Chirality, the property that makes an object distinct from its mirror image, is ubiquitous in nature. It is found in elementary particles, in molecules and biological structures, and manifests itself in many physical phenomena. In particular, it gives rise to a remarkable intrinsic stability against external perturbations that has spurred a strong worldwide interest in chiral materials. Our mission is to exploit the advantages of structural and electronic chirality in condensed-matter systems, where the interplay of the electron spin, orbital angular momentum, and chirality gives rise to new functionalities. We will explore chiral molecular, spintronic and superconducting systems, and demonstrate their potential for electronic devices operating at ultrahigh speed, with low energy consumption and with high stability against external disturbances. Thus, our research will create the scientific foundation of the field of chiral electronics.
This cluster focuses on three promising research directions. A) Structural chirality: We will engineer chiral structures of interfaces and solids to gain spin selectivity, spin control, and spin transport down to the atomic scale. B) Emergent chirality: We will explore chiral order in magnetic and superconducting phases to conceive low-loss devices for chiral spintronics. C) Ultrafast chirality: We will investigate chirality induced under conditions far from equilibrium and develop chiral lightwave electronics, where we use chirality to control electron flow for information processing at the ultimate speed limit.
The cluster brings together complementary expertise from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg / Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics Halle, Freie Universität Berlin, and University of Regensburg, covering chiral materials, ultrafast spin dynamics, and coherent strong-field control.
(Planned) Support Activities for Postdocs
The Cluster’s support activities include a seed funding program for Postdocs. As the offers are currently being developed and will be added later.
Recruiting
Open positions are listed on the cluster’s job page.
Find out more
