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Claudia Felser, Director, Department of Solid State Chemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, has received her second ERC Advanced grant, titled “TOPMAT”. TOPMAT is centred around the highly topical area of condensed matter research of “topological materials”. In 2011, Prof. Felser received her first ERC Advanced Grant that was entitled “IDEA!Heusler” and which concerned the design of novel bulk and thin film Heusler compounds.
The ERC Advanced Grants are perhaps the most prestigious research awards in Europe: only ~10% of applications are successful. The award of TOPMAT to Prof. Felser will allow her and her team to synthesize high-quality single crystals of various topological materials and to tune their topological phase transitions, electrical transport properties and surface states via the application of electric and magnetic fields, thermal gradients, and high pressure. Indeed, the primary aim of TOPMAT is to translate theoretical concepts and predictions of novel topological materials into concrete materials. Felser and her team have already synthesized single crystals of more than 50 distinct topological materials. To further boost topological science in Europe, TOPMAT will establish a platform for the provision of single crystals of a wide range of novel topological materials.
Materials can be classified as insulators, semiconductors or metals, based on the band-gaps of their respective electronic structure. However, only comparatively recently (~2005), was it fully appreciated that materials can be further sub-divided according to the topological properties of their band structure. In particular, certain properties are “topologically protected”, thereby giving rise to, for example, very high electrical conductivities and mobilities, or coupling of the quasiparticle’s spin and momentum. Such properties will likely lead to novel computing technologies based on spintronics or quantum bits.
http://www.cpfs.mpg.de/en/Felser-ERC
https://www.mpg.de/11215960/advanced-grants-2017
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