Chair of Quantum Materials

A small chemical change can tip a quantum material into an entirely different state. We want to understand why, and learn to use it.

The Quantum Materials Group was established in 2024 jointly by the Department of Physics and Research Center “Future Energy Materials and Systems”. Many quantum materials lie close to boundaries between competing states. Their behavior can be remarkably sensitive to chemical composition, atomic structure, dimensionality, chemical and structural disorder. We investigate how these microscopic variables establish attractive macroscopic physical properties: magnetic order, topological states, ionic conductivity, superconductivity.

We work at the interface of condensed matter physics, solid-state chemistry and materials science.  The outcome is not simply a well-characterized crystal. By combining exploratory synthesis and crystal growth with crystallography and physical-property measurements, we aim to develop materials design rules that allow us to move deliberately through a material's phase space. Our research topics span magnetic topological materials, van der Waals and frustrated magnets, superconducting and correlated complex oxides, intermetallics, and compositionally complex and high-entropy materials.

Our group brings together researchers  trained in physics and chemistry because both perspectives are essential. For us, chemistry is not merely a route to producing samples for physics experiments: it is one of the tools with which we manipulate the physics itself. Our broad goal is is to make compositional and structural complexity controllable parameters of quantum matter: from stabilizing desired ground states and increasing ordering temperatures to developing material platforms for low-loss electronics, spintronics, quantum technologies and energy-related applications.