Novel materials are the key for innovation and drive novel applications and technological breakthroughs. Particularly, the quantum nature of materials which involves the uncertainty principle provides new routes towards innovative materials and devices with unprecedented properties which are a prerequisite for quantum technologies. It is indeed the quantum nature of matter which manifests in the emergence of superconductivity, magnetism, ferroelectricity and related phenomena such as quantum liquids, charge density waves, multiferroelectric and topological effects, which can bring information and energy-saving technologies to a new level. Our team experimentally studies such “quantum materials” as realized by magnetic molecules, one- or two-dimensional systems, or complex systems with potentially competing degrees of freedom. Often, the basic building blocks are low-dimensional and/or geometrically frustrated magnetic substructures, in which quantum effects are particularly pronounced. Key questions concern the evolution of order(s) and presence of (quantum-driven) disorder, strange properties and phenomena in quantum materials, and structure-property relationship. This is done by fundamental studies on thermodynamic response function down to Millikelvin temperatures and up to high magnetic fields, on static and dynamic magnetic properties, and not least by making of high-quality quantum materials. Our investigations on quantum ground states like unconventional superconductivity, electronic nemantic order or quantum magnetism challenge standard theory, thereby extending our understanding of quantum many-body systems. In addition, our applied materials research on energy storage and battery materials nicely illustrates how fundamental science is directly linked to relevant applications.
On electronic orders, quantum disorder, frustration, and interplay of spin, charge & lattice.
On structure-properties relationsships, magnetic exchange and anisotropy.
Novel electrode materials for electrochemical energy storage.
