MPSD News

The mechanism by which liquids emit a particular light spectrum known as the high-harmonic spectrum is markedly different from the one in other phases of matter like gases and solids. An international research team from ETH Zurich and the MPSD reports on this distinctive process in Nature Physics. more

Terahertz light pulses can stabilize ferromagnetism in YTiO₃ at temperatures more than three times its usual transition temperature. Researchers from the Cavalleri group report in Nature that the high-temperature ferromagnetic state persisted for many nanoseconds after the light exposure. more

An international research team has demonstrated unambiguously that the bulk crystal Ta₂NiSe₅ is not an excitonic insulator, settling the debate around the microscopic origin of symmetry breaking in the material. more

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

Angel Rubio, the Director of the MPSD’s Theory Department and the Institute’s Managing Director, has been named as a Highly Cited Researcher 2022 by Clarivate. His papers rank in the top 1 per cent by citations in this research field. 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

Research team involving experimentalists and theorists explores how light can fundamentally alter the properties of solids - and how to harness these phenomena in laser-driven materials for future applications. Their colloquium has been published in Reviews of Modern Physics. 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

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

MPSD researcher Ankit Disa has accepted a professorship at Cornell University in the United States. He will take up his new post as Assistant Professor of Applied and Engineering Physics at Cornell in July 2022. more