Researchers in Germany and the U.S.A. propose a new optical method to verify topological magnon phases. Writing in PRL, the team shows that the intensity of polarized laser light scattered back from a magnetic material is an indicator of topological phases. more

An international research team led by the MPSD has found an explanation why chemical reactions are slowed down inside mirrored cavities, where molecules are forced to interact with light. Their work is a key step in understanding this experimentally observed process. more

An international research team led by the MPSD’s Microstructured Quantum Matter Department reports the first observation of chiral transport in a structurally achiral crystal, the Kagome superconductor CsV₃Sb₅. more

Researchers from the Cavalleri group report in PNAS that superconducting ‘stripes’ in certain copper-based compounds may lead to a break in the material’s crystal symmetry, thus resulting in anomalous emission of terahertz radiation. more

Theoreticians at the MPSD have demonstrated how the coupling between intense lasers, the motion of electrons, and their spin influences the emission of light on the ultrafast timescale. more

An MPSD theory team describes in PNAS how high harmonics can illuminate the movement of atoms and electrons down to a few femtoseconds. As the high harmonics change in intensity, they provide ‘snapshots’ of the atoms’ and electrons’ movements at each exact moment. more

Excitons whose electrons have a 1D character while the holes display 2D characteristics have been produced in layered SiP₂ for the first time. The study by experimentalists at two Chinese Universities and theoreticians at the MPSD has appeared in Nature Materials. more

An international team of researchers from Germany, Switzerland, and the USA introduces ‘quasi-symmetry’ as a guiding principle - a concept which leads to the discovery of a new type of topological material with great potential for applications in spintronics and quantum technologies. more

Researchers in Hamburg have discovered that the ferroelectric polarization of lithium niobate (LiNbO₃) changes in areas well away from the direct ‘hit’ of a laser pulse, with the polarization reversal occurring throughout the entire crystal. The team’s study of this hitherto unknown phenomenon - called nonlocal nonlinear phononics - has been published in Nature Physics. more

The use of simulation tools can be complicated and time-intensive. Now a research team from the MPSD and Imperial College London (UK) has developed a workflow that allows researchers to spend far less time on the syntax and data formats of the simulation package and to work with the data immediately. more