Press releases

Congratulations, Ben List and David MacMillan! more

Lead telluride is an important thermoelectric material but its metal-to-semiconductor transition above 230 °C is not fully understood. Here, atomic-resolution transmission electron microscopy provides structural insights into this transition, explaining the metallic behavior by local structural changes leading to the formation of a dislocation network within the rock salt structure. more

Recent research suggested that hydrodynamic electron flow in 3D conductors was possible, but exactly how it happened or how to observe it remained unknown. Until now. 
A team of researchers from Harvard, MIT and the Max Planck Institute Chemical Physics of Solids developed a theory to explain how hydrodynamic electron flow could occur in 3D materials and observed it for the first time using a new imaging technique. more

The Microscopy Conference 2021 (MC2021) was held in digital format from August 22nd to 26th 2021 organized by TU Wien. The Microscopy Conference MC2021 is the largest and most important scientific event on this area in Europe and offers fascinating information about mainly electron microscopy methods and their applications in life sciences or materials sciences with over 700 participants from about 40 countries. more

Über 5.000 Läufer haben am Mittwochabend am ersten Tag der REWE-Team-Challenge teilgenommen. Das MPI CPfS war mit 16 Laufbegeisterten in schicken neuen Shirts in den Max-Planck Farben mit dabei! In vier Teams, einem Frauen- und drei Männerteams, ging es auf der 5 km langen Strecke vom Kulturpalast durch die historische Innenstadt Dresdens zum Rudolf-Harbig-Stadion. Alle haben die stimmungsvolle Laufstrecke genossen und unser Frauenteam hat es fast in die Top 10 geschafft (Platz 14)! more

The phenomenon of superconductivity, providing current transmission without dissipation and a host of unique magnetic properties arising from macroscopic quantum coherence, was first discovered over a century ago. It was not understood until 1957, after which it quickly became clear that superconductors could in principle exist with a wide variety of the fundamental characteristic often referred to as the order parameter. Until the late 1970’s, however, all superconductors found experimentally had the same class of order parameter. more

The analogy between the behaviour of different quantum particles which have the same quantum nature is one of the most fascinating aspects of science. A simple but prominent example is the analogy between the behaviour of electrons (fermions) in a one-dimensional metal and spinons (fermions) in a one-dimensional quantum magnet. But, what are spinons? more

The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine awarded Juri Grin with its highest honor – the V. I. Vernadskyj Gold Medal more

The spatially resolved determination of which of the two enantiomorphic structural variants - the left-handed or the right-handed - of a chiral phase is present in a polycrystalline material is the focus of our publication in Science Advances. With the EBSD (electron backscatter diffraction) -based technique, this is shown for the first time for the chiral element structure β-Mn for which a determination of the handedness with usual x-ray diffraction methods is not possible so far. more

The electronic structure of metallic materials determines the behavior of electron transport. Magnetic Weyl semimetals have a unique topological electronic structure - the electron's motion is dynamically linked to its spin. more

The quasi-quantized Hall effect is a three-dimensional relative of the Quantum Hall effect in two-dimensional systems. more

Dr. Guowei Li from the Solid State Chemistry Department has left our institute this month. However, he fortunately will stay in close cooperation with members of our institute. more

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has appointed Claudia Felser as an International Member under the auspices of the Applied Physics Section in recognition of her outstanding and continuing research accomplishments. more

Maja Bachmann of the Physics of Quantum Materials department has been awarded the Otto-Hahn-Medaille of the Max Planck Society for her outstanding doctoral research. more

Researchers at MPI-CPfS have shown, through muon implantation experiments, that in Sr2RuO4 the onset of superconductivity causes spontaneous electrical currents to flow. They did this by showing that the onset of these currents splits from the main superconducting transition under uniaxial stress, which proves that it is a distinct transition, not a measurement artefact. more

Green hydrogen - produced from water electrolysis by using sustainable electricity - is getting more attention due to its potential to be used as energy carrier as well as building block for various industrial processes. Among both half-reactions of water electrolysis, Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) is kinetically more challenging and it requires advances in the development of innovative electrocatalysts. more

A team of scientists from the MPI CPfS in the research field Chemical Metals Sciences prepared a new intermetallic compound by the high-pressure high-temperature technique. From quantum-chemical analysis, this material is formed by chain polyanions of Ge atoms and four-atomic cluster polycations Lu₄. It constitutes an important step in the understanding of chemical bonding in intermetallic compounds. more

A team lead by scientists from the MPI CPfS developed a novel experimental method that provides direct images of excited states in a transition metal compound without the need for complex calculations. This constitutes a major step for the understanding of the electronic structure and the rich physics of these materials.   more

Topological materials are characterised by unique electronic and physical properties that are determined by the underlying topology of their electronic systems. Scientists from the Max Planck Institutes for Microstructure Physics (Halle) and for Chemical Physics of Solids (Dresden) have now discovered that (TaSe₄)₂I is the first material in which a charge density wave induces a phase transition between the semimetal to insulator state. more

Claudia Felser, director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, is one of the mostly cited researchers in the world in the category Physics. This is apparent from the list Highly Cited Researchers for 2020 which was published by the company Clarivate Analytics. more