Dept Theory

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

Mohammad Hafezi, Professor at the University of Maryland and Fellow of the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), has been honored with a Humboldt Research Award. As part of the award, he will spend time at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in Hamburg, collaborating with leading scientists in the field of quantum materials and light-matter interactions. more