Together, the center’s scientists will study quantum materials that are not settled into a stable state. Scientists can perturb materials through methods such as electric currents, heat pulses, barrages of photons or by embedding them in quantum cavities. Once out of equilibrium, a material may exhibit new properties such as magnetism, ferroelectricity or superconductivity. If scientists could carefully control this process, they could design materials for wide-ranging and potentially revolutionary applications, including quantum computing.
The New York Center unites the complementary research strengths of its four partner institutions. It will be led by the MPSD’s managing director Andrea Cavalleri and Dmitri Basov, Higgins Professor of Physics at Columbia University. MPSD Theory director Ángel Rubio and Andrew Millis, the Co-Director of the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Quantum Physics (CCQ), are the Center’s deputy co-directors.
The Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz will contribute with spectroscopy experiments involving intensive laser pulses in the terahertz frequency range, which can disturb atomic arrangements. In this non-equilibrium state – which typically lasts only one picosecond or one trillionth of a second – new material phenomena can be investigated.
In addition, the center will establish new structures for the career development of young scientists. It will also support long-term visitors and the exchange of researchers – both in Germany and the United States – over the initial five-year funding term. All four partners will contribute around 300,000 Euro a year each to create and sustain the center’s collaborative activities.
