Bridging the gap between physics and chemistry – design of new materials

Date

Jan 27, 2026

Time

9:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Speaker

Dr. Eteri Svanidze

Affiliation

Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden

Language

en

Main Topic

Materialien

Host

Martina Javorka

Description

Over the past decades, quantum materials – materials in which quantum phenomena govern physical properties – have become essential to everyday applications. In most cases, technological advances are driven by the discovery of new solid-state materials and by a deeper understanding of existing ones. In this talk, I will present several families of solid-state materials discovered in our group. Our approach is guided not only by intuition, but also by a close dialogue between chemistry and physics, and between theory and experiment. First, I will discuss some of the empirical tools for targeting new materials with desired properties. From a chemical perspective, we are looking at diverse compounds, ranging from crystallographically simple to fairly complex – with as many as 444 atoms per unit cell. While the former can be supported by theoretical insights, the only way to establish the properties of the latter is to make and experimentally study them. By employing new methodology, we can access materials that so far remained out of reach due to their toxicity, radioactivity, or air sensitivity. Furthermore, we develop new ways to extract properties from micro-scale grains, extracted from multi-phase samples. In superconductors, we tune the critical temperature by making minute changes in the crystal structure. Among magnetic compounds, we examine not only strongly correlated systems that host exceptionally heavy electron masses at low temperatures, but also room temperature magnets that have application potential. Our experimental explorations go hand-in-hand with theory – we have targeted and confirmed a plethora of topological features.

Links

• Seminars at the IFW

Last modified: Jan 27, 2026, 7:36:01 AM