Scientific Press Releases

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. more

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. more

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. more

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. more

Physicists at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in Hamburg have discovered a counterintuitive form of electronic transport. In microscopic devices carved from the semimetal bismuth, removing material does not reduce electrical conductance—as conventional wisdom would suggest—but can instead increase it. The study, published in Nature Physics and selected for the magazines cover, shows that when strong magnetic fields are applied to three-dimensional metals, electric currents can flow preferentially along the surfaces of the material known as chiral surface states. This finding sheds new light on the previously overlooked role of surface conduction in semimetals driven to the quantum limit. more

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

Probing the vibration of atoms provides detailed information on local structure and bonding that define material properties. Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) offers extremely high resolution to probe such vibrations. Krystof Brezina and Mariana Rossi from the MPI for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD), and Yair Litman from the MPI for Polymer Research (MPIP), have demonstrated that realistic, first-principles simulations are essential for interpreting TERS images of molecules and materials on surfaces. Their approach reveals how interactions with metallic substrates reshape vibrational imaging at the nanoscale. The work has now been published in ACS Nano. 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