About the Institute

The electronics of the future could operate with light instead of electricity – or a combination of the two. As yet, no ideal light sources are available for this, however, nor are fibre optics fully developed. The development of such materials is one of the challenges that the scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle have taken on. They investigate how the microstructure and nanostructure of metallic compounds affect their physical properties, for example how they behave as fibre optics or their magnetic characteristics. Their research concentrates on materials in low dimensions, for instance in a two-dimensional thin layer, a virtually one-dimensional nanowire or a minute heap of atoms, which physicists call a quantum dot and which, in some respects, resembles a single atom.

The Institute has substantial experimental and theoretical research programs that are focussed on novel materials with useful functionalities. Of particular interest are spintronic materials and devices, neuromorphic devices and systems, nano-photonics, topological metals and insulators. The Institute is involved in numerous collaborative research projects with academic and industry partners from Germany and around the world (including Europe, North America, and Asia). Besides, the institute has an extensive infrastructure that includes a state of the art modelshop, electronics workshop, a library, and a clean-room, as well as a wide range of modern experimental facilities.

History

The Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics was founded in 1992 as the first institute of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in the eastern part of Germany. It is partly located in the buildings of the former Academy of Science Institute of Solid State Physics and Electron Microscopy.