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Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) and an international team led by Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) have discovered that simply twisting two pieces of the crystal hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) against each other creates quantum wells that emit deep-ultraviolet light more than ten times more efficiently than the best existing semiconductor technology. First-principles calculations by MPSD theorists in Angel Rubio's department confirmed the underlying mechanism. The results are published in Science. more

The world is never really at rest. Even in a vacuum near ultracold temperatures where all classical motion should come to a halt, you will find quantum fluctuations. In thin, two-dimensional materials, these include random vibrations that can alter electromagnetic fields – a feature that theorists have long posited could be useful for modifying materials. Angel Rubio, Director of the Theory Department at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in Hamburg, has been one of the principal architects of this idea. Together with colleagues Rubio developed the theoretical framework predicting that quantum fluctuations inside cavities could reshape the properties of solids – without any external force. Now, that prediction has been confirmed experimentally for the first time. In a new paper published in Nature, an international team of 33 researchers from 17 institutions – including a large MPSD contingent – demonstrates that quantum fluctuations from the vacuum alone inside atom-thin layers of a 2D material can alter the properties of a nearby crystal. more

Researchers at ETH Zurich and the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) have shown, for the first time with very high time and spatial resolution, that electrons in certain two-dimensional materials only follow the motion of the atomic nuclei with a delay. This insight could lead to the development of novel electronic devices in the future. more

Researchers at the Max-Planck-Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) and partner institutes have developed a general and experimentally realistic method to create square-lattice moiré materials by twisting two-dimensional semiconductors with rectangular unit cells by 90 degrees. This simple geometric recipe produces moiré patterns with square symmetry and flat, isolated electronic bands that map onto a tunable square-lattice Hubbard model—the theoretical framework underpinning magnetism and high-temperature superconductivity. The approach works across a broad class of materials and offers powerful knobs to explore correlated-electron phases in a clean, gate-tunable platform. more

Three Directors of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD), Angel Rubio, Jie Shan and Kin Fai have been selected as Highly Cited Researchers 2025 by Clarivate. more

Quantum materials are a fascinating platform for future technologies, as they host a variety of exotic phenomena beyond the reach of classical physics. Among them, van der Waals heterostructures stand out: They are created by stacking different two-dimensional layers that can be only one atom thick. These structures are remarkably easy to manipulate, offering unprecedented tunability and a vast realm for exploration. A team from the Max-Planck-Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) and Columbia University has found that van der Waals heterostructures can naturally serve as cavities for long-wavelength terahertz (THz) light. This work has been published in Nature Physics. more

Metal oxides are abundant in nature and central to technologies such as photocatalysis and photovoltaics. Yet, many suffer from poor electrical conduction, caused by strong repulsion between electrons in neighboring metal atoms. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD), Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and partner institutions have shown that light pulses can temporarily weaken these repulsive forces, lowering the energy required for electrons mobility, inducing a metal-like behavior. This discovery, now published in Science Advances, offers a new way to manipulate material properties with light, and holds great potential for more efficient light-based devices. more

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD), in collaboration with international partners, have developed momentum-resolved Floquet optical selection rules. They show how these symmetry-based rules determine the spectral weight distributions of photon-dressed sidebands in time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (TrARPES) experiments across different pump-probe configurations. This fundamental work has now been published in Science Advances. more

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) have theoretically demonstrated that photons trapped inside an optical cavity carry detailed information about a material placed within it. By measuring properties of the photons leaking out of the cavity, researchers can probe how an optical cavity modifies the properties of the embedded materials. This insight opens new possibilities for experimental techniques to explore entangled light-matter systems. Their work has been published in Physical Review Letters. more