Quantum Materials

Quantum materials are solids that show remarkable properties when their electrons strongly interact, when they are confined to low spatial dimensions, when they couple to other degrees of freedom or when they form collective or topological states. More often than not, quantum materials display a complex mix of these possibilities. Superconductors, frustrated and low-dimensional magnetic systems, Mott insulators or multiferroics are among the most prominent examples of quantum materials. Owing to their novel and controllable properties, these materials hold great promise for technological applications from energy storage to quantum information. The scope of LANEF’s research on quantum materials, however, is essentially fundamental. It involves solid-state chemists who synthesize and engineer new materials, experimentalists who discover, characterize and control new electronic properties, together with theorists who develop new concepts to understand how these phenomena emerge from the fundamental laws of quantum mechanics. Our research groups use cutting edge instrumentation, including large-scale facilities often combined with extreme conditions of temperature, pressure or magnetic fields, as well as state-of-the-art computational and analytical techniques.