Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research

Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research

Lithium batteries that provide electric cars with power, superconductors that conduct electricity over long distances without loss, solar cells that harvest solar power – all of these examples are based on the electrical conductivity characteristics of solid materials. These are some of the phenomena which scientists investigate at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research. Solid state materials include metals, ceramics and even crystals of organic molecules. Just how the structures of these materials affect their electrical, mechanical and magnetic properties, is what solid state researchers seek to understand. To this end, the researchers particularly focus on solids at the nanoscale, which behave differently compared to materials in larger dimensions. In order to miniaturize electronic circuits even further or to prepare for the electronics that will follow on from the silicon era, the behaviour of these solids needs to be controlled.

Contact

Heisenbergstraße 1
70569 Stuttgart
Phone: +49 711 689-0
Fax: +49 711 689-1010

PhD opportunities

This institute has an International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS):

IMPRS for Condensed Matter Science

In addition, there is the possibility of individual doctoral research. Please contact the directors or research group leaders at the Institute.

Department Electronic Structure Theory

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Department Solid State Spectroscopy

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Department Nanoscale Science

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Department Physical Chemistry of Solids

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Department Solid State Quantum Electronics

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Department Quantum Many-Body Theory

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Department Electronic Structure Theory

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Department Inorganic Solid State Chemistry

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Department Low Dimensional Electron Systems

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Glycoproteins and glycolipids which are abundant on cell surfaces can now be visualized one molecule at a time

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An ultra-fast microscope combines atomic spatial and temporal resolution and thus enables unprecedented insights into the dynamics of electrons in molecules

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The Max Planck Society and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation recognize the achievements of Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, Anastassia Alexandrova, and Sumit Gulwani

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A new technique makes it possible to image the spatial structure of polysaccharides using a scanning tunnelling microscope

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For the first time, it is possible to produce crystalline layers of precious metals that consist of a single atomic layer and which are semiconducting

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The sun sends more energy to Earth than humanity needs. Researchers led by Bettina Lotsch, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, are working on materials that can help us put this abundant supply to use for a whole host of purposes – even beyond the energy revolution.

For a long time, pianists have had to live without the sensation of playing on ivory keys. One remedy for this is synthetic ivory, a substitute developed by Dieter Fischer, Sarah Parks, and Jochen Mannhart, who usually spend their time researching quantum electronic phenomena at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart. Now, a start-up is planning to produce the material on a large scale – and not only for use in piano keys.

Brilliant-cut diamonds can emit a dazzling array of light, but that is not what attracts Joerg Wrachtrup to these precious stones. The Professor of Physics at the University of Stuttgart and Fellow at Stuttgart’s Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research works with less conspicuous diamonds. His team uses these to develop sensors that are intended to allow live observation of the molecular machinery in a living cell. These insights into the nanoworld could also be of benefit in medicine.

Quantum World in a Cube

1/2014 Material & Technology

Nanoelectronics is at once a promise and a challenge. Within their tiny dimensions, electrons, the drivers of electronic circuits, exhibit some exotic quantum effects. Using ultrasensitive techniques, researchers in Klaus Kern’s department at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart are studying the behavior of electrons in nanostructures.

Printable, flexible and low-cost – these are the properties that engineers hope to achieve with organic electronics. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research are investigating various materials that can be used to manufacture monitors that can be rolled up, or low-cost chips for mass-produced articles.

Chemist / Material Scientist / Physicist (m/f/d) as a Theme Lead for the SOLBAT project

Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart March 01, 2024

Assistant (f/m/d) (50%)

Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart February 07, 2024

Postdoctoral Reseacher (m/f/d) | Development of Ion Soft Landing Instrument

Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart October 12, 2023

Cationic perovskite superconductor from high-pressure synthesis

2022 Kim, Minu; Wedig, Ulrich; Takagi, Hidenori

Chemistry Material Sciences Quantum Physics Solid State Research

Quantum materials with unprecedented properties are often stabilized under high pressures. Here we present the discovery of superconductivity at Tc = 15 K in new perovskite antimonates Ba1−xKxSbO3 (BKSO) synthesized at a high pressure of 12 GPa. The sibling perovskites Ba1−xKxBiO3 (BKBO) are known as anionic high-Tc superconductors with even higher Tc = 30 K. The distribution of valence electrons onto the cations (Sb or Bi) and ligands (O) is slightly different in BKSO compared to BKBO. Metal-oxygen covalency is suggested to become more important in BKSO. 

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The whole is more than the sum of its parts – new perspectives on complex quantum systems with many particles

2022 Schäfer, Thomas

Chemistry Material Sciences Quantum Physics Solid State Research

The Hubbard model is the simplest model for electronic correlations, however, it is not exactly solvable. A new numerical perspective, the so-called multi-method, multi-messenger approach, bears the potential for leading to new insights also for the celebrated high-temperature superconductors and has already been successfully applied to certain parameter regimes.

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Light-storing carbon nitrides: From dark photocatalysis to solar batteries and light-driven microswimmers

2021 Schlomberg, Hendrik; Kröger, Julia; Gouder, Andreas; Podjaski, Filip; Lotsch, Bettina Valeska

Chemistry Material Sciences Quantum Physics Solid State Research

Poly(heptazinimide), a chemically robust and versatile carbon nitride, is equipped with unique opto-electronic and -ionic properties. These properties allow for the simultaneous conversion and storage of sunlight within one single material. From classical photocatalysis to photocatalysis in the dark, all the way to solar batteries, light-driven microswimmers and novel sensors - carbon nitrides are chemical all-rounders and open up new perspectives at the interface between solar energy conversion and electrochemical energy storage.

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Atomic-scale tuning of the charge distribution by strain engineering in oxide heterostructures

2021 Wu, Yu-Mi; Suyolcu, Y. Eren; Kim, Gideok; Christiani, Georg; Wang, Yang; Keimer, Bernhard; Logvenov, Gennady; van Aken, Peter A.

Chemistry Material Sciences Quantum Physics Solid State Research

Mechanical strain can be used to selectively modify physical properties in oxide heterostructures. For this purpose, we embedded La0.5Sr0.5MnO3 (LSMO) layers between La2CuO4 (LCO) layers and deposited them on different substrates. This allowed us to tune systematically the mechanical strain within the LSMO layers. Within the layers, we determine the charge distribution atomically resolved by electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) and correlate it with measurements of conductivity as well as magnetic properties. 

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Novel functions from the edge of the quantum world

2020 Boschker, Hans; Braak, Daniel; Bredol, Philipp; Mannhart, Jochen

Chemistry Material Sciences Quantum Physics Solid State Research

The transition regime between the quantum world and our daily reality based on classical physics offers the possibility to realize phenomena and devices with unheard-of properties and functions. Non-unitary quantum electronics uses this transition regime by combining the evolution of quantum states as described by Schrödinger’s equation with quantum jumps, quantum collapse processes, or the decoherence of quantum waves. Electronic or photonic devices using this combination may work outside the generally accepted fundamental laws of physics.

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