Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics

Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics

The electronics of the future could operate with light instead of electricity – or a combination of the two. As yet, no ideal light sources are available for this, however, nor are fibre optics fully developed. The development of such materials is one of the challenges that the scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics in Halle have taken on. They investigate how the microstructure and nanostructure of metallic compounds affect their physical properties, for example how they behave as fibre optics or their magnetic characteristics. Their research concentrates on materials in low dimensions, for instance in a two-dimensional thin layer, a virtually one-dimensional nanowire or a minute heap of atoms, which physicists call a quantum dot and which, in some respects, resembles a single atom.

Contact

Weinberg 2
06120 Halle (Saale)
Phone: +49 345 5582-50

PhD opportunities

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

IMPRS for Science and Technology of Nano-Systems

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

Department Synthetic Materials and Functional Devices

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Department Nano-Systems from ions, spins and electrons

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Department Nanophotonics, Integration, and Neural Technology

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Department Nanomagnetism, Experimental Department I

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The Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics and V.N. Karasin University cooperate in spintronics research

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Stuart Parkin honoured as Clarivate Citation Laureate

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12 Max Planck researchers win coveted ERC Advanced Grants

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The Max Planck – University of Toronto Centre for Neural Science and Technology is now up and running

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Stuart Parkin receives Finnish Millennium Technology Prize, which is worth one million euros and is regarded as Nobel prize for technological innovation

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This physicist changed our world: It was Stuart Parkin’s developments in spintronics that first made Facebook and Google possible, as well as many other computer applications without which our everyday lives are now barely conceivable. Parkin has been Director at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle for one year now. For his colleagues there, his energy is impressive and challenging in equal measure.

Computers today serve as a jukebox, movie archive and photo album, and must thus provide fast access to ever-larger amounts of data. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart and the Halle-based Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics are paving the way for magnetic storage materials that make this possible, cleverly taking advantage of the unique laws of the nanoworld.

Ph.D. position (m/f/d) | Spintronics

Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Halle (Saale) January 29, 2024

Visible spectrum photonic integrated circuits for the brain

2022 Poon, Joyce

Material Sciences Particle Physics Plasma Physics Quantum Physics Solid State Research

The Department of Nanophotonics, Integration, and Neural Technology at the MPI of Microstructure Physics is developing wafer-scale photonic circuit technologies to miniaturize and increase the integration density of optical systems. Such microchip technologies can transform numerous applications, such as displays, quantum information, and sensing.  The Department is using these capabilities to create a set of multifunctional implantable chips that interface with the brain to advance neuroscience. The systems are being deployed to neuroscience labs for exploratory and health research.

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Magnetism in two dimensions goes easy-plane

2021 Bedoya-Pinto, Amilcar; Parkin, Stuart S. P. 

Material Sciences Solid State Research

The physics of low-dimensional systems has been a topic of great interest. Recently, two-dimensional (2D) materials exhibiting long-range magnetic order have been in the spotlight. Using state-of-the art molecular beam epitaxy, we constructed the first large-area 2D ferromagnet - a single CrCl3 monolayer on Graphene-on-Silicon-Carbide substrate - which exhibits an easy-plane magnetic anisotropy (2D-XY universality class). This discovery offers a suitable platform to observe exotic phenomena with application potential, such as 2D spin superfluidity and topologically protected magnetic textures.

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The emergence of ferroic orders in flatland

2020 Sessi, Paolo; Bedoya-Pinto, Amilcar; Parkin, Stuart

Material Sciences Particle Physics Plasma Physics Quantum Physics Solid State Research

Two-dimensional (2D) ferroics displaying magnetic, ferroelectric, or ferroelastic order have recently been discovered. These materials are attracting tremendous interest in the research community both because of the novel physics they host, as well as their potential for next generation nanoelectronics. Our institute explores, synthesizes and characterizes novel 2D ferroics with the aim of using them in innovative energy-efficient devices.

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The growing zoology of skyrmions!

2019 Ma, Tianping; Saha, Rana; Parkin, Stuart

Particle Physics

Spintronics is a field of research that focuses on the fundamental physics and applications of spin-based phenomena. To date spintronics has played a key role in the development of recording heads that are used in magnetic disk drives and in a high-performance, solid-state, non-volatile magnetic random access memory. A third spintronics technology, the magnetic Racetrack memory, has the potential to supplant magnetic disk drives: this article discusses the discovery of several novel magnetic nano-objects, so-called “skyrmions” that could encode the data within Racetrack Memory.

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What falling cats mean for density functional theory

2016 Requist, Ryan Tyler; Gross, Eberhard K. U.

Material Sciences Particle Physics Quantum Physics

Density functional theory, the most widely used method for calculating the properties of molecules and solids, is limited by its reliance on the Born-Oppenheimer approximation – the assumption that nuclei move infinitely more slowly than electrons. Research conducted at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics has overcome this limitation, exploiting recent advances in the concept of Berry curvature to establish a density functional theory that fully accounts for nonadiabatic coupled electron-nuclear motion.

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