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Mechanical strain is one of the most common tools used to tailor the properties of materials. In piezoelectric materials, stretching or compressing a crystal generates an electrical polarization. In piezomagnetic materials, it induces magnetization. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) and the University of Oxford have now discovered that mechanical strain also induces chirality in non-chiral crystals, opening a new direction to control this property on demand and potentially imprint chiral electronic properties. This work has just been published in Nature.

Theoretical work at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in Hamburg has helped explain a new experimental milestone: for the first time, a single molecule sitting on a surface have been shown to reach the fundamental quantum limit of optical coherence. The experiments were performed at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) in Erlangen; MPSD researcher Burak Gurlek provided the theoretical models explaining how temperature and the surface shape the molecules' behavior. The findings, published in Science, open new opportunities for the study of molecule-surface interactions and molecular quantum technologies.

When viruses travel through the air in tiny droplets, they can quickly start to dry out. Yet many viruses remain infectious after rehydration — something that is still not fully understood. Now, an international team led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in Hamburg has directly observed how the protein shells of viruses can change shape during dehydration, offering new clues to viral resilience and opening new possibilities for virology research. The results, published in Light: Science & Applications, lay the groundwork for potential applications in virology and public health, and can for instance help develop antiviral strategies.

An international team of researchers has demonstrated a new mechanism by which distinct vibrations in a crystal – normally decoupled by symmetry – can be dynamically linked. Using a light scattering technique, the team showed that in a special class of crystals with a built-in sense of rotation, known as ferroaxial materials, collective fluctuations of this ordered state act as a dynamical bridge between otherwise independent vibrational modes. This unconventional channel, called resonant chiral dressing, has also been fully explained theoretically. The findings, published in Nature Physics, open new routes to detect and control exotic quantum phases with light.