

Twister bilayer MoS₂ can be used to control kinetic energy scales in solids. Researchers have shown that the electrons in MoS₂ can interfere destructively, stopping their motion for certain paths. Combined with the twist this makes it possible to engineer exotic magnetic states. more

Theoreticians at the MPSD predict that a unique laser source could produce highly controllable electric currents in any bulk material. The team’s work has been published in PRL. more

Researchers in Hamburg and Aachen suggest a surprising connection between the nematic behavior of a superconductor in a magnetic field — a state that resembles liquid crystals used in LCDs — and its spiral-like groundstate in the absence of the field. more

Photons trapped in a cavity can cause a crystal known as Strontium Titanate (SrTiO₃) to become ferroelectric, according to a new study by the MPSD’s Theory group. The findings have been published in PNAS. more

MPSD and MIT researchers predict that light trapped in a cavity can be used to create a new kind of particle in a solid, consisting of three components at once: Light (photons), electronic excitations (excitons) and lattice vibrations (phonons). more