Sebastian Heeg, junior research group leader at the Department of Physics and member of IRIS Adlershof, has now officially opened two laboratories. The centrepiece is the Porto Nanoscope from the Brazilian tech start-up FabNS, which was delivered in November 2023 after a two-year wait.

FabNS has thus set a milestone, as Brazil, which has historically been dependent on foreign technology, is now taking a different direction and starting to export cutting-edge scientific instruments itself. This freedom between import and export puts Brazil in a protagonist position in global technology. Sebastian Heeg's working group will be able to provide the start-up with valuable feedback as its first customer within the framework of a development partnership.

The Porto Nanoscope images the structure of nanomaterials using tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. This enables a 1,000-fold magnification compared to conventional microscopes and thus a resolution of structures in the sub-nanometre range. This allows the surfaces of 2D materials such as graphene, a layer of hexagonally arranged carbon atoms, to be analysed. Understanding and modifying the properties of 2D materials on these smallest length scales will be used in future for nanoscale photodetectors, flexible displays and transistors.

Sebastian Heeg is enthusiastic about the new measuring device. The Brazilians have created a device with high stability, efficiency and performance. It can do everything he needs for his research: "This system is the best system." The new system will also be available to other scientists, such as the Center for the Science of Materials Berlin (CSMB), for their research.

➔ TV report from the Brazilian News

Contact:
Dr. Sebastian Heeg
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
IRIS Adlershof & Department of Physics
Tel.: 030 2093-82295
sebastian.heegphysik.hu-berlin.de

On Tuesday, February 13, 2024, starting from 3:00 PM, three young researchers will present the topics of their dissertations at the Erwin Schrödinger Center. Among the three nominees presenting their work at the event is Dr. Niklas Grabicki. He completed his doctoral studies under IRIS member Prof. Dr. Oliver Dumele, who now teaches at Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg. Dr. Niklas Grabicki, as part of his dissertation, synthesized functional molecules that can be classified as new molecular sensors or light-responsive magnets. Potential applications of these new functional molecules range from targeted membrane transport to data storage.
Additionally, Dr. Andrei Bud (Farkas Group) and Dr. Lisa Kröll (Rolfs Group) were nominated. The award ceremony will also be broadcasted via livestream.

We wish Niklas the best of luck!

IRIS Adlershof welcomed a visit from the Governing Mayor, Kai Wegner, and the Senator for Science, Health, and Care, Dr. Ina Czyborra. IRIS-member Prof. Emil List-Kratochvil provided them with insights into our cleanroom laboratory, where our colleagues are actively researching new materials, and he explained ongoing projects with the distinguished guests.

Following the visit, our guests celebrated the 20th anniversary of Campus Adlershof, which they opened together with Prof. Julia von Blumenthal, President of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Roland Sillmann, WISTA. The lively exchange and discussions during the festivites were complemented by engaging presentations from Prof. Elmar Kulke, IRIS-member Prof. Eva Unger, and Prof. Thomas Kosch.

IRIS Adlershof, as a part of this success story, congratulates the entire campus on the milestones achieved together.

(fltr:) Prof. Ulf Leser, Dr. Nikolai Puhlmann, Prof. Emil List-Kratochvil, Kai Wegner, Prof. Christoph Schneider and Dr. Ina Czyborra in front of IRIS Adlershof	Prof. Emil List-Kratochvil explains ongoing research in new materials with Kai Wegner, governing mayor of Berlin	Prof. Eva Unger looks forward to the next 20 years of energy materials research at the Festakt: 20 Jahre Campus Adlershof

Dr. Oliver Dumele, member of IRIS Adlershof, received a call to the Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg and started his role as a Professor (W3) for Functional Organic Materials on November 1st.
Oliver Dumele studied chemistry at the University of Mainz and UC Berkeley in the USA. After his thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz and an industrial internship at BASF in Ludwigshafen, he obtained his doctorate at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. In a subsequent postdoctoral phase, he conducted research at Northwestern University in the USA. Since 2019, he has been a junior group leader at the Institute of Chemistry at Humboldt University in Berlin, where he has been leading the BMBF group on "Organic Battery Electrodes from Framework Compounds" since 2022. His work has been honored with various awards, such as the Lecturer's Prize from the Foundation of the Chemical Industry, the Young Investigator Award from the European Chemical Society, and recently, the Ernst Haage Prize from the Max Planck Society.
He remains a member of IRIS Adlershof.

Congratulations!

Sustainable batteries, novel catalysts, efficient solar cells, and 3D printing technology - all of this is set to emerge in the future at the new Center for the Science of Materials Berlin (CSMB) at Humboldt University in Berlin. The grand opening took place on Thursday, October 19th in the IRIS Research Building in Berlin-Adlershof. Not only the HU news page, but also the newspaper B.Z. (with a quarter-million readers) featured a noteworthy article on 'Berlin's new gem of research'.

"Many global challenges related to sustainable resource utilization can only be addressed through innovation in materials science," explains CSMB founding director Prof. Stefan Hecht. With the new materials research center, Humboldt University is consolidating the expertise available in Adlershof's science and technology hub for innovation processes and materials science. At CSMB, researchers are working on future materials aimed at achieving global sustainability goals. Scientists from various disciplines, both academic and non-academic institutions, as well as entrepreneurs, are working together. The development of innovative materials at CSMB will be accelerated using modern methods such as high-throughput synthesis and screening, in-situ synchrotron analytics, data science, and artificial intelligence.

Collaborative Research on Future Materials

In the labs at CSMB, 150 scientists are already working in jointly operated labs, known as Joint Labs. Here, researchers from chemistry, physics, and computer science collaborate with colleagues from the life and cultural sciences, each bringing their unique perspective on materials. Startup entrepreneurs also have access to the new labs. Together, they are researching highly efficient solar cells, sustainable sodium-ion batteries, novel catalysts for efficient green hydrogen production, and printable organ models for animal-free drug testing.

State-of-the-Art Research Building in Berlin-Adlershof

The state-of-the-art research building at CSMB provides researchers with excellent infrastructure, including electron microscopes for atomic-level material imaging, ultrafast spectroscopy for tracking chemical processes in femtoseconds, and innovative printing techniques.
CSMB is the logical extension of Humboldt University's first integrated research institute, IRIS Adlershof, which laid the foundation for interdisciplinary collaboration and a new, state-of-the-art research building.

Here are some impressions, gathered by our colleague Collin

The editorial team of the Berlin Science section of Tagesspiegel has identified the top 100 personalities in the Berlin research scene for the year 2023. These experts have significantly influenced the research region of Berlin throughout the year with their remarkable achievements and innovations. Some have enriched their respective fields with groundbreaking studies and innovative research methods, secured substantial research funding, and excelled in education. Others have actively participated in public discourse, shaped the urban community, and established international networks connecting regional research institutions with the world. These researchers all contribute to shaping the profile of the scientific community and laying the foundations for future discoveries and innovations. Among the selected scientists are two members of IRIS Adlershof.

Jan Plefka: Researching at the Heart of the Universe

One of the selected top scientists is Jan Plefka, a researcher at the Institute of Physics and the Integrative Research Institute for the Sciences (IRIS) at Humboldt-University in Adlershof, Berlin. His work focuses on fascinating questions related to the formation of black holes, the validity of Einstein's theories in strong gravitational fields, and the quest for signs of physics beyond known natural forces and particles. In his research, he employs quantum field theory, a mathematical description of the fundamental building blocks of our universe, to, for example, investigate gravitational waves.

Stefan Hecht: Innovations in Materials Science

Another outstanding scientist who made it into the top 100 is Stefan Hecht, a professor of chemistry and the founding director of the Center for the Science of Materials Berlin. Stefan Hecht is dedicated to materials science and conducts intensive research on light-controlled polymers. Particularly notable is his development of "Xolography," a method for highly precise 3D printing, which he has brought to market readiness. His commitment to promoting university-based startups was recognized this year with the prestigious Unipreneurs Award.

The inclusion of these two exceptional researchers from IRIS Adlershof among Berlin's top 100 scientists recognizes their significant contributions to research and their impressive achievements in their respective fields. Jan Plefka and Stefan Hecht utilize their expertise and dedication to answer critical questions and advance innovations that will shape our world of tomorrow.

The Institute of Physics (IOP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Humboldt-Universtät zu Berlin recently concluded their IOP-HU Early Career Researcher Conference on Condensed Matter Physics in Liyang, and it was hailed as a resounding success. The event, held from October 13th to 14th, offered a platform for early career researchers to present their groundbreaking research and engage with domestic and international experts in the field, including the director of IRIS Adlershof, Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe, and the IRIS professors Christoph T. Koch, Claudia Draxl and Mathias Scheffler.

Event Highlights:

Nominations are open for postdoctoral fellowships between two cities, Berlin and Beijing, as part of a joint physics program between the Integrative Research Institute for the Sciences (IRIS Adlershof) of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin) and the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, (IOP) Beijing.

FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

Established in 2020, the prestigious two-year research fellowships are intended for exceptional early-career scientists, in preparation for an independent career in research at the frontier of condensed matter physics, quantum materials or device physics. Successful candidates will spend one year in Berlin and one in Beijing at the research groups of their choice, supported by up to 4,500 EUR/month. The selected fellows are expected to be appointed in 2023 and 2024. A first networking event is scheduled in Berlin. Fellows will work at the Campus Adlershof of HU Berlin and the IOP Zhongguancun Beijing Campus. The fellows have the possibility to visit and interact with associated Partners at the Max Born Institute, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and its Electron Storage Ring BESSY II, the Leibniz-Institut für Kristallzüchtung or the Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society.The prestigious two-year research fellowships are intended for exceptional early-career scientists, in preparation for an independent career in research at the frontier of condensed matter physics, quantum materials or device physics. Successful candidates will spend one year in Berlin and one in Beijing at the research groups of their choice, supported by up to 4,500 EUR/month.

The selected fellows will be appointed from August 2022 onwards. A first networking event is programmed in Berlin. Fellows will work at the Campus Adlershof of HU Berlin and the IOP Zhongcuancun Beijing Campus. The fellows have the possibility to visit and interact with associated Partners at the Max Born Institute, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and its Electron Storage Ring BESSY II, the Freie Universität Berlin, at the Leibniz-Institut für Kristallzüchtung or the Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society.

Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy
Prof. Zhiyi Wei, Prof. Jianing Chen

Photoemission Spectroscopy and Surface Science
Prof. Norbert Koch, Prof. Tian Qian, Prof. Xingjiang Zhou, Prof. Jiandong Guo

Optoelectronic Devices and Quantum Transport
Prof. Emil List-Kratochvil, Prof. Thomas Schröder, Prof. Guangyu Zhang, Prof. Yongqing Li

Scanning Probe Microscopy
Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe, Prof. Carlos-Andres Palma, Prof. Kui Jin, Prof. Shuheng Pan, Prof. Hong-Jun Gao

Quantum Information
Prof. Tim Schröder, Prof. Oliver Benson, Prof. Li Lu

Electron Microscopy
Prof. Christoph Koch, Prof. Xuedong Bai

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

HOW TO APPLY

• Program closing date: November 15th, 2023.

DECISION

"Perovskite is a collective term for materials with a specific crystal structure," explains Eva Unger, chemistry professor at HU Berlin and member of IRIS Adlershof. As semiconductors, perovskites are ideally suited for use in solar cells. In the laboratory, small-area perovskite solar cells already achieve efficiencies similar to those of classic silicon solar cells. The potential is great, because perovskites can be produced cheaply and even combined with other solar cell materials. The new issue of the Adlershof Journal deals with the questions Eva Unger and her team still have to clarify on the way to the large-scale use of perovskite solar cells.

to the online article...

The member of IRIS Adlershof, Professor Stefan Hecht, Founding Director of the Center for the Science of Materials Berlin (CSMB) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, was honored on September 6, along with 19 other university professors, with the #UNIPRENEURS Award for his dedication to university spin-offs.

The prestigious award ceremony was hosted by Federal Minister for Education and Research, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, and Dr. Anna Christmann, Commissioner for Digital Economy and Startups at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.
Stefan Hecht, a Berlin native, pursued his chemistry studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Following several academic stints he returned to his alma mater as an Einstein Professor and the Founding Director of the newly established Center for the Science of Materials Berlin (CSMB).

"When research addresses genuinely relevant issues, commercial applications naturally follow," says the patent holder. As a specialist in photoswitchable molecules, he found a way to cure liquid specialty plastics with two intersecting beams of light. He co-founded Xolo GmbH with two colleagues and is currently developing 3D printers of which the first ones are being used by researchers. He generously shares his expertise with other startups and collaborates closely with them in his labs.

As the founding director of the CSMB on Humboldt-Universität’s science campus in Berlin-Adlershof, he aims to realize his vision: "We want to be not only a place for enquiring minds but also for innovative minds. The center should attract researchers who not only answer questions but also translate their answers into practical applications." The ideal place to develop sustainable energy materials that are well thought out from beginning to end: from design and sustainability considerations to validation and implementation.

Minister Stark-Watzinger expressed enthusiasm:"We want to strengthen entrepreneurship at our universities. Professors play a pivotal role in this. They significantly contribute to the entrepreneurial culture at universities and are crucial drivers of Germany's innovation and future viability." (Original: "Wir wollen das Gründungsgeschehen an unseren Hochschulen stärken. Professorinnen und Professoren spielen dabei eine zentrale Rolle. Sie tragen maßgeblich zur Gründungskultur an Hochschulen bei und sind wichtige Impulsgeber für die Innovationskraft und Zukunftsfähigkeit Deutschlands.")

Commissioner Christmann also praised the professors' achievements: "The distinguished professors from UNIPRENEURS embody the outstanding combination of academic excellence and entrepreneurial spirit. Their contributions to transferring innovations to the business world are invaluable to Germany's innovation landscape and deserve the highest recognition."
(Original: "Die ausgezeichneten Professorinnen und Professoren von UNIPRENEURS verkörpern die herausragende Verbindung von akademischer Exzellenz und unternehmerischem Geist. Ihre Verdienste für den Transfer der Innovationen in die Wirtschaft sind von unschätzbarem Wert für den Innovationsstandort Deutschland und verdienen höchste Anerkennung.")

UNIPRENEURS is an initiative aimed at bolstering university spin-offs in German universities and awards the highest recognition in Germany for outstanding commitment to entrepreneurship at universities. The "Award for the Best University Professors for Entrepreneurs" by UNIPRENEURS seeks to honor entrepreneurial engagement at universities and raise the prominence of entrepreneurship within higher education. Out of nearly 700 nominations, 20 exceptional professors were selected by a prestigious board.

IRIS Adlershof congratulates its founding member Stefan Hecht very warmly on this wonderful award.

Contact:
Prof. Stefan Hecht
Humboldt University in Berlin
CSMB, IRIS Adlershof, & Department of Chemistry
Tel.: 030 2093-7365
shhu-berlin.de

Dr. Valentina Forini has accepted the call to join Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin  as a W2 professor for "Theoretical particle physics: Gauge fields and string theory" at the Department of Physics. The professorship is initially funded by the DFG within the framework of the Heisenberg Program.

With a background in theoretical physics, Valentina bridges the gap between mathematical and high-energy physics, particularly focusing on string and quantum field theory. She is known for developing advanced methods to quantitatively analyze their quantum behaviors and their relationship through the AdS/CFT correspondence, exploring the interplay between space-time and matter.

Currently serving as a Lecturer in Mathematics at City, University of London since 2018, Dr. Forini is also affiliated with Humboldt-Universität as a Principal Investigator and Guest Professor, supported by the Kolleg Mathematik Physik Berlin.

Her career includes roles as Project Leader in the European Network EuroPLEx, Principal Investigator in the RTG 2575 "Rethinking Quantum Field Theory”, as well as prestigious research grants like the Simons Emmy Noether Fellowship 2018/19 at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo (CA), the Einstein Junior Fellowship  from 2018 to 2021 at Humboldt-Universität. Here she also has served as Emmy-Noether Group Leader from 2012 to 2017. She became a IRIS Junior Member in 2018 and is a full member of IRIS Adlershof since 2021.

Her academic journey has encompassed diverse institutions, including the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Golm and the University of Barcelona. Dr. Forini earned her PhD in Physics from the University of Trento in 2006 and habilitated in Theoretical Physics in 2017. Her qualifications also include a Laurea in Physics from the University of Perugia and a Diploma in Piano from the Perugia Conservatory of Music.

The announcement of Dr. Forini's appointment is met with the warmest congratulations, and she will begin in the upcoming winter semester.

Even if you were never really away:
Welcome back, Valentina!

Dr. Pietro Marabotti

Pietro Marabotti obtained his PhD in Energy and Nuclear Science and Technology at the Politecnico di Milano in Italy. With the Einstein International Postdoctoral Fellowship, He will join the Emmy-Noether group "Physics of low-dimensional systems" of Dr. Sebastian Heeg at IRIS Adlershof and the Department of Physics at HU Berlin and conduct research on confined carbyne, which are linear chains of carbon atoms inside carbon nanotubes.

Pietro Marabotti will set up a near-field scanning optical microscope that performs infrared spectroscopy using entangled photon pairs at nanoscale resolution. He will study how structural non-linearities like defects, kinks or bends affect the optical and electronic properties of confined carbyne, and explore its potential for nanoscale light transduction. The Einstein Foundation funds Pietro Marabotti for 3.5 years with a total funding of 375,000 euros.

We look forward to working with Pietro and welcome him to IRIS Adlershof .

Yesterday, 12 July, IRIS Adlershof and CSMB celebrated a summer party to which all researchers and staff were cordially invited.

The party was introduced with an inspiring and pathetic speech by Prof. Stefan Hecht. The festivities took place in front of the IRIS research building, allowing attendees to relish the beautiful weather while seeking refuge in the cool shade. Additional refreshment was provided by a wide range of drinks. Culinary delights in the form of grilled specialities and a variety of salads provided further enjoyment.

Many participants expressed their appreciation for the opportunity to connect with scientists from different groups and start-ups.

A sly but unregistered creature sneaked into the BBQ event, carefully assessing the surroundings for any remains of roasted chicken.

The festivities continued until 10:30 pm, with the last guests lending a hand to clean up, adding a final touch of camaraderie to the event.

The world's best tandem solar cells, consisting of a silicon bottom cell and a perovskite top cell, can today convert about one third of the incident solar radiation into electrical energy. These are record values, especially for a potentially very low-cost technology. A team at HZB, including IRIS Adlershof member Prof. Eva Unger, now provides the scientific data for the first time and describes in the renowned journal Science how this development was achieved (DOI: 10.1126/science.adf5872).

The tandem solar cell, described in detail for the first time in the article, had achieved a world record in efficiency and generated headlines with it in December 2022: it converts 32.5% of the incident sunlight into electrical energy. The research field is very competitive, which is why many working groups are conducting research in this area. In recent years, there has been a continuous increase in efficiency values by various research institutions and photovoltaic companies worldwide. The KAUST research centre (Saudi Arabia) has therefore already surpassed the HZB record in the meantime. But, the HZB team has now presented a solid and scientifically rigorously peer-reviewed technical publication with exact data sets from the measurements as well as detailed information on the structure of the tandem cell.

A significantly improved perovskite compound and a novel molecule of piperazinium iodide were used to produce this cell, thus reducing losses. Using special measurement methods, the researchers were able to analyse the fundamental processes at the interfaces and in the individual layers of the tandem cell in detail and optimise them further. The production and development of the tandem cell was possible thanks to cooperation with groups from Potsdam, San Sebastian (Spain) and Kunas (Lithuania). Only the combination of all modifications made it possible to achieve maximum values for the photovoltage (open-circuit voltage), as well as the photocurrent and consequently in terms of efficiency.

With continued progress in the field, there is hope that this technology can make a major contribution to a sustainable energy supply in the fight against climate change in the coming years, because the upscaling and industrial production of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells is also feasible.

In the upcoming CSMB–IRIS colloquium on 25 July on "Chemical transformation processes in halide perovskite semiconductors", Prof. Eva Unger will further expand this topic.

After an 12-year run, the Collaborative Research Centre CRC 951 - Hybrid Inorganic/Organic Systems for Opto-Electronics (HIOS) reached the end of its maximum funding period. Throughout these years, IRIS Adlershof has worked closely with the CRC 951, fostering a productive and symbiotic relationship. The connection between us went beyond just thematic alignment, as many members of IRIS, including aspiring scientists, actively participated in the CRC 951.

The CRC 951's headquarter was located within the IRIS Research Building, reflecting the deep integration and collaboration between the two entities. Together, we embarked on joint projects, including colloquia, workshops, conferences, celebrations, and publications. These endeavors were instrumental in advancing research and fostering innovation in the field of hybrid systems.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all those involved for their close and highly successful collaboration. The fruitful partnership between IRIS Adlershof and the CRC 951 has significantly contributed to the progress and achievements made in this interdisciplinary domain.

IRIS member Prof. Dr. Yan Lu will take up a professorship at the University of Jena in the winter semester. She will also become co-spokesperson of the "Helmholtz Institute for Polymers in Energy Applications" (HIPOLE), which will most likely be officially founded on 1 July 2023.

The aim of HIPOLE is to develop sustainable polymer materials for energy technologies that can be rapidly brought into use, in particular polymer-based batteries and perovskite solar cells with polymer additives. The founding director is Prof. Dr. Ulrich S. Schubert from the University of Jena, with whom Yan Lu has already conducted research in previous years.

We are very happy to announce the new open access textbook "Scattering Amplitudes in Quantum Field Theory". Jan Plefka reviews the modern theory of scattering amplitudes together with Badger, Henn, and Zoia.

These lecture notes bridge a gap between introductory quantum field theory (QFT) courses and state-of-the-art research in scattering amplitudes. They cover the path from basic definitions of QFT to amplitudes relevant for processes in the Standard Model of particle physics. The book begins with a concise yet self-contained introduction into QFT, including perturbative quantum gravity. It then presents modern methods for calculating scattering amplitudes, focusing on tree-level amplitudes, loop-level integrands and loop integration techniques. These methods help reveal intriguing relations between gauge and gravity amplitudes, and are of increasing importance for obtaining high-precision predictions for collider experiments, such as those at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, as well as for foundational mathematical physics studies in QFT, including recent applications to gravitational wave physics.

These course-tested lecture notes include numerous exercises with detailed solutions. Requiring only minimal knowledge of QFT, they are well-suited for MSc and PhD students as a preparation for research projects in theoretical particle physics. They can be used as a one-semester graduate level course, or as a self-study guide for researchers interested in fundamental aspects of QFT.

The Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Humboldt-Universität Berlin (IOP–HU) Condensed Matter Physics Workshop 2023 is a two–day workshop which will take place on October 13th–14th in Liyang (near Shanghai & near Suzhou) with an optional visit to IOP Beijing campus on October 15th.

The workshop is directed at early career researchers looking to present their research and interact with domestic and international condensed matters physicists. Every year a few topics are chosen based on the speakers. Ten travel awards will cover travel and accommodation expenses for international early career researchers.

This year, the program will cover:

•     Density functional theory and simulation
•     Scanning probe and electron microscopy
•     Magnetism and quantum information

The workshop will consist of sessions of invited talks and contributed poster sessions. Young researchers are encouraged to participate in the workshop and present their work in the form of posters. The workshop is expected to be a highly exciting and stimulating event. We look forward to meeting you in Beijing in October, 2023.

The Lecturer Award (Dozentenpreis) of the Fund of the Chemical Industry (FCI) is one of the most prestigious and highly endowed awards in the field of promoting young researchers and is awarded to outstanding young scientists in the field of chemistry. The award winners are proposed by members of the Fund's Board of Trustees, former Lecturer Award winners or spokespersons of the review boards of the German Research Foundation and selected in a two-stage nomination process.

On 16 June 2023, it was awarded to Dr Oliver Dumele (HU Berlin, Inst. Chemie & IRIS Adlershof), Prof. Dr A. J. Barbara Lechner (TUM) and Dr Sabine Richert (U Freiburg). The prize money will also support further steps in their careers.

In his current research, Mr. Dumele is working on organic functional materials at the molecular as well as supramolecular level and in covalent-organic frameworks (COFs). Novel aromatic building blocks are incorporated into framework compounds and are thus intended to answer fundamental questions or contribute to new energy storage systems as battery electrodes. Furthermore, purely organic photomagnetic switches that can change their electronic spin state by light pulse are currently being developed in his research group for future applications in quantum information technology. more...

Congratulations on another great award!

Nominations are open for postdoctoral fellowships between two cities, Berlin and Beijing, as part of a joint physics program between the Integrative Research Institute for the Sciences (IRIS Adlershof) of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin) and the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, (IOP) Beijing.

FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

Established in 2020, the prestigious two-year research fellowships are intended for exceptional early-career scientists, in preparation for an independent career in research at the frontier of condensed matter physics, quantum materials or device physics. Successful candidates will spend one year in Berlin and one in Beijing at the research groups of their choice, supported by up to 4,500 EUR/month. The selected fellows are expected to be appointed in 2023 and 2024. A first networking event is scheduled in Berlin. Fellows will work at the Campus Adlershof of HU Berlin and the IOP Zhongguancun Beijing Campus. The fellows have the possibility to visit and interact with associated Partners at the Max Born Institute, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and its Electron Storage Ring BESSY II, the Leibniz-Institut für Kristallzüchtung or the Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society.The prestigious two-year research fellowships are intended for exceptional early-career scientists, in preparation for an independent career in research at the frontier of condensed matter physics, quantum materials or device physics. Successful candidates will spend one year in Berlin and one in Beijing at the research groups of their choice, supported by up to 4,500 EUR/month.

The selected fellows will be appointed from August 2022 onwards. A first networking event is programmed in Berlin. Fellows will work at the Campus Adlershof of HU Berlin and the IOP Zhongcuancun Beijing Campus. The fellows have the possibility to visit and interact with associated Partners at the Max Born Institute, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and its Electron Storage Ring BESSY II, the Freie Universität Berlin, at the Leibniz-Institut für Kristallzüchtung or the Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society.

Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy
Prof. Zhiyi Wei, Prof. Jianing Chen

Photoemission Spectroscopy and Surface Science
Prof. Norbert Koch, Prof. Tian Qian, Prof. Xingjiang Zhou, Prof. Jiandong Guo

Optoelectronic Devices and Quantum Transport
Prof. Emil List-Kratochvil, Prof. Thomas Schröder, Prof. Guangyu Zhang, Prof. Yongqing Li

Scanning Probe Microscopy
Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe, Prof. Carlos-Andres Palma, Prof. Kui Jin, Prof. Shuheng Pan, Prof. Hong-Jun Gao

Quantum Information
Prof. Tim Schröder, Prof. Oliver Benson, Prof. Li Lu

Electron Microscopy
Prof. Christoph Koch, Prof. Xuedong Bai

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

HOW TO APPLY

• First 2023 Program closing date: June 15th, 2023.
• Second 2023 Program closing date: November 15th, 2022.

DECISION

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Dr. h.c. Joachim Sauer, who is a Senior Researcher at the Department of Chemistry at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, has been appointed a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences based on his research activities at the department, in two Collaborative Research Centres at Humboldt-Universität and in the Cluster of Excellence UNICAT. Admission to the Academy will take place in a formal ceremony on 30 September 2023 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the oldest and most prestigious honorary societies in the US, founded in 1780. It honours excellence and gathers leaders from all fields to explore new ideas and address and collaborate on issues of importance to the nation and the world.

Congratulations to our founding member!

IRIS-Mitgleid Eva Unger gave pv magazine a short interview and explained the viperlab projekt and the selfhealing of perovskite solar cells.

A cornerstone for 1000-fold improved communication rates to bridge long distances

Illustration: Defect centres in diamond nanostructures can be used as quantum bits. The quantum information can be stored in individual photons via quantumoperation and than be transmitted in optical fibres in the future quantum internet.

Diamond material is of great importance for future technologies such as the quantum internet. Special defect centers can be used as quantum bits (qubits) and emit single light particles that are referred to as single photons. To enable data transmission with feasible communication rates over long distances in a quantum network, all photons must be collected in optical fibers and transmitted without being lost. It must also be ensured that these photons all have the same color, i.e., the same frequency. Fulfilling these requirements has been impossible until now.

Researchers in the "Integrated Quantum Photonics" group led by Prof. Dr. Tim Schröder, member of IRIS Adlershof, have succeeded for the first time worldwide in generating and detecting photons with stable photon frequencies emitted from quantum light sources, or, more precisely, from nitrogen-vacancy defect centers in diamond nanostructures. This was enabled by carefully choosing the diamond material, sophisticated nanofabrication methods carried out at the Joint Lab Diamond Nanophotonics of the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, and specific experimental control protocols. By combining these methods, the noise of the electrons, which previously disturbed data transmission, can be significantly reduced, and the photons are emitted at a stable (communication) frequency.

In addition, the Berlin researchers show that the current communication rates between spatially separated quantum systems can prospectively be increased more than 1000-fold with the help of the developed methods—an important step closer to a future quantum internet.

The scientists have integrated individual qubits into optimized diamond nanostructures. These structures are 1000 times thinner than a human hair and make it possible to transfer emitted photons in a directed manner into glass fibers. However, during the fabrication of the nanostructures, the material surface is damaged at the atomic level, and free electrons create uncontrollable noise for the generated light particles. Noise, comparable to an unstable radio frequency, causes fluctuations in the photon frequency, preventing successful quantum operations such as entanglement.

A special feature of the diamond material used is its relatively high density of nitrogen impurity atoms in the crystal lattice. These possibly shield the quantum light source from electron noise at the surface of the nanostructure. "However, the exact physical processes need to be studied in more detail in the future," explains Laura Orphal-Kobin, representative of the junior scientist at IRIS Adlershof, who investigates quantum systems together with Prof. Dr. Tim Schröder. The conclusions drawn from the experimental observations are supported by statistical models and simulations, which Dr. Gregor Pieplow from the same research group is developing and implementing together with the experimental physicists.

Prof. Jan Plefka

Jan Plefka receives a prestigious Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). He and his team at the Department of Physics and IRIS Adlershof of HU Berlin will receive 2.2 million euros over the next five years for the GraWFTy project (High-Precision Gravitational Wave Physics from a Worldline Quantum Field Theory) to describe gravitational waves using quantum field theory. The predictions made possible in this way are needed for the wave detectors of the next generation to go online in the 2030s.

The ERC Advanced Grant
ERC Advanced Grants are endowed with up to 2.5 million euros and support excellent and self-initiated research projects of leading top researchers. It is the most highly endowed European research grant. The awardees are exceptional leaders who distinguish themselves through the originality and significance of their approaches.
 

About the awardee
Professor Jan Plefka is a renowned theoretical physicist and professor at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. After studying physics and receiving his PhD from the University of Hannover in 1996, he was a postdoctoral researcher in New York, Amsterdam, and at the MPI Potsdam. He was a visiting professor at ETH Zurich and at CERN. His research is concerned with quantum field theory and its relation to gravity. Here, he made important contributions to questions of quantum gravity and string theory, in particular in the area of AdS/CFT correspondence and hidden symmetries in supersymmetric quantum field theories. More recently, he has developed together with his group an innovative quantum field theoretical formalism to answer questions in classical gravitational wave physics. The ERC Advanced Grant was awarded to him to fully unfold the potential of this quantum approach to classical physics. He is the spokesperson of the DFG Research Training Group 2575, "Rethinking Quantum Field Theory." Jan Plefka has received several awards, including a Feodor Lynen Fellowship from the Humboldt Foundation and the Lichtenberg Professorship from the Volkswagen Foundation.

The GraWFTy Projekt: High-Precision Gravitational Wave Physics from a Worldline Quantum Field Theory
Gravitational waves are tiny ripples of the space-time fabric that travel through our universe at the speed of light. They arise as soon as masses are accelerated. They are a direct prediction of Einstein's theory of relativity, which he established during his fruitful Berlin years as early as 1916. They were first directly detected only 100 years later in 2015 with the LIGO detector, emerging from a merger of two black holes and after a journey of billions of light years through our universe to us. There are currently three gravitational wave observatories in operation: LIGO, Virgo, and Kagra. They routinely detect gravitational waves emanating from such mergers of black holes and neutron stars. To date, about 90 such events have been detected. In the 2030s, a new generation of ground- and space-based gravitational wave detectors will come on-line that will significantly increase the sensitivities of these measurements. To match these sensitivities, theoretical physics must predict highly accurate waveforms from Einstein's theory that greatly exceed the current state of the art. The GraWFTy project will provide these predictions for the high-precision form of gravitational waves. With their help, fundamental questions in physics will be studied:

• Is Einstein's theory correct in the strong gravitational field regime?
• How are black holes formed, what is their population in the universe?
• Can we see signals for physics beyond the known natural forces and particles?

Visualization of gravitational bremsstrahlung from the scattering of two black holes (BSc thesis O. Babayemi)

Jan Plefka explains his approach: "Together with my research group, we have been able to develop an innovative method since 2020 that addresses this problem of classical physics using methods from quantum field theory. Quantum field theory is the mathematical description of elementary particle physics, that is the smallest building blocks of our universe and their interactions. It is exceedingly fascinating that this language can also be applied to classical gravitational physics with high efficiency. In short, we replace the scattering of protons, as it happens in accelerators like the LHC at CERN, in our formalism by the scattering of black holes or neutron stars. There is, of course, the initial simplification that we can now neglect the quantum effects in the extensive calculations - which in the case of gravity are also still ill understood. Yet, this simplification is compensated by the complexity of Einstein's theory compared to the standard model of elementary particle physics relevant to proton scatterings.
The great advantage of our so-called "world-line" approach is that we can directly target the observable quantities in the detector, using the modern mathematical technology of quantum field theory, namely Feynman integrals. Another peculiar aspect of our approach is that the spin of black holes is described by a supersymmetry. Its existence has been speculated so far in elementary particle physics. We could show that it appears in the effective description of rotating black holes. The idea for this approach comes from string theory. For me, this project represents a crucial step in my career. So far, I have focused my research primarily on the question of quantum gravity and its relation to gauge field theories. This was primarily mathematical physics and far away from direct measurements. With GraWFTy, I am now applying these ideas priorly developed in an abstract setting to pressing, to pressing questions in gravitational wave physics. We have already been able to prove the efficiency of this approach. The ERC Advanced Grant will allow me to fully unfold the potential of our approach."

Contact
Prof. Dr. Jan Christoph Plefka
jan.plefkaphysik.hu-berlin.de
Department of Physik and IRIS Adlershof
Zum Großen Windkanal 2, 12489 Berlin

Quantum technologies promise a variety of completely new applications. In addition to quantum computers, quantum sensing and quantum communication are among the areas of quantum technology in which the first, also commercially successful product developments are expected. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is now funding Humboldt University Berlin (HU) in two new collaborative projects in the field of quantum technologies.

Researchers are working on the novel QEED microscopy for quantum-based early cancer diagnostics. Image: LaVision BioTec GmbH

The first funded project, QEED, deals with quantum sensing with entangled photons - for applications in medical research and cancer diagnostics. Funded as a BMBF "Lighthouse Project" for 5 years (project volume 11.9 million euros, HUB 1.7 million euros), the collaboration will jointly develop a very powerful microscope that can work in the mid-infrared (MIR). In order to transfer measurement information from the clinically relevant MIR to the near infrared (NIR), which can be detected particularly fast and with low noise, a novel, spectrally resolving imaging method based on entangled photon pairs will be used.

In the "Nonlinear Quantum Optics" group at HU and IRIS Adlershof, led by Dr. Sven Ramelow, who also serves as scientific director of the overall collaboration, high-performance quantum interferometer modules are being developed and the quantum sensing measurement techniques underlying the collaborative project are being optimized. The core innovation here is the significant increase in the rate of generated entangled photon pairs, as well as the significant extension of the MIR measurement range compared to the state-of-the-art.

Among the total of ten project partners are five research institutions - including three from Berlin: FBH-Berlin, Charité-Berlin, and HU-Berlin. Also five corporate partners are part of the team and will, in addition to their work in the project, after project completion promote a commercialization of the microscope and its components. The project officially started on 01.01.23.

The second funded collaborative project named "High Performance Light Sources for Quantum Communication" - MIHQU (project volume 5.3 million Euro, HUB 1.4 million Euro) is about quantum communication - an important building block for the future security of digital infrastructures in our society. In quantum communication, the exchange of cryptographic keys is based on the laws of physics, which means that security, in contrast to currently used encryption, remains fundamentally guaranteed - even in the event of attacks by novel, previously unknown algorithms or by powerful quantum computers.

Image: AIXEMTEC GmbH, Herzogenrath

The goal of the project is to miniaturize sources for photon pairs in such a way that their reproducible industrial production can be established in small series. At Humboldt-Universität, the group "Nonlinear Quantum Optics" is mainly working on the development of functional models of the sources as a basis for the subsequent integration.

In addition to the HU-Berlin (Dr. Sven Ramelow with his group "Nonlinear Quantum Optics"), the total of 5 project partners includes the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., Berlin in the person of Prof. Janik Wolters, who will coordinate the project, as well as the Technische Universität Berlin, and two company partners – son-x GmbH, Aachen and AIXEMTEC GmbH, Herzogenrath. The project started on 01.03.2023.

Infobox: Nonlinear interferometers with entangled photons
Spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in nonlinear optical crystals is a standard process for generating correlated or entangled photon pairs for quantum communication, quantum-assisted imaging or quantum sensing. If one now uses two identical SPDC processes that are coherently pumped and superimposes the emissions, one can observe simultaneous, identical interference for both photons of a pair - the so-called signal and idler photons. Such a setup as shown in the figure below represents such a so-called "nonlinear interferometer". (Chekhova, Ou, “Nonlinear interferometers in quantum optics“, AOP 8, 1, 104 (2016)).

Schematic of a nonlinear interferometer, here in Mach-Zehnder configuration


The essential point is that the entangled photon pairs interfere as a single quantum object! This means that a phase (or absorption) of the idler photons also affects the signal photons as an interference signal (and vice versa). The interference pattern - i.e. its phase position and contrast - thus depends on the transmission coefficients of pump radiation, idler and signal photons as well as on the total phase difference (ϕ_s+ ϕ_i - ϕ_p) that all three waves have accumulated in the interferometer. In particular, the phase and absorptions of the idler can thus be determined solely by measuring the signal photons. This effect is called "measurement with non-detected photons", since the actual "measuring" Idler photons never have to be measured themselves. If photon pairs are now generated with a large wavelength spread (e.g. signal in the visible, idler in the mid-infrared), the spectral information (absorption, dispersion) recorded by the idler photons in the MIR can be registered by measuring the wavelength-dependent interference in the signal with a silicon detector. These are particularly powerful and low-noise and thus enable a variety of very practical applications of this measurement principle.

Dr. Edgar Nandayapa introduces the HyD group and explains solar cell printing.

We would like to thank Pablo and Laura, who organized the whole thing again!

V.l.n.r.: Dirk Radzinski (CEO, xolo), Prof. Stefan Hecht (CSO, xolo), Frank Cartsen Herzog (HZG Group), Dr. Elisabeth Schrey (DeepTech & Climate Fonds), Tobias Faupel (DeepTech & Climate Fonds), Dr. Anna Christmann (Bundesministerium Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz)

The Berlin-based company xolo was founded in Berlin in 2019 by IRIS Adlershof- member Stefan Hecht, Martin Regehly and Dirk Radzinski. With Xolography, they have developed a novel volumetric 3D printing technology that prints quickly and produces very smooth surfaces. Xolography uses two beams of light with different wavelengths that collide in the resin and harden it into the desired material. This enables a resolution of a few micrometers. The process is many times faster than previous methods and enables centimetre-sized objects to be printed in a few seconds instead of several hours as was previously the case. This makes printing cheaper and potentially more rewarding for mass production. It also does not rely on formative support structures and allows the use of materials previously unsuitable for 3D printing.

xolo Aneurisma Print Source: xolo, youtube

Xolo has now received eight million euros from Deep Tech & Climate Fonds (DTCF), HZG Group, Onsight Ventures and Square One to enable the transition to industrial scale use. The first 10 devices were delivered specifically to research institutes to test different fields of application, e.g. in medical technology for the reproduction of organs or in optics for the production of high-precision lenses.
The investment is intended to help xolography achieve a breakthrough and strengthen Germany as a location for industry and research.

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f.l.t.r.: Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe, Dr. Nikolai Puhlmann, Prof. Fred Wrona, Dr. Helge Neumann, Ms. Natalka Cmoc, Dr. Johannes Müller

A delegation from Canada visited us today to find out how the IRIS Adlershof is successfully networking with other institutes and companies at the science location Berlin-Adlershof. IRIS director Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe gave a brief insight into the institute. Helge Neumann from WISTA reported on Adlershof as a science location. A tour of the research building followed. Dr. Felix Hermerschmidt showed the network laboratory with the impressive glovebox cluster, followed by an explanation of the NION-TEM with its atomic resolution by Johannes Müller and a tour of the campus.

Ms. Natalka Cmoc, the Director General for Science & Policy at Public Services & Procurement Canada, was visibly impressed, and Prof. Dr. Fred Wrona (University of Calgary, Canada) was also highly interested and praised the many opportunities offered to top scientific research.

f.l.t.r.: Dr. Dominique Lungwitz, Dr. Jannes Münchmeyer, Dr. Julia Baum

On February 14, 2023, the Adlershof Dissertation Prize was awarded for the 21st time in a row. Dr. Jannes Münchmeyer received the EUR 3,000 prize, which is awarded annually by the research network IGAFA e. V., the Humboldt University of Berlin and WISTA Management GmbH.

Earthquake early warning is an essential step in avoiding major damage: There are often valuable seconds between the start of an earthquake and the occurrence of strong vibrations in which to take protective measures. But how early are warnings possible and where do the physics and the natural stochasticity of earthquakes set us limits? dr In his doctoral thesis, Jannes Münchmeyer showed how artificial intelligence can help to answer these questions and what effects his results can have on dealing with earthquake risks. He was mentored by IRIS member Ulf Leser.

Two other outstanding researchers made it into the final selection: Dr. Dominique Lungwitz (Humboldt University of Berlin) did her doctoral thesis in the group of Prof. Norbert Koch's, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof, on "Polymer semiconductors for the future: on the way to efficient and cost-effective OLEDs and solar cells" and Dr. In her dissertation, Julia Baum (Humboldt University of Berlin) examined “Defamation sticks: How “fake news” influence our judgments”. Both received prize money of 1,000 euros for their nomination.

IRIS Adlershof warmly congratulates on this wonderful success!

Chemistry professor and CSMB founding director Stefan Hecht is certain: Many global challenges related to sustainable resource use can only be mastered through innovation in the field of materials science. While achieving this, he hopes for successful interdisciplinary cooperation with other university and non-university institutions. The member of IRIS Adlershof explains the methods he targets to advance materials research in the new issue of the Adlershof Journal.

to the online article...

By applying strain on WSe₂ membranes with a high degree of control, Dr. Sebastian Heeg and colleagues characterized the different excitonic species present in the material according to their energetic dependence with strain. At certain strain levels, strain-independent defect states and strain dependent dark excitons became energy degenerated and their photoluminescence intensity increased an order of magnitude. “The high tunability of the hybridized state enabled by our device architecture will be likely key for the operation of single quantum emitters in WSe₂” highlights Pablo Hernández López, a PhD candidate at Dr. Heeg’s group and co-author of the paper, “On the other hand, the characterization and tuning of the energy hierarchy of the excitons present on suspended materials using our electrostatic straining approach opens the door for more exciting discoveries in the future”.
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Strain control of hybridization between dark and localized excitons in a 2D semiconductor
P. Hernández López, S. Heeg, C. Schattauer, S. Kovalchuk, A. Kumar, D.J. Bock, J.N. Kirchhof, B. Hoefer, K. Greben, D. Yagodkin, L. Linhart, F. Libisch, K.I. Bolotin
Nature Communications, 13, 7691 (2022) ^OPENACCESS
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35352-9

The annual MATH+ Day 2022 took place on November 18 with over 100 participants. The General Assembly elected Prof. Michael Hintermüller, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof, as chair for the next two years. The previous co-chair Hintermüller castles with Prof. Christof Schütte. The other newly elected board members also include Prof. Holger Reich as the new BMS chairman, replacing IRIS member Prof. Jürg Kramer.

On 13.12. the young researchers celebrated a Christmas party at a common room in the IRIS research building. In keeping with the occasion, they were also asked science quiz questions related to Christmas, resulting in many interesting conversations. Of course, Christmas music was also not to be missed. Fortified by stollen and mulled wine, they thus celebrated the holiday season and share their love of science with their colleagues and friends.

On Nov 21 2022 the IRIS junior scientists met for a breakfast and a lab tours session focused on quantum optics.

Pablo Hernández López,  the juniors representative and organizer, explains: "Our colleagues Elisa & Martin (AG Markus Krutzik) and Julian & Jonas (AG Tim Schröder) showed their labs and introduced their fields of research. This event was the first one of a series of lab tours that will continue next year. Thanks to the presenters and to everyone who came. It was great to meet so many new colleagues and to discover some of the very interesting work done at IRIS Adlershof."

Das Humboldt-ProMINT-Kolleg wird ab 2023 ein Interdisziplinäres Zentrum der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Ziel des Interdisziplinären Zentrums Humboldt-ProMINT-Kolleg ist die exzellente Erforschung von Prozessen der wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisgewinnung in der MINT-Lehrkräftebildung an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Dabei stellen die Mitglieder des Kollegs die Themen „Technologiegestütztes Lehren und Lernen“, „Messprozesse und Umgang mit Daten“, „Problemlösen“ sowie „Modelle und Modellierungsprozesse“ in das Zentrum ihrer Arbeit.

Zukünftig widmet sich das IZ ProMINT-Kolleg der Stärkung der fachdidaktischen Forschung durch die Intensivierung der internationalen Forschungskooperationen, der Vernetzung von Fachdidaktik und Fachwissenschaft durch Innovation und Transfer sowie der Verbreitung von wissenschaftlichen Forschungsergebnissen durch Third Mission und Wissenschaftskommunikation.

Es schließt damit an seine über die Jahre gewachsene Struktur als ProMINT-Kolleg und sein Renommee innerhalb und außerhalb der Universität an und überführt dies in die sichtbareren, effizienteren und nachhaltigeren Strukturen eines interdisziplinären Zentrums.

Das Humboldt-ProMINT-Kolleg wurde 2010 auf Initiative der MINT-Fachdidaktiker*innen der HU und mit Unterstützung der Deutsche Telekom Stiftung gegründet. Ein zentrales Anliegen des Kollegs ist es seitdem, die wissenschaftliche Fundierung der MINT-Lehrkräftebildung inhaltlich und strukturell als eines der zentralen Tätigkeitsfelder an der HU auf- und auszubauen. Zwölf Jahre nach seiner Gründung gehört das Humboldt-ProMINT-Kolleg zu den wichtigsten und mit einem Drittmittelvolumen von ca. 2,7 Millionen Euro auch zu den erfolgreichsten Projekten der Lehrerbildung an der HU.

Weitere Informationen: https://www.promint.hu-berlin.de

Das Gründungsmitglied von IRIS Adlershof, Stefan Hecht, widmet sich zukünftig als Einstein-Professor der Heraus­forderung, neue Materialien mit verbes­serten Eigen­schaften zu entwickeln. Seit Oktober beschäftigen sich der Chemiker und sein Team mit der Ent­wicklung licht­ge­steuerter mole­kularer Materia­lien und volu­metrischer 3D-Druck­verfahren (Xolo­graphie) am Campus Adlershof. Insbe­sondere möchte er Material­ent­wicklungs­prozesse beschleu­nigen: „Neben einem um­fassenden Verständnis aller rele­vanten Para­meter, bei dem uns künstliche Intel­ligenz sicher­lich helfen kann, müssen wir vor allem anfan­gen zu ler­nen, evolutio­näre Prin­zipien zu nutzen. Dann wird sich das beste Material quasi von selbst durch­setzen.“
Neben diesem neuen wissen­schaftlichen Schwer­punkt möchte Hecht vor allem die Berliner Forschung im Bereich der Material­wissen­schaften weiter stärken und die insbe­sondere am Campus Adlershof vorhandenen Expertisen in einem neuen inter­diszipli­nären Material­forschungs­zentrum bündeln. „Durch intensive disziplinen- und institutionen­über­greifende Zusammen­arbeit können noch viele Synergien im Berliner Forschungs­raum gehoben werden“, so Hecht.

mehr...

Tandemsolarzellen aus Perowskit und Silizium ermöglichen deutlich höhere Wirkungsgrade als Siliziumsolarzellen allein. Mehrere Arbeitsgruppen am HZB forschen daran, solche Tandemsolarzellen gezielt zu entwickeln und zu optimieren. Mit großem Erfolg, Tandemzellen aus dem HZB haben bereits mehrere Weltrekorde erreicht. Zuletzt erzielten HZB-Forschungsteams im November 2021 mit einer Tandemzelle aus Perowskit- und Silizium einen zertifizierten Wirkungsgrad von 29,8%. Dies war ein absoluter Weltrekord, der acht Monate ungeschlagen an der Spitze stand. Erst im Sommer 2022 ist es einem Schweizer Team an der EPFL gelungen, diesen Wert zu übertreffen.  

An der Entwicklung der Rekord-Tandemzelle war unter anderem IRIS Adlershof-Mitglied Prof. Eva Unger beteiligt. Nun stellen die Wissenschaftler in Nature Nanotechnologie die Details vor. Die Zeitschrift lud sie darüber hinaus ein, ein so genanntes „Research Briefing“ zu verfassen, in dem sie ihre Arbeit kurz zusammenfassen und einen Ausblick auf künftige Entwicklungen geben.

„Unsere jeweiligen Kompetenzen ergänzen sich sehr gut“, erklärt Prof. Dr. Christiane Becker. Ihr Team hat eine nanooptische Texturierung in die Tandemzelle eingebracht: Eine sanft gewellte Nanotextur auf der Silizium-Oberfläche. „Überraschend war, dass diese Textur gleich mehrere Vorteile bringt“, betont Becker: „Die Nanotextur reduziert nicht nur wie erwartet die Reflexionsverluste, sondern führt auch noch dazu, dass sich der extrem dünne Film aus Perowskit deutlich regelmäßiger bildet.“ Außerdem reduziert eine dielektrische Pufferschicht auf der Rückseite des Siliziums die parasitäre Absorption bei Wellenlängen im nahen Infrarotbereich.

Als Fazit halten die Forschenden fest: Mit maßgeschneiderten Nanotexturen lassen sich überraschend vielseitige Verbesserungen erreichen. Diese Ergebnisse sind nicht nur für Tandemzellen aus Perowskit- und Silizium wertvoll, sondern auch für Leuchtdioden auf Perowskit-Basis.

P. Tockhorn, J. Sutter, A. Cruz, et al.
Nano-optical designs for high-efficiency monolithic perovskite–silicon tandem solar cells.
Nat. Nanotechnol. (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-022-01228-8

Dr. Sven Ramelow

Dr. Sven Ramelow leitet seit 2016 die Emmy Noether-Nach­wuchs­gruppe "Quanten-Bildgebung und Spektro­skopie im Mittleren Infra­rot". Zuvor hat er nach seinem Studium an der HU beim Ehrendoktor der HU, Prof. Anton Zeilinger, an der Universität Wien promoviert und als Post-Doc mit ihm an Experi­menten zur Ver­letzung der Bellschen Un­gleichung gearbeitet, für die unter anderem der diesjährige Physik-Nobelpreis verliehen wird. Weitere Statio­nen waren die University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australien) und die Cornell University (Ithaca, USA), bevor er zurück zur Humboldt-Universität kam. Er ist seit 2017 Mitglied von IRIS Adlershof.

Martin Bogner, IRIS Adlershof:
Lieber Herr Dr. Ramelow, der Nobelpreis in Physik 2022 wurde an Prof. Alain Aspect, Dr. John Clauser und Prof. Anton Zeilinger "für Experimente mit verschränkten Photonen, Nachweis der Verletzung der Bellschen Ungleichungen und Pionierarbeit in der Quanteninformationswissenschaft" vergeben. Hat es Sie überrascht, das Prof. Zeilinger den Nobelpreis erhalten hat?
Dr. Sven Ramelow: Jein. Es wurde ja seit über 10 Jahren immer wieder vermutet und man konnte online sogar darauf Wetten abschließen. Zu Recht! Aber wenn es dann tatsächlich passiert, ist das natürlich für den Moment eine sehr schöne, positive Überraschung.

Das Thema hört sich kompliziert an - was sind denn verschränkte Photonen und die Bellsche Ungleichung?
Wenn man die Eigen­schaften von zwei verschränkte Photonen jeweils an verschiedenen, weit entfernten Orten misst, können die Ergebnisse für bestimmte Mess­ein­stellungen immer gleich sein. Dies ist erst einmal auch nichts Besonderes. Es könnte ja einfach so sein, dass die Photonen einfach mit jeweils gleichen Eigen­schaften erzeugt und danach nur verteilt wurden.

Die beiden Photonen hätten sich also bei der Ent­stehung als verschränkte Photonen entschieden, welches z.B. Spin up und welches Spin down erhält?
Genau, das könnte man so vermuten. Man bezeichnet diesen Erklärungs­versuch als "lokale, versteckte Variablen" oder "lokalen Realismus". Und er deckt sich ja auch zu 100% mit unseren Alltags­er­fahrungen: Dinge hätten "an sich" Eigen­schaften, die unabhängig davon sind, ob ich diese messe oder anschaue. Allerdings wurde in den 1960er Jahren durch John Bell eine Art von Experiment vorge­schlagen, mit dem man diese Art der Erklärung sicher aus­schließen kann. Und genau solche Experimente - heute spricht man von Bell-Tests bzw. Ver­letzung der Bellschen Unglei­chungen - wurden von allen 3 Preis­trägern erfolg­reich durch­ge­führt.

Worin liegen denn die prak­tischen Heraus­forderungen bei einem solchen Versuchs­aufbau?
Zunächst einmal benötig man natürlich ein Quelle von verschränkten Photonen. Heut­zu­tage sind solchen Quellen bereits (für andere Zwecke - z.B. Quanten­krypto­graphie) kommerziell erhältlich, aber zum Zeit­punkt der Pionier-Arbeiten der 3 Preis­träger mussten diese aufwendig konstruiert und aufgebaut werden. Dann müssen die einzelnen Photonen an zwei möglichst weit entfernten Orten möglichst effizient gemessen werden - eine große mess­technische Herausforderung. Und zuletzt müssen die Mess­winkel sehr schnell und vor allem zufällig verändert, sowie die Daten sehr aufwendig statistisch analysiert werden.

Wo kann man mehr dazu erfahren?
Prof. Zeilinger hat dazu einige sehr gut erklärende Bücher geschrieben, die auch allgemein­verständlich sind. Zudem gibt es in jedem Sommer­semester seit ein paar Jahren am Institut für Physik die Vorlesung "Advanced Optical Sciences", bei der es bei einem der 2-3 Haupt­themen immer um solche Bell-Experimente geht.

Arbeiten Sie in Ihrer Nachwuchs­gruppe auch an verschränkten Photonen?
Ich würde eher sagen wir arbeiten MIT verschränkten Photonen. Im Moment versuchen wir diese für bestimmte neue Anwendungen und sogar mögliche Produkte im Bereich der Mikro­skopie und Spektro­skopie nutzbar zu machen. Zum Beispiel arbeiten wir an einem Gerät für die Erkennung vom Mikro­plastik-Partikeln in Abwasser, sowie einer neuen Art von Mikroskop für die Krebs­diagnostik. Die Grund­lagen­forschung dafür wurde übrigens erst 2014 in der Arbeit­sgruppe von Prof. Zeilinger gemacht - damals noch ohne jegliche Absicht einer möglichen Anwendung, sondern wirklich aus reiner Neugier.

Ab wann schätzen Sie werde ich mit meinem Handy quanten­verschlüsselte Text­nach­richten ver­schicken?
Ich glaube nicht, dass das eine Anwendung von Quanten­verschlüsse­lung sein wird. Aber viel­leicht wird es in den nächste 5-10 Jahren andere geben - in Bereichen wo extreme Daten­sicher­heit erforder­lich ist.

Vielen Dank für das interessante Gespräch!

Welche Ideen Forscher:innen für eine nachhaltige Zu­kunft haben, stellt das Nach­haltig­keits­portal humboldts17 in der Rei­he „Köpfe der Nach­haltig­keit“ vor.

In der fünften Folge wurde Prof. Dr. Eva Unger, Mit­glied von IRIS Adlers­hof, vor­ge­stellt. Sie  unter­sucht und ent­wickelt so­ge­nann­te Pe­row­skit-Halb­lei­ter, die in Solar­zel­len ein­ge­setzt wer­den können und aus Son­nen­licht Strom pro­du­zieren und gibt Ant­worten auf die Frage:

„Wie können wir als Wissen­schaft­ler­innen und Wissen­schaftler dabei mit­helfen, dass Pro­zesse und Techno­logien schnel­ler in die An­wendung kommen?“

Auf dem Campus Adlershof wurde der hochinstallierte IRIS‑Forschungsbau, gemein­sam finanziert von Bund, Land und Humboldt-Universität, während der Pandemie fertig gestellt und bezogen. Das Gebäude ist heute im Beisein der Senatorin für Wissen­schaft, Gesund­heit, Pflege und Gleich­stellung und von HU-Präsidentin Julia von Blumen­thal feierlich eröffnet worden. Der Forschungs­bau ist Sitz des IRIS Adlershof und bietet mit Labor-, Büro- und Kommunikations­flächen auf rund 4.500 Quadrat­metern optimale Bedingungen für die Zusammen­arbeit von Arbeits­gruppen aus Physik und Chemie der Humboldt-Universität sowie mit Kooperations­partnern aus außer­universitären Forschungs­instituten und der Wirt­schaft.

Wissenschaftssenatorin Ulrike Gote erklärt: „Der hochmoderne Forschungsbau liegt inmitten von zahlreichen Instituten und Unternehmen im Wissenschafts- und Technologiepark Adlershof. In dieser Lage und mit seinen weitläufigen Laborbereichen bietet er den rund 160 Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern optimale Bedingungen für die Forschung und Entwicklung hybrider Systeme für Elektronik, Optoelektronik und Photonik. Der Forschungsbau ist ein wichtiger Baustein für die herausragende Wissenschafts- und Forschungslandschaft Berlins.“

„Der IRIS-Forschungsbau stellt eine herrausragende Verbesserung der Forschungsinfrastruktur auf dem Campus Adlershof und eine große Bereicherung für Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler, Studierende, sowie für unsere Partner am Standort Berlin-Adlershof dar“, sagt HU-Präsidentin Julia von Blumenthal anlässlich der Eröffnung.

„Durch die integrative Architektur mit Verbund- wie Speziallaboren werden physikalische, chemische, material- und ingenieurs­wissenschaftliche, sowie IT- und AI-Methoden hier zusammengeführt. Davon erhoffen sich alle Beteiligten vor Ort, wie auch unsere strategischen internationalen Kooperationspartner erhebliche Innovationsschübe“, sagt Prof. Dr. Jürgen P. Rabe, langjähriger Direktor des IRIS Adlershof.

Im IRIS-Forschungsbau lernen und forschen Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter unterschiedlicher Disziplinen zusammen an der Entwicklung neuartiger hybrider Materialien. Hybrid bedeutet dabei, dass etwa anorganische Halbleitermaterialien mit organischen Materialien auf einer Nanoskala zusammengebracht werden, um neue Materialien mit besseren oder auch völlig neuen Funktionalitäten zu entwickeln.

Als Herzstück des Gebäudes hat das IRIS-Team ein großes Verbundlabor mit einem integrierten Reinraumtrakt errichten lassen. Hier werden Arbeitsmethoden aus Physik und Chemie zusammengeführt. Darüber hinaus verfügt das neue Gebäude über hochspezialisierte Labore, in denen Forschende die hier entwickelten, neuen Materialien auf Herz und Nieren prüfen. Ein Highlight ist ein elektromagnetisch abgeschotteter Raum mit entkoppeltem Fundament, in dem eines der modernsten Transmissions­elektronen­mikroskope der Welt steht.

Die Anordnung der Labore und Büros sowie die großzügigen Kommunikationsflächen im IRIS- Forschungsbau schaffen beste Voraussetzungen, damit die unterschiedlichen Disziplinen sich austauschen und voneinander lernen können. Der Bau befindet sich in unmittelbarer Nähe der Institute für Physik und Chemie der Humboldt-Universität. Er schlägt nicht nur eine Brücke zwischen unterschiedlichen Disziplinen, sondern auch zwischen Theorie und Experiment, verbindet Grundlagenforschung, anwendungsorientierte Forschung und Hightech-Unternehmen. Hier forschen auch Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler aus außeruniversitären Einrichtungen wie dem Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB) und dem Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Vergangenes Jahr haben das HZB, zwei Max-Planck-Institute und die HU begonnen, ein gemeinsames Forschungslabor für Katalyse, das CatLab, im IRIS-Forschungsbau aufzubauen. Im Fokus der Forschung des CatLab steht Grüner Wasserstoff.

Eine Aufzeichnung der Eröffnungsfeier können Sie auf Youtube abrufen:

Ever wondered how physicists come up with new theories? How were theorists able to predict such complex phenomena, years before they were observed experimentally? Come with us and step into the world of theoretical physics!
Non-Standard Models is a YouTube channel that provides entertaining and informative answers to research questions beyond the Standard Model, like “do extra dimensions exist and why would we need them?” or “what if the Higgs boson is actually a composite particle?”.

This social media project was initiated by the doctoral students of the Research Training Group 2575 "Rethinking Quantum Field Theory". They create the appealing animations themselves and thus make the explanations easy to understand for physics students, but also for interested laypeople. It launched  at the Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften 2022 in Berlin, and in the future further interviews with PIs and doctoral candidates of the GRK will appear.

more on YouTube, Instagram (w/out log-in) and TikTok

Last week the second edition of the conference "Integrability, dualities and deformations" took place at IRIS Adlershof. This conference brought together 75 expert theoretical physicists working on integrable models, worldsheet dualities, non-commutative field theory, and the gauge/gravity correspondence, to discuss the latest developments in their fields, find new connections between these related areas, and share exciting insights. In addition to 18 great talks, you could find participants excitedly discussing their computations in various spots around and in front of the IRIS building until late each day. The talks were also livestreamed to YouTube, and recordings of the individual talks will be made available in the coming weeks.
For more details see the conference website: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1139791/

Prof. Matthias Scheffler opens the joint workshop and hands-on tutorial

During the week of 25-29 July, the successful workshop and hands-on tutorial on Modeling Materials at Realistic time Scales via Optimal Exploitation of Exascale Computers and Artificial Intelligence took place. The event was hosted by IRIS Adlershof and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and was a collaboration between them and the Pritzker School of the University of Chicago, CECAM, NOMAD, ECAM and MICCOM.

During the first three days from 25 to 27 July, leading experts from various fields gave talks on computational applications and related artificial intelligence methods in relation to advances in materials science. On the evenings of 25 and 26 July, there were dinners with poster sessions for further scientific and collective exchange. The afternoon of 27 July was followed by an excursion to a graffiti tour at Teufelsberg followed by dinner.
The 28th and 29th of July were then used for tutorials with hands-on examples focusing on the simulation of molecular dynamics.

The experimental physicist and head of the Emmy Noether junior research group "Nonlinear Quantum Optics", Dr. Sven Ramelow, is doing research in the project "Sensors with entangled photons in the middle infrared" at IRIS Adlershof and the Department of Physics of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. His approach is based on quantum-based measurements with so-called undetected photons: a new method in which entangled photon pairs are used to collect measurement information in different infrared ranges without using infrared lasers or detectors. The first industry-related applications are already in the development phase with the participation of the researcher.

Sven Ramwlow has now been awarded an Einstein Junior Fellowship by the Einstein Foundation Berlin. We congratulate him warmly and look forward to continued good cooperation.
 

IRIS Member Prof. Caterina Cocchi, together with Dr. Zsuzsanna Heiner and Dr. Petra Metz organized and carried out the WiNS School 2022 in Blossin, Brandenburg (June 10 – 13, 2022). About 30 women of 14 different nationalities from all career levels who are active in different areas of natural sciences – from astrophysics to biochemistry, and from environmental science to mechanical engineering – spent together four days in the nature to discuss about scientific and technological challenges in the field of energy production, storage, and consumption. The scientific program, consisting of a balanced mix between invited talks and oral contributions from the participants, was complemented by a one-day seminar on career development, personal empowerment, and community building. Two sessions dedicated to science communication augmented this rich agenda.

The participants of this event are now part of the WiNS network and have committed themselves to act as role models for the next generation of female scientists.

Some impressions from the participants:

This weekend was so inspiring, thanks you all! – Josefin, undergraduate student

Thank you for organizing such an excellent event! These days are the highlight in my career and in my life as well! – Sarah, doctoral candidate

Thank you for providing us this platform and opportunity to explore ourselves! – Namita, Assistant Professor

more...

Pablo Hernández López & Laura Orphal-Kobin, the newly elected junior scientists representatives

The junior scientists of IRIS Adlershof have elected today Ms. Laura Orphal-Kobin as their representative in the IRIS bodies and Mr. Pablo Hernández López as her deputy. Thus, the young scientists are represented in the IRIS general meetings as well as in the IRIS Council with the right to speak, propose and vote.

Laura Orphal-Kobin is a PhD student in the group of Dr. Tim Schröder within the graduate school "Berlin School of Optical Sciences and Quantum Technologies" and is doing research on the optimization of diamond nanostructures.

Pablo Hernández López is a PhD student in the group of Dr. Sebastian Heeg and is doing research on one- and two-dimensional new materials. He is a member of the graduate school "Advanced Materials".

IRIS Adlershof congratulates Laura and Pablo on their election and is looking forward to a good collaboration!
 

Nominations are open for postdoctoral fellowships between two cities, Berlin and Beijing, as part of a joint physics program between the Integrative Research Institute for the Sciences (IRIS Adlershof) of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin) and the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, (IOP) Beijing.

FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

The prestigious two-year research fellowships are intended for exceptional early-career scientists, in preparation for an independent career in research at the frontier of condensed matter physics, quantum materials or device physics. Successful candidates will spend one year in Berlin and one in Beijing at the research groups of their choice, supported by up to 4,500 EUR/month.

The selected fellows will be appointed from August 2022 onwards. A first networking event is programmed in Berlin. Fellows will work at the Campus Adlershof of HU Berlin and the IOP Zhongcuancun Beijing Campus. The fellows have the possibility to visit and interact with associated Partners at the Max Born Institute, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and its Electron Storage Ring BESSY II, the Freie Universität Berlin, at the Leibniz-Institut für Kristallzüchtung or the Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society.

Condensed Matter Theory
Prof. Claudia Draxl, Prof. Sheng Meng, Prof. Hongming Weng, Prof. Chen Fang, Prof. Xinguo Ren, Prof. Jiangping Hu, Prof. Zhong Fang, Prof. Tao Xiang, Prof. Matthias Scheffler, Prof. Caterina Cocchi

Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy
Prof. Zhiyi Wei, Prof. Jianing Chen

Photoemission Spectroscopy and Surface Science
Prof. Norbert Koch, Prof. Tian Qian, Prof. Xingjiang Zhou, Prof. Jiandong Guo

Optoelectronic Devices and Quantum Transport
Prof. Emil List-Kratochvil, Prof. Thomas Schröder, Prof. Guangyu Zhang, Prof. Yongqing Li

Scanning Probe Microscopy
Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe, Prof. Carlos-Andres Palma, Prof. Kui Jin, Prof. Shuheng Pan, Prof. Hong-Jun Gao

Quantum Information
Prof. Tim Schröder, Prof. Oliver Benson, Prof. Li Lu

Electron Microscopy
Prof. Christoph Koch, Prof. Xuedong Bai

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

• Commitment to a one-year research stay at IOP followed by a further year at IRIS Adlershof, HU Berlin. Special cases committing to one-year at IRIS Adlershof followed by a further year at IOP will be considered.
• A PhD degree in physics, chemistry, mathematics, or materials, obtained no more than five years prior to the application deadline.
• Previous international experience, such as conference talks, research stays abroad and so on.

HOW TO APPLY

• 2022 Program closing date: June 30th, 2022.
• 2023 Program closing date: November 30th, 2022.

DECISION

Due to its importance for a large number of different fields of application, such as electromobility, stationary energy storage, household appliances and high-performance tools, battery technology is a key technology for Germany as a business location, which can, for example, contribute to the federal government's obvious climate protection goals.
In order to be able to survive in global competition, the training and further education of young scientists in the field of battery research is necessary. For this purpose, the BMBF launched the “BattFutur” funding program in 2020.

IRIS-member Oliver Dumele will start his grant in this program in July 2022. His research on the synthesis of sustainable organic energy materials will be funded by € 1.62 million.

We wish Oliver Dumele every success in his important research project!

Solar energy is a reliable energy source to meet the fast-growing energy demand of today’s world. An absorber layer is the core of the solar cell device which absorbs sunlight and transports the resulting charge carriers to the electrical contacts. The kesterite Cu₂ZnSnS₄ (CZTS) is a promising candidate which consists of earth abundant and non-toxic elements. CZTS has attracted much interest due to its high absorption coefficient of about ~1x10^-4cm^-1 and optimal bandgap of 1.4 eV. It is challenging to however, understand the electronic properties of this complex quaternary structure.

In her thesis Archana Manoharan tried to understand the electronic properties of CZTS. X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) is a powerful tool for this purpose. Interpreting XANES of complex materials is nontrivial and thus requires theoretical modeling. Here, all her calculations are performed using an all-electron full-potential augmented plane-wave method as implemented in the exciting code. The accurate description of the core level excitations was performed by a two-step procedure. First, the electronic structure was calculated by solving the Kohn-Sham (KS) equation of density functional theory (DFT). The absorption spectra including elecron-hole (e-h) was described by the solution of the Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) of many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) using the KS states as starting point.

The discrepancies between the calculated and measured spectra in CZTS however, remained an open question. For this purpose, she demonstrated the influence of defect complexes on the excited state properties of CZTS. First, the core level shifts upon the defect formation is understood as they are sensitive to chemical environment. The spectral signatures are obtained for the selected inequivalent sulfur sites. A detailed analysis of the impact of the local chemical environment is performed. From the insight gained from this analysis, the nature of the defects dominating the measured spectra are determined.

IRIS Adlershof supported this research with a fellowship, so Archana could focus on finalizing the project and getting the results ready for publication.

She sucessfully defended her thesis on June 3rd, 2022. Congratulation!

Robert Schlögl, Director at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, and Honorary professor at the Chemistry department of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin will take office on 1 January 2023.

Born in 1954, Robert Schlögl is an internationally recognised and well-connected scientist. His research focus is energy conversion processes and catalysts. As an expert for energy systems of the future and the complex challenges arising in connection with transitioning the current energy system to renewable forms of energy, he also has a wealth of experience in the area of political consulting and science communication. As part of a joint catalysis research laboratory operated by the Helmholtz Center for Materials and Energy Berlin (HZB) and the two Max Planck Institutes FHI and CEC, a large working group led by Prof. Schlögl and Professors Reuter and Roldán is cooperating closely with IRIS Adlershof, thus benefiting from the up-to-date-infrastructure of the new IRIS research building.

We wish Mr. Schlögl every success in his new position and look forward to continued good cooperation.

more…

Dr. Nakib Protik has been awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdocs. He received his PhD in physics from Boston College (USA) in 2019 and then did research at Harvard University (USA) and at the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (Spain).

As a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Dr. Protik will now be working in the group of Prof. Claudia Draxl, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof, on improving the parameter-free description of the interactions of charge and heat carriers with neutral, charged, and magnetic impurities in quantum materials. This work will connect to a broad range of applications spanning heat harvesting to spintronics.

We congratulate Dr. Protik on successfully acquiring the research grant and wish him every success in his work. Welcome at IRIS Adlershof, Nakib!

Last Thursday, 12 May 2022, representatives of INAM e.V. and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin welcomed numerous guests from business, politics, research and teaching to the opening event of the incubator programme "AdMaLab - The Berlin Materials and Hardware Lab" in the research building of IRIS Adlershof at Humboldt-Universität.

As part of the "Berlin Startup Stipendim" funding programme, the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises has provided INAM e.V. and its cooperation partners with around 1.1 million euros to set up an incubator programme tailored to material science start-ups.

>At the festive opening event, the AdMaLab team led by Oliver Hasse, Managing Director of the Innovation Network for Advanced Materials (INAM) e.V., and Prof. Dr. Emil List-Kratochvil, Deputy Director of IRIS Adlershof and Head of the Hybrid Devices Research Group, were able to welcome Michael Biel, Berlin's State Secretary for Economics, Prof. Dr. Christoph Schneider, Vice President for Research at the Universität zu Berlin, representatives of the first participating start-ups and numerous international guests from business, research, education and politics in the IRIS Adlershof research building.

A team of researchers from Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, the Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden (IPF) e. V., and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have made an anode with superior performance for portable battery applications, close to limits of theoretical capacity. Uniquely, the obtained anodes are flexible without surface reconstruction or crack formation, and they survive heat shocks without performance-loss.

more...

How the FAIRmat consortium works (Copyright: FAIRmat)

The lifestyle of our society is largely determined by the achievements of condensed matter physics, chemistry and material sciences. Touch screens, batteries, electronics or implants: Many new products in the fields of energy, environment, health, mobility and information technology are largely based on improved or even novel materials. These fields generate enormous amounts of data every day, which is a new raw material - and is therefore a gold mine in itself. However, a prerequisite for this is that these data are comprehensively characterized and made available to science.

more...

On Tuesday, April 5, 2022, the management and the supervisory board of our site partner WISTA Management GmbH visited the new research building of IRIS Adlershof. After a brief introduction by IRIS director Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe, there was a guided tour through some of the laboratories in the research building. The guests were allowed to lend a hand themselves at the glove box cluster of the network laboratory and they were able to see individual atoms at the NION-TEM. In particular, the State Secretary (StS) for Science, Ms. Armaghan Naghipour, and the State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Mr. Michael Biel, showed great interest in our research.

IRIS Director Jürgen P. Rabe, IRIS Managing Director Nikolai Puhlmann and Dean Prof. Caren Tischendorf discuss current issues with WISTA Managing Director Roland Sillmann and the WISTA Supervisory Board members in the network laboratory of the research building.
Dr. Ligorio provides insights into current science at the large glass window in the foyer of the IRIS research building.		StS Armaghan Naghipour advances research at the glove box.		StS Michael Biel, StS Armaghan Naghipour, and WISTA Managing Director Roland Sillmann (from left to right) are shown individual atoms.

In the first 19 days following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, 6,300 Ukrainian scientists moved abroad. Michael J. Bojdys, member of IRIS Adlershof, has been a member of the Advisory Board of the "Young Scientists" at the World Economic Forum (WEE) since 2018. In the WEE agenda he and his colleagues have summarized the experiences of the Young Scientists at the WEF as "academic ambassadors" and offer pathways for leveraging the international science community and inspire action ( #StandWithScholarsAtRisk ). They have identified four key areas where collaborative action can offer support to Ukraine scientist:

1. Fund opportunities for research networks,
2. Hire academics at risk,
3. Hire technical staff and workers at risk,
4. Engage directly with authorities.

Fig 1: Visualization of the gravitational Bremsstrahlung from the scattering of two black holes (BSc thesis O. Babayemi)

When two massive objects (black holes, neutron stars, or stars) fly past each other, the gravitational interactions not only deflect their orbits, but also produce gravitational radiation, or gravitational bremsstrahlung, analogous to electromagnetism. The resulting gravitational waves of such a scattering event were calculated at leading order in Newton's gravitational constant in the 1970s using traditional methods of general relativity in an extensive series of four papers. Bremsstrahlung events are still out of reach for the current generation of gravitational-wave detectors because the signal is non-periodic and typically less intense. Nevertheless, they are interesting targets for future searches with future terrestrial and space-based observatories.

In the Quantum Field Theory lab around IRIS Adlerhof-member Prof. Plefka, a new approach to determining these waveforms (Fig. 1) and the deflections using methods of perturbative quantum field theory was recently developed, which proves to be significantly more efficient than the traditional approaches. It is based on a hybrid quantum field theory, in which the black holes (or stars) are idealized as point particles and interact with the gravitational field. The calculation is then based on a systematic diagrammatic expansion using Feynman graphs. I.e. the methods that were originally developed for the scattering of elementary particles can now also be used in astrophysical scenarios.

With this innovative method - the "Worldline Quantum Field Theory“ approach - our understanding of this fundamental physical process was recently significantly extended resulting in a series of three publications in the Physical Review Letters. In [1], the results from the 1970s were reproduced in a far more efficient way; this only required the calculation of three Feynman graphs (Fig. 2). In [2] the waveform could be extended to the case of rotating black holes and neutron stars. In a recent publication [3], the scattering angles and deflections in momenta and rotations due to the scattering process at the next-next-leading order of the gravitational constant were determined for the first time. Elaborated techniques for calculating Feynman integrals were used here. Interestingly, the rotational degrees of freedom of the black holes are described in this new formulation with a supersymmetric world line theory [4], which was originally developed in extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics.

This research was performed in the context of the DFG Research Training Group 2575 "Rethinking Quantum Field Theory“, where innovations in quantum field theory are developed in cooperation with the Max-Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and the Helmholtz-Centre DESY.

[1]	Classical Gravitational Bremsstrahlung from a Worldline Quantum Field Theory G. U. Jakobsen, G. Mogull, J. Plefka, and J. Steinhoff Phys. Rev. Lett. 126 (2021) 201103 arxiv: 2101.12688  OPENACCESS		[3]	Conservative and radiative dynamics of spinning bodies at third post-Minkowskian order using worldline quantum field theory G. U. Jakobsen and G. Mogull erscheint in PRL arxiv: 2201.07778  OPENACCESS
[2]	Gravitational Bremsstrahlung and Hidden Supersymmetry of Spinning Bodies G. U. Jakobsen, G. Mogull, J. Plefka, and J. Steinhoff Phys. Rev. Lett. 128 (2022) 011101 arxiv: 2106.10256  OPENACCESS		[4]	SUSY in the sky with gravitons G. U. Jakobsen, G. Mogull, J. Plefka, and J. Steinhoff JHEP 2201 (2022) 027 arxiv: 2109.04465  OPENACCESS

Further Informationen:
Videos on Youtube (from BSc thesis of O. Babayemi)

We will be considering applications for programmes starting on

•     1 April 2022 (application deadline: 28 February 2022) and
•     1 June 2022 (application deadline: 30 April 2022)

Prof. Dr. Julia von Blumenthal ist am 15.2.2022 vom Konzil der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) mit 44 Ja-Stimmen bei 12 Nein-Stimmen und 2 ungültigen Stimmen zur neuen Präsidentin der HU gewählt worden. Sie hat die Wahl angenommen. "Ich danke dem Konzil und dem Kuratorium der Humboldt-Universität für das in mich gesetzte Vertrauen. Ich freue mich darauf, diese verantwortungsvolle Aufgabe zu übernehmen. Als Universität ist es unsere Aufgabe, Studierenden das Wissen und die Fähigkeiten zu vermitteln, die sie brauchen, um die Gesellschaft der Zukunft mitzugestalten. Mit exzellenter Forschung tragen wir dazu bei, die Herausforderungen von heute und die Fragen von morgen zu beantworten.", so von Blumenthal.
Seit Oktober 2018 ist Julia von Blumenthal Präsidentin der Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder). Zuvor war sie Dekanin der Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin und hat seit 2009 eine Professur am Institut für Sozialwissenschaften im Lehrbereich Innenpolitik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland der Humboldt-Universität Berlin (derzeit beurlaubt).
Vorraussichtlich zu Beginn des Wintersemesters 2022/23 wird sie Interims-Präsident Peter Frensch ablösen.

In the next months many workshop for interested doctoral candidates are offered. Please register in time!
 

Berlin University Alliance Events:

Career Day 2022 - Berlin University Alliance
You are still considering what job is a match for you and don’t know where to start looking? Save the date for our virtual “Career Day 2022 for Doctoral Candidates – New Horizons" offered by the Berlin University Alliance! This event will introduce young scientists to a variety of career tracks inside and outside academia to give support in making informed and suitable career decisions.
Several World Cafés will provide an interactive space for exchanging experiences, sharing knowledge and networking with professionals from various fields. During Round Tables you can join our special discussions on pursuing a career in academia or how the transition to the wider job market can succeed. In January 2022 you will find further information and the complete programon our website.
Datum: 22.02.2022
Target Group: Doctoral Candidates in all years
Format: Online
Language: English
Participation is free of charge
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Erfolgreich in die Promotion – Berlin University Alliance Online-Retreat
Offen für alle Promovierenden der Berlin University Alliance
Für alle, die in Berlin mit der Promotion beginnen, bietet die Berlin University Alliance einen zweitägigen Retreat an. Dieser Retreat wird im April 2022 noch einmal Online stattfinden. Du wirst während des Retreats in kleinen Workshops Techniken lernen, die Dir helfen, gut vorbereitet in Deine Promotion zu starten und kannst Dich mit anderen Promovierenden der HU, FU, TU und Charité austauschen und vernetzen. Vielleicht lernst Du hier sogar Personen kennen, die Dich bis zum Abschluss Deiner Promotion begleiten? Der Graduate Studies Support der Berlin University Alliance freut sich auf Deine Teilnahme!
Datum: 05./06.04.2022
Zielgruppe: Promovierende aller Fachrichtungen in den ersten sechs Monaten ihrer Promotion
Format: Online über Konferenz-Tool Lounjee und in Gathertown
Sprache: Deutsch
Die Teilnahme ist kostenfrei (inkl. Verpflegung und Unterbringung)
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Kick Off your Doctorate – Berlin University Alliance Online-Retreat
Open to all Doctoral Candidates within the Berlin University Alliance
For all those starting their doctorate in Berlin, the Berlin University Alliance offers a two-day retreat. In April 2022, this retreat will be held again online. During the retreat, you are going to learn techniques that will help you to kick off your doctorate and you can meet and network with other doctoral candidates from HU, FU, TU and Charité. Maybe you will even get to know people who will accompany you until the completion of your doctorate? The Graduate Studies Support of the Berlin University Alliance is looking forward to your participation!
Datum: 07./08.04.2022
Target Group: Doctoral candidates in all disciplines in the first six months of their doctorate
Format: Online via conference tool Lounjee and in Gathertown
Language: English
Participation is free of charge (incl. food and lodging)

Humboldt Graduate School Workshops:
Planning the Completion of your Dissertation
Open to all Doctoral Candidates within the Berlin University Alliance
Trainer: Mr. Mark Edwards
Date: 07. + 09.03.2022; 09:00–12:00
Target Group: Candidates in last year of doctorate
Language: English
Participation is free of charge.
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Scientific Writing & Publishing (Life Sciences & Natural Sciences)
Open to all Doctoral Candidates within the Berlin University Alliance
Trainer: Dr. Martina Michalikova
Date: 11.03.; 18.03.; 25.03.; 01.04.2022; 09:00–13:00
Target Group: Candidates from Life Sciences & Natural Sciences in all years of doctorate
Language: English
Participation is free of charge.
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Disputationstraining
Offen für alle Promovierenden der Humboldt-Universität
Trainer: Dr. Nele Rother
Date: 31.03.2022 und 01.04.2022; 09:00-16:00
Target Group: Promovierende in der Abschlussphase (alle Fachrichtungen)
Language: Deutsch
Die Teilnahme ist kostenfrei.
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Presenting Science Online
Open to Doctoral Candidates from Member Programs, Associated Programs and Cooperations
The workshop can then be attended by others, if it is not fully booked 14 days before beginning.
Trainer: Ms. Millie Baker
Date: 23.–25.02.2022; 10:00–15:00
Target Group: Candidates in the 1st and 2nd year of doctorate 
Language: English
The workshop can then be attended, if it is not fully booked 14 days before beginning.
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Grant Application Writing
Open to Doctoral Candidates from Member Programs, Associated Programs and Cooperations
The workshop can then be attended by others, if it is not fully booked 14 days before beginning.
Trainer: Dr. Sabine Preusse
Date: 28.03.; 29.03.; 04.04.; 05.04.2022; 09:00–12:30
Target Group: Candidates in 2nd and 3rd year of doctorate
Language: English

IRIS Adlershof-member Eva Unger was now appointed as W2 professor at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Prof. Dr. Eva Unger leads a research group at HZB. She develops scalable technologies for the production of perovskite semiconductors for low-cost and highly efficient solar cells.

Prof. Dr Eva Unger works since 2016 as a scientist at HZB, with affiliation at Lund University in Sweden. After building up her research team as part of a BMBF-funded junior research group, she is now head of the department "Solution Processing for Hybrid Materials and Devices" at HZB. The Unger team is developing manufacturing processes to deposit semiconductor layers of perovskite on larger surfaces. They are working on  functional inks for the deposition of perovskite semiconductors and are very active in the analysis of film growth processes and the combinatorial synthesis methods. In addition to large-area perovskite solar cell prototypes, Unger's team is working with other research groups at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin on large-area tandem solar modules that combine perovskite with silicon layers. Eva Unger is also involved in Open Science and Open Data projects and is building a database for perovskite solar cells together with many international partners.
Eva Unger was appointed to a W2 S professorship at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin at the end of January, made possible by the Helmholtz Association's funding programme for the initial appointment of excellent female scientists. In the summer semester, she will offer a specialisation course on "The Chemistry of Solar cells".

IRIS Adlershof cordially congratulates Professor Eva Unger and anticipates with pleasure a further fruitful cooperation.

We are delighted to welcome Prof. Dr. Ulf Leser as a member of IRIS Adlershof.
He is a full professor at the Institute for Computer Science at Humboldt-Universiät zu Berlin. His main research interests are biomedical data management and text mining, infrastructures for large-scale scientific data analysis, and statistical Bioinformatics, with a focus on cancer research.
He is speaker of the Collaborative Research Center "Foundations of Workflows for Large-Scale Scientific Data Analysis (FONDA)" and of the collaborative research project "Comprehensive Data Integration for Precision Oncology (PREDICT)". From 2014-2019, he was speaker of the Research Training Group "Service-oriented Architectures for Health Care Systems (SOAMED)". Furthermore, he currently is principal investigator in the interdisciplinary graduate schools "Berlin School of Integrative Oncology (BSIO)" and "Computational Methods for Precision Oncology (CompCancer)", in the "Heibrids graduate school an Data Science", the research unit "Beyond the Exome", and the Einstein Center for Digital Future Berlin (ECDF).

IRIS Adlershof is looking forward to a good and fruitful collaboration.

Die Kultusministerkonferenz verabschiedete am 9. Dezember 2021 einstimmig das umfassende Zehnjahres-Programm „QuaMath - Unterrichts- und Fortbildungs-Qualität in Mathematik entwickeln“ zur Stärkung der mathematischen Bildung in Deutschland. Sie reagiert auf das Problem, dass nur knapp die Hälfte aller Jugendlichen die mathematischen Kompetenzen erreicht, die die Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK) in ihren Regelstandards festgelegt hat und fördert damit eine wegweisende Weiterentwicklung des Mathematikunterrichts.

IRIS Adlershof-Mitglied Professor Dr. Jürg Kramer, Abteilungsdirektor am IPN, und ehemaliger Leiter des DZLM, sieht in dem QuaMath-Programm einen bildungspolitischen Meilenstein: „Die Herausforderungen im Mathematikunterricht wurden identifiziert und auch wissenschaftlich nachgewiesen. Die Bündelung vorhandener Ressourcen mit erheblichen zusätzlichen Mitteln durch die Kultusministerkonferenz zeigt, dass sie die Probleme aktiv angeht. In enger Kooperation der Mathematik-Verantwortlichen der Länder mit der Fortbildungsforschung und -praxis konnte das Programm nun über Ländergrenzen hinweg etabliert werden. Denn nur in Zusammenarbeit kann erkannt werden, was wirklich gebraucht wird.“

Das QuaMath-Programm wird vom Deutschen Zentrum für Lehrerbildung Mathematik (DZLM) am Leibniz-Institut für die Pädagogik der Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik (IPN) forschungsbasiert entwickelt und gemeinsam mit den Ländern umgesetzt. Vor allem mit Anregungen zur Unterrichtsentwicklung, fachdidaktisch fundierten Fortbildungsmaßnahmen und durch die Vernetzung aller Beteiligten soll das Programm mehr als 10.000 Schulen erreichen.

Für das QuaMath-Programm erhält das DZLM ab 2023 eine Fördersumme in Höhe von 17,6 Mio. Euro für die ersten 5,5 Jahre. Die Länder investieren zudem jährlich weitere 5,5 Mio. Euro für Länderkoordination sowie Multiplikatorinnen und Multiplikatoren. mehr...

IRIS Adlershof gratuliert ganz herzlich zu diesem wunderbaren Erfolg!

The IRIS Council (IRIS-Rat) decided to offer other scientists full membership in IRIS Adlershof. We are very pleased that our offer has been accepted and we can introduce you to:

Dr. Eva Unger is head of the new department  Solution processes for hybrid materials and components at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and has been working closely with IRIS Adlershof for some time as part of the Joint Lab GenFab. In particular, she is interested in scalable deposition methods of high value semiconductors such as metal halide perovskites and a deeper understanding of layer formation. Eva Unger has recently received call for a professorship at the Department of Chemistry at HU.

Theoretical physicist and materials scientist Professor Matthias Scheffler, head of the NOMAD Laboratory at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society and honorary professor at the Department of Physics at the HU, conducts research on fundamental aspects of the chemical and physical properties of surfaces as well as on methodological developments in artificial intelligence to solve fundamental problems in materials science. Since 2020, he leads the European Center of Excellence NOMAD and is Co-speaker of the NFDI consortium FAIRmat.

The physicist Julia Stähler is a professor at the Department of Chemistry of HU with a research focus on ultrafast spectroscopy on nanostructured materials, in particular also on inorganic/organic hybrid systems. She is a subproject leader in the Collaborative Research Center 951 “Hybrid Inorganic/Organic Systems for Opto-Electronics (HIOS)”, one of the lighthouse projects of IRIS Adlershof.

There are also two more, but not entirely new members: Two previous junior members, Prof. Dr. Michael J. Bojdys and Dr. Valentina Forini, have received full membership, which means that IRIS Adlershof now has 27 full members.

IRIS Adlershof warmly congratulates its new members and is looking forward to a fruitful cooperation.

IRIS Adlershof is delighted to announce that three promising young scientists, namely Dr. Oliver Dumele, Dr. Nichol Furey, and Dr. Sebastian Heeg, will be joining as junior members.

Oliver Dumele is head of a Liebig junior research group at the Department of Chemistry at HU. He is an organic synthetic chemist with expertise in supramolecular chemistry and self-assembly systems. He believes that 2D layered structures are fascinating supramolecular platforms.

Nichol Furey is a 'Freigeist' fellow of the Volkswagen Foundation at the Institute for Physics at HU and at the IRIS Adlershof. She researches the algebraic structure of elementary particle physics as well as octonions and the standard model of particle physics.

Sebastian Heeg heads an Emmy Noether junior research group at the Institute for Physics at HU. He is interested in the investigation of low-dimensional solid-state systems, for example graphenes and nanotubes, with optical spectroscopy.

IRIS Adlershof warmly congratulates its new junior members and is looking forward to a good and fruitful collaboration.

The Board of Trustees (Kuratorium) of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin has decided to extend IRIS Adlershof until October 31, 2024. It follows a corresponding proposal by the Academic Senate of the HU, which is based on the successful evaluation of IRIS Adlershof by an external commission of experts.

We are very pleased to continue the previous successful interdisciplinary scientific research!

The State of Berlin is providing the Innovation Network for Advanced Materials (INAM e.V.) and its cooperation partners, such as IRIS Adlershof of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, around 1.1 million EUR to set up an incubator programme specifically tailored to material science start-ups. In addition to accompanied access to the high-quality equipped and newly opened research building of IRIS Adlershof and the Innovation Lab HySPRINT at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, scholarships will be provided to enable the founders to dedicate themselves to the development of their business ideas and products.

Starting Friday, 3 December 2021, 12:00 noon, founders with a focus on new materials can apply for a place in the incubator programme. More information on the application process is provided at www.inam.berlin/admalab. In addition to the innovative activities in the lab, the selected startups receive an intensive mentoring and training programme which is supported by Humboldt Innovation GmbH and experts from various specialist areas. On 15 December 2021 at 10 a.m., the project partners will provide more detailed information about the incubator programme in a webinar. Interested parties can register here.

With the Berlin Startup Stipendium, which provides the grant, the State of Berlin has launched a funding programme to turn innovative ideas into products for those willing to start a business. With the funding from the European Social Fund and the State of Berlin, scholarship holders can advance their business ideas in various subject areas. Over 120 innovative startup projects have already been supported. This success can now be expanded further with the AdMaLab into the field of materials science.

As part of the Excellence Strategy, the Humboldt-Universität once again awards Humboldt Research Track Scholarships.

The six-months scholarship aims at outstanding Master's students as well as graduates who plan to pursue a doctorate and helps recipients to prepare for their doctoral thesis. It provides a funding of 800 EUR per month. To enable more prospective doctoral candidates with disabilities or chronic illnesses to prepare for a doctorate, applications from this target group will be given particular consideration.

The current application period runs until 15 January 2022 for funding starting 1 April 2022.

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The European Academy of Sciences (EURASC) has elected Prof. Stefan Hecht, Ph.D., Director of the DWI - Leibniz-Institute for Interactive Materials, Guestprofessor at the  Department of Chemistry of HU Berlin and founding member of IRIS Adlershof, as a Fellow.

The EURASC is dedicated to scientific excellence as well as cutting-edge basic research and interdisciplinary collaboration, which is the basis for all scientific and technological innovation. It is a non-profit and independent association of the most renowned European scientists engaged in cutting-edge research and the development of advanced technologies with more than 770 members in various disciplines, among them Nobel laureates.

"It is a very special honor to be part of this illustrious circle. The election reaffirms both the recognition of our research and its socio-economic benefits," explains Stefan Hecht. In particular, his recent results and successes in the field of 3D printing, more specifically the development of xolography, reflect this achievement. The process is based on the light-induced curing of a transparent high-viscosity resin mixture. However, the curing only occurs at points where two different colors thus wavelengths of light cross. The crossing (X) light rays thereby produce the entire (holos) object in a print (graphy), hence the name "xolography".

IRIS Adlershof is very pleased about this special award and warmly congratulates its member.

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A team of researchers from King’s College London, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), headed by Prof. Michael J. Bojdys, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof,  has investigated the synthesis, structure, optical properties of poly(triazine imide), a member of the family of graphitic carbon nitrides. Their progress on material quality and processing allowed for construction of the first single layer, organic light emitting device (OLED) with a solution-processed graphitic organic material as a metal-free emission layer.
Organic semiconductors have sparked great interest in academic and industrial circles over the last decades, because of their advantageous properties such as (i) a high absorption coefficient compared to conventionally used silicon as well as (ii) less energy intensive production, and (iii) composition from earth-abundant elements. Progress in this field of research promises new, cost- and energy-efficient technologies in consumer electronics, smart packaging, and flexible light-emitters.
Hitherto explored organic semiconductors often suffer from degradation processes and defects especially when electrochemically altered (“doped”), due to dopant drift and migration or due to oxidation when exposed to atmospheric conditions. The unique properties of poly(triazine imide) enable the research to address the issues that plague conventional organic semiconductors. Poly(triazine imide) is a very stable under heat and air. Furthermore, the graphitic morphology of poly(triazine imide) allows exfoliation of the material into thin, solution-processable layers, while at the same time reducing migration and drift of chemically bonded dopants.
“With the improved material quality, we are now able to dive deeper into the more delicate features of this material, such as the electronic structure and vibration modes. This will greatly improve our understanding of this material, as well as related materials, and help us improving OLED performance and think about future, high-value applications of poly(triazine imide).”, says David Burmeister, PhD student at bojdysLAB.
 
This work was published in:
“Optimized synthesis of solution-processable crystalline poly(triazine imide) with minimized defects for OLED application” Burmeister, D.; Tran, H. A.; Müller, J.; Guerrini, M.; Cocchi, C.; Plaickner J.; Kochovski, Z.: List-Kratochvil, E.; Bojdys,* M. J. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021. DOI: 10.1002/anie.202111749

One week old now, the NFDI consortium FAIRmat, led by HU professor Claudia Draxl, who is a member of IRIS-Adlershof.  She looks back on the project start with satisfaction:

The General Assembly of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) elected on the 7th of July four new members to the Senate of the largest research funding organization and central self-governing body of science in Germany at its meeting during the virtual DFG Annual Meeting today. Five Senate members were elected for a further term of office. The Senate is the central scientific body that discusses and decides on all DFG matters of major importance, unless they are reserved for the Joint Committee.

The Senate has a total of 39 members. Of these, 36 are elected by the General Assembly; they are also the scientific members of the Joint Committee.

Jan Plefka, who is a professor at the physics department of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and IRIS Adlershof, was elected for the field of theoretical physics. He has already been a member of the Senate Committee for DFG Collaborative Research Centers since 2016.

We congratulate Jan Plefka warmly and wish him much joy and success in this new area of responsibility!

Ein IRIS-Forschungsteam und seine Partner haben erstmals die Teilchenaustauschphase von Photonen direkt gemessen.

Die Teilchen, denen das Forscherteam auf der Spur ist, sind schwer zu fassen. Die Physiker untersuchen die Quantenteilchen der elektromagnetischen Wellen, auch Photonen genannt, aus denen Licht besteht. „Dass Photonen bosonisch sind, konnte bislang nur durch indirekte Messungen und mathematische Berechnungen gezeigt werden“, sagt Kurt Busch. „In unserem jüngsten Experiment haben wir die Teilchenaustauschphase von Photonen erstmals direkt gemessen und haben damit einen direkten Beleg für ihren bosonischen Charakter erbracht.“

Das Experiment etabliert eine neue Methode zur Erzeugung und Zertifizierung von Quanten-Zuständen von Licht. Dies ist sehr wichtig im neuen Gebiet der Quanten­informations­verarbeitung, auf deren Basis derzeit neuartige, wesentlich leistungsfähigere Computer entwickelt werden.

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A great example of successful promotion of early-career researchers at IRIS Adlershof is the Research Training Group 2575 “Rethinking Quantum Field Theory. RTG members give an insight into their research:
 

A team led by Claudia Draxl, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof, has reached a key milestone: The FAIRmat consortium, which Draxl constituted, was recommended for funding by the NFDI expert panel of the German Research Foundation (DFG) on May 10. This is an important success in the three-stage application process to establish the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI). FAIRmat applied together with 16 other consortia in October 2020 and already received positive feedback at the beginning of the year on the virtual review that took place in December 2020. The final funding decision will be made by the Joint Science Conference (GWK) in early July. The aim of the national research data infrastructure (NFDI) is to systematically manage scientific and research data, provide long-term data storage, backup and accessibility, and network the data both nationally and internationally. FAIRmat represents the interests of experimental, theoretical and computational condensed matter physics and materials science.

IRIS Adlershofcongratulates and keeps its fingers crossed!

Quantum computers are seen as one of the key technologies of the 21st century. Can they revolutionize the computational capacity of computers? Which new insights do they offer for high energy physics or quantum chemistry? These are the questions on which the first Einstein Research Unit (ERU) of the Berlin University Alliance (BUA) will be focusing. The interdisciplinary research team of the partners Free University of Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technical University of Berlin and Charité - Universitätsmedizin, which includes IRIS Adlershof members Prof. Dr. Oliver Benson and Dr. Tim Schröder, has made it its task to explore the potential of the quantum digital transformation. They will combine expertise in theoretical and experimental physics, applied mathematics, computer science and machine learning in a unique way. The Einstein Research Unit „Perspectives of a quantum digital transformation: Near-term quantum computational devices and quantum processors“ will initially receive two million Euros in funding over the next three years. 

More information can be found here.

Bis zum 16. Mai 2021 haben HU-Frauen* mit Gründungsvorhaben die Möglichkeit, sich für das Marga Faulstich-Programm zu bewerben. Das Programm findet von Juni bis November 2021 statt. Es werden gezielt Wissenschaftlerinnen*, Doktorandinnen*, Post-Doktorandinnen* und Studentinnen* der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin motiviert und empowert, ihre Geschäftsidee weiterzuentwickeln und bis zur Marktreife auszuarbeiten. Den Teilnehmerinnen wird auf ihrem Gründungsweg neben einer Mentoring-Partnerschaft mit einer erfolgreichen Unternehmerin, Know-how vermittelt, Beratung und Coaching angeboten sowie Strategien für die Zukunft aufgezeigt. Im Bereich der Gründungsberatung steht mit der Humboldt-Innovation GmbH, einer Tochtergesellschaft der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, eine starke Kooperationspartnerin zur Seite.

More information regarding the programme and the application process can be found here.

IRIS Adlershof is delighted to announce that three leaders of Junior Research Groups, namely Dr. Stijn van Tongeren, Dr. Emanuel Malek, and Dr. Markus Krutzik will be joining IRIS Adlershof as junior members. 
 

 

 

 

 

Erik Panzer, former junior researcher at IRIS Adlershof, who is now doing research at University of Oxford, has been awarded the 2020 Hermann Weyl Prize of the International Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics for “his pioneering achievements in the calculation of amplitudes in gauge theories, for developing new mathematical structures that exploit the language of symmetries, and for his contribution to the description of important physical phenomena present in nature.”
Panzer received his PhD in 2015 from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin under the mentorship of IRIS Adlershof member Dirk Kreimer. Between 2015 and 2020, he then worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, where he then became a Royal Society Research Fellow in October 2020. His research interests include Feynman integrals, hyperlogarithms, (elliptic) polylogarithms, (elliptic) multiple zeta values, motivic periods, combinatorial Hopf algebras, renormalization, and Dyson–Schwinger equations.
The Weyl Prize recognizes young scientists who have performed top-level original work in the area of understanding physics through symmetries. 

IRIS congratulates.

Researchers in the HySPRINT joint lab Generative Manufacturing Processes for Hybrid Components (GenFab) of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) have successfully implemented an ink produced by the Berlin-based company OrelTech in solution-processed organic light emitting diodes.
 

After inkjet printing the particle-free silver ink, an argon plasma is used to reduce the silver ions in the ink to metallic silver. “Because this process takes place at a low temperature, it is suitable for use with temperature-sensitive substrates, such as flexible plastic foils,” explains Dr. Konstantin Livanov, co-founder and CTO of OrelTech. The researchers fabricated organic light-emitting diodes employing the silver ink as a transparent conductive electrode on the flexible substrate PET. The resulting devices show comparable light output characteristics to those based on the otherwise widely used indium tin oxide (ITO). Crucially, however, the silver electrodes showed superior stability to ITO upon mechanical bending. Dr. Felix Hermerschmidt, senior researcher in the joint lab of HU and HZB, confirms, "The OLEDs based on the OrelTech ink remain intact at a bending radius at which the OLEDs based on ITO show breakage and fail.” This opens up several application opportunities of the printed devices. The work has been published in the journal Flexible and Printed Electronics and is available Open Access. GenFab, led by Prof. List-Kratochvil, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof, is moving into laboratories and offices in the new IRIS research building for further research and development work.

Publication:
ITO-free OLEDs utilizing inkjet-printed and low temperature plasma-sintered Ag electrodes,
M. Hengge, K. Livanov, N. Zamoshchik, F. Hermerschmidt, and E..J. W. List-Kratochvil
Flex. Print. Electron. 6 (2021) 015009.
DOI: 10.1088/2058-8585/abe604

Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) have signed a cooperation agreement with the aim of establishing a joint research laboratory for catalysis in the IRIS research building of HU in Adlershof. The IRIS research building offers optimal conditions for the research and development of complex material systems.

Catalysts are the key to many technologies and processes needed to build a climate-neutral economy. A hotspot for catalysis research has been developing in Berlin's research landscape for some time. As part of the Excellence Initiative, new clusters such as UniSysCat have been created in which established research institutes bundle their activities and the chemical industry is involved through the BASCat laboratory. An important field of research is the production of "green" hydrogen: in order to produce hydrogen and synthetic fuels in a climate-neutral way using renewable energies, innovative catalysts are needed. The recently launched CatLab project, which is funded as part of the Hydrogen Strategy, is pursuing completely new approaches based on thin-film technologies that promise real leaps in innovation.

IRIS laboratories equipped for catalysis research
To further promote catalysis research in Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and HZB have now signed another cooperation agreement. Part of the IRIS laboratories in Berlin-Adlershof will be additionally equipped for the development and investigation of heterogeneous catalyst systems. IRIS Adlershof stands for Integrative Research Institute for the Sciences. With approximately 4,500 square metres of state-of-the-art laboratory, office and communication space, the IRIS research building offers optimal conditions for the research and development of complex material systems. An open-plan laboratory is planned for the installation of laboratory reactors to determine the catalytic activity and selectivity of the material systems. To study catalysts in action, electron microscopes will be set up in the basement. In addition, in-operando investigation methods such as X-ray diffraction, photoelectron, Raman and UV-vis spectroscopy will be used, which will be completed by the high-end analysis options of the neighbouring synchrotron radiation source BESSY II of the HZB. Close cooperation is also planned in the field of thin-film technology, using additive manufacturing processes and nanostructuring and synthesis methods.

Innovations through interdisciplinary cooperation
In the IRIS research building, experts from different disciplines work closely together for a deep physical-chemical understanding of complex interfaces. This forms an excellent basis for the development of energy materials. The arrangement of the laboratories and offices as well as the spacious communication areas create the best conditions for the different disciplines to exchange ideas and learn from each other.

Cooperation agreement is also legally innovative
The cooperation between the HU and the HZB on the catalysis research laboratory is being structured on a public-law basis for the first time due to the recent amendment to the Berlin Higher Education Act on cooperation between scientific institutions. The procedure for recording, evaluating and documenting mutual cooperation contributions is simpler and less bureaucratic. This allows researchers to concentrate on their core task – doing science.

The National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) has elected the chemist Stefan Hecht as one of its new members. With him and the mathematician Jürg Kramer, IRIS-Adlershof is prominently represented in acatech. Hecht is very grateful about the election to the National Academy of Science and Engineering: “For me, it means recognition and motivation at the same time. I am looking forward to develop technological solutions and recommendations for pressing future topics together with well-known colleagues ”, says the chemist. As a new acatech member, he will be particularly active in the field of materials science.

As a national academy funded by the federal and state governments, acatech represents the sciences and engineering at home and abroad and conducts an active, science-based dialogue on future technology-related issues. The focus is on:

       • Scientific recommendations
       • Knowledge transfer and networking between science and business
       • Promotion of young researchers in technical professions
       • International representation of technical sciences.

The members of the academy are elected into the academy based on their outstanding academic achievements and their high reputation. Acatech currently has more than 400 members from engineering, natural sciences, medicine, as well as from the humanities and social sciences.

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Award for one of the best 2020 Masters theses at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

The prize, which is awarded annually to only a few of M.Sc. Students of the entire University for “excellent academic achievements” that are moreover especially related to the “Humboldtian Ideals”, honours the thesis of Mr. Vanselow on “Mid-infrared frequency-domain optical coherence tomography with undetected photons”. The corresponding publication is published in the latest issue of Optica, The Optical Society's journal for high-impact research, and is displayed as an IRIS Adlerhof research highlight:

Frequency-domain optical coherence tomography with undetected mid-infrared photons
A. Vanselow, P. Kaufmann, I. Zorin, B. Heise, H. M. Chrzanowski, S. Ramelow
Optica 12 (2020) 1729, DOI:10.1364/OPTICA.400128

Mr. Vanselow did his work in the group “Nonlinear Quantum Optics”, led by Dr. Sven Ramelow, who is a Young Research Group Leader of IRIS Adlershof. It's already the second award for his thesis after the "Quantum Futur Award".

IRIS Adlershof warmly congratulates the young award winner.
 

Nichol Furey has been researching at IRIS Adlershof for half a year and turns to the fundamentals of quantum field theory with an unusual approach. In the current issue of the Adlershof Journal, she explains how she would like to find the 'theory of everything'



to the online article...

It looks like science fiction but in fact could be the future of 3D printing: A blue slice of light wanders through a liquid, while light projections emerge through the window of a glass vessel. Resembling the replicator of the Star Trek spaceships, the desired object materializes. What used to take hours soon floats in the liquid in the vessel, is then removed, and cured under UV light.

The underlying process – xolography – was developed by a team led by chemist Stefan Hecht from IRIS Adlershof, physicist Martin Regehly, and the founder Dirk Radzinski in the startup company xolo GmbH in Berlin Adlershof over the past two years. For the first time, they now describe their unique method in the renowned journal Nature.

Their invention is based on Hecht’s specialty: photoswitchable molecules, which only at the intersection (xolography) of light rays of two different colors allow precise curing of the starting material in the entire volume (holos). In combination with a new printing process (xolography) based on a laser-generated light sheet and projected cross-sectional images, the desired objects are generated from virtual 3D models.

In contrast to conventional 3D printing, in which the objects are created layer by layer, the advantages of xolography are the significantly higher build speed that is due to the higher efficiency of combining two linear one-photon processes as opposed to non-linear two-photon stereolithography. The faster build speed does not compromise for resolution and thus smooth surfaces can be created. Moreover, fully assembled multicomponent systems can be fabricated in just one step.

Hecht is amazed “to see how fast this has been moving from an idea to xolo’s first prototype printer, the XUBE. Working in a highly interdisciplinary team including chemists, physicists, materials scientists, and software developers with a clear focus and dedication, we have been able to develop xolography as a powerful new method.” He is excited about the many opportunities ahead: “The beauty is our method’s versatility as we can print hard as well as soft objects. This should have major implications for the future manufacturing of optical, (micro)fluidic, and biomedical devices.”“


Xolography for linear volumetric 3D printing
M. Regehly, Y. Garmshausen, M. Reuter, N.F. König, E. Israel, D.P. Kelly, C.-Y. Chou, K. Koch, B. Asfari, and S. Hecht
Nature 588 (2020) 620, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-3029-7
 

As part of the programme „Digitalisation in the sciences”, the Ministry of Science of Lower Saxony provides funding to the tune of 4.5 million Euros for five research projects at the University of Oldenburg for three years.
Together with their partners, the researchers at the University of Oldenburg plan to explore the „nanoworld” using new digital tools as well develop new systems to automatically analyse data from satellites or environmental sensors using artificial intelligence.
One of the principal investigators of the projects is the physicist Caterina Cocchi, who leads a research group on theoretical solid-state physics at the University of Oldenburg and who is also a member of IRIS Adlershof.
Her project SMART – „Simulations meet experiments on the nanoscale: Opening up the quantum world to artificial intelligence“ – aims at uncovering quantum mechanical processes using innovative methods from computational and ultrafast physics. One such process of particular interest to the researchers is the interaction of light and matter at the scale of just a few nanometres.  


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The Institute of Physics (IOP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the IRIS Adlershof of the Humboldt University in Berlin have now established a joint PostDoc program and launched a first round of applications. The prestigious two-year research fellowships are intended for exceptional early-career scientists, in preparation for an independent career in research at the frontier of condensed matter physics, quantum materials or device physics. Successful candidates will spend one year in Beijing and one in Berlin at the research groups of their choice. The application deadline is February 28, 2021.

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The German Centre for Mathematics Teacher Education (DZLM) will be a part of the newly established department “Subject-related knowledge transfer” at the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) in Kiel. The DZLM is a network of nine universities under the direction of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. For ten years it has been developing, implementing and researching nationwide effective offers for further education for multipliers, teachers and daycare specialists in mathematics. The DZLM was initiated by the Deutsche Telekom Stiftung, from which it has so far been financed with more than ten million euros.

"The work of the DZLM has shown that advanced trainers need far more skills than just being very good teachers in their subjects," explains the previous director of the DZLM and future director of the new IPN department, Professor Jürg Kramer, who is also a member of IRIS Adlershof. “Our approach is therefore to qualify further trainers not only in terms of further training methodology and adult pedagogy, but also very specifically on subject-specific questions relating to the content and learning processes of teachers in further training. In this way, they are much better able to support teachers and educational specialists effectively in their daily work. We are very pleased that we can now continue this work at the IPN "

IRIS Adlershof warmly congratulates and looks forward to continued good cooperation.

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The Joint Science Conference of the federal and state governments (GWK) is establishing a total of eight centers for “National High-Performance Computing” (HPC), one of them in Berlin. To this end, the Zuse-Institute Berlin (ZIB) was approved for funding as the centre for scientific computing of the Berlin University Alliance (BUA), the cluster of excellence comprising of the three major universities Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin as well as the Charité – University Hospital Berlin. Prof. Alexander Reinefeld, scientific director at the Zuse-Institute and member of IRIS Adlershof delightedly says: „The funding to the tune of approximately 72 million euros affords the Zuse-Institute planning security for the acquisition, modernisation and operation of HPC systems for the next ten years, of which the university research, in particular in Berlin and therefore at IRIS Adlershof, will surely profit.“ He adds, „that the financial support provided by the state of Berlin and the Federation will also be used to provide expert counseling to make the efficient usage of the complex supercomputers easier for the scientists.“

IRIS Adlershof cordially congratulates and is looking forward to continued fruitful collaboration.

The German Bunsen-Society for Physical Chemistry honours Joachim Sauer, professor at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin as well as former and founding member of  IRIS Adlershof, in recognition of his seminal work. The Bunsen-Denkmünze has been awarded since 1908 to "personalities who advanced the goals of physical chemistry through scientific or practical achievments in an extraordinary way".

IRIS Adlershof cordially congratulates Prof. Sauer.

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Researchers in the HySPRINT joint lab Generative manufacturing processes for hybrid components (GenFab) of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) have developed together with the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) a method to produce flexible transparent electrodes based on silver nanowires. Specifically, the nanowires are spray coated and embedded within a polymer resin on top of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate.

The researchers fabricated organic light-emitting diodes employing the developed ITO‐free nanowire electrodes. These show considerably higher luminance values at the same efficacy compared to their ITO‐based counterparts. As Dr. Theodoros Dimopoulos, senior scientist at AIT, points out, "Replacing ITO in optoelectronic devices is a key area of research and this work shows the possibilities of doing so without loss in performance."

Researchers from Humboldt University and the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC) built the first infrared based microscope with quantum light. By deliberately entangling the photons, they succeeded in imaging tissue samples with previously invisible bio-features.

Researchers of the  Emmy Noether Junior Research Group "Nonlinear Quantum Optics" of the physics department and IRIS Adlershof of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and of the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC), a joined institution from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association, are featured on the cover of ‘Science Advances’ with their new experiment. For the first time they successfully used entangled light (photons) for microscope images. This very surprising method for quantum imaging with undetected photons was only discovered in 2014 in the group of the famous quantum physicist Anton Zeilinger in Vienna. The first images show tissue samples from a mouse heart.

The team uses entangled photons to image a bio-sample probed by ‘invisible’ light without ever looking at that light. The researchers only use a normal laser and commercial CMOS camera. This makes their MIR microscopy technique not only robust, fast and low noise, but also cost-effective - making it highly promising for real-world applications. This use of quantum light could support the field of biomedical microscopy in the future.

Quantum microscopy of a mouse heart. Entangled photons allow for the making of a high-resolution mid-IR image, using a visible light (CMOS) camera and ultralow illumination intensities. In the picture, absorption (left) and phase information (right) from a region in a mouse heart. The yellow scale bar corresponds to 0.1 mm which is about the width of a human hair.

Current camera detection is unequivocally dominated by silicon based technologies. There are billions of CCD (charge coupled device) and CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) sensors in digital cameras, mobile phones or autonomous vehicles. These convert light (photons) into electrical signals (electrons). But like our human eyes, these devices cannot see the important mid-IR range. This wavelength range is very important for biological science, containing valuable bio-chemical information that allows researchers to tell different biomolecules apart. The few camera technologies that exist at these crucial wavelengths are very expensive, noisy and subject to export restrictions. That is why the huge potential mid-IR light has for the life sciences so far remained unfulfilled. But researchers have proposed a new solution: “Using a really counterintuitive imaging technique with quantum-entangled photons allows us to measure the influence of a sample on a mid-IR light beam, without requiring any detection of this light” explains Inna Kviatkovsky, the lead author of the study.

There is also no conversion or so-called ‘ghost-imaging’ involved, but the technique relies on a subtle interference effect: first a pair of photons is generated by focusing a pump laser into a nonlinear crystal. This process can be engineered, such that one of the photons will be in the visible range and the other one in the MIR (invisible). The MIR photon probes the sample and is together with the visible photon and the laser sent back to the crystal. Here, quantum interference takes place - between the possibilities of the photon pair being generated on this first pass, and the possibility of not being generated on the first pass, but instead on the second pass through the crystal. Any disturbance, i.e. absorption caused by the sample, will now affect this interference and intriguingly this can be measured by only looking at the visible photons. Using the right optics one can build a mid-IR microscope based on this principle, which the team showed for the first time in their work.

“After a few challenges in the beginning, we were really surprised how well this works on an actual bio-sample.” Kviatkovsky notes. “Also we shine only extremely low powers of mid-IR light on the samples, so low, that no camera technology could directly detect these images.” While this is naturally only the first demonstration of this microscopy technique, the researchers are already developing an improved version of the technique. The researchers envisage a mid-IR microscope powered by quantum light that allows the rapid measurement of the detailed, localized absorption spectra for the whole sample. “If successful this could have a wide range of applications in label-free bio-imaging and we plan to investigate this with our collaboration partners from ECRC”, Dr. Sven Ramelow, group leader at the physics department and IRIS Adlershof of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, explains.

The research was funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) within the Emmy-Noether-Program.

Publication:
Inna Kviatkovsky, Helen M. Chrzanowski, Ellen G. Avery, Hendrik Bartolomaeus, and Sven Ramelow
„Microscopy with undetected photons in the mid-infrared.“
Veröffentlichung: 14. Oktober 2020 in Science Advances Issue 42, p. xxx

For his outstanding dissertation "Photoswitching Reactivity: From remote-controlled to light-driven chemical systems", Dr. Michael P. Kathan was awarded the Albert Weller Prize on September 14, 2020. This is the second award after the Friedrich Hirzebruch PhD award 2020.

Michael Kathan, born in 1988, studied chemistry at the Free University of Berlin and ETH Zurich, where he dealt with fluorine chemistry and strained aromatics. After completing his master's degree at the Free University of Berlin, he began his doctoral thesis in 2015 in the working group of IRIS member Prof. Stefan Hecht at the Humboldt University in Berlin, funded by the German National Academic Foundation.

Michael Kathan's research focus was on the control of chemical reactivity and adaptive materials with light:
In an innovative way, he used light as a tool to control the course of chemical reactions and to control material properties. The focal point of Michael Kathan's dissertation is the development of the concept of "photo reversal", in which the chemical behavior of molecules can be fundamentally changed by the dosed irradiation with light of different colors. In their justification, the jury emphasized that Kathan had impressively managed to span the spectrum from the physicochemical basics to the manufacture of intelligent materials and new, sustainable concepts that address socially relevant issues. His research opens up access to cost-effective sensor materials that indicate, for example, the freshness of highly perishable foods. The light-controlled assembly and dismantling of plastic materials also promises progress in the area of ​​sustainable recycling of mixtures of different plastic products.

The GDCh and the German Bunsen Society awarded the Albert Weller Prize on September 14, 2020 at the digital 27th Lecture Conference on Photochemistry. This year, the award is shared by two young researchers: in addition to Michael Kathan, it was awarded to Yusen Luo, who did her doctorate at Leibniz-IPHT and the University of Jena and is now a post-doc at the Institute for Chemistry and Pharmacy at the University of Erlangen.

Kathan's research has already resulted in several publications in relevant specialist media. Since completing his dissertation in January 2019, Michael Kathan has been working on molecular motors as a postdoc with Prof. Ben Feringa at the University of Groningen, Netherlands.

We congratulate you!

Summary:

Scheme of the experiment: With the help of laser light (green), the characteristic microwave resonance line (in orange: microwave antenna) of nanodiamonds in a nematode (typical length 1 mm) can be recorded under a microscope. Since this depends on the temperature, a temperature change can be measured very precisely and locally. (©Masazumi Fujiwara, Osaka City University, e-mail to Oliver Benson)

Further Information:
In their experiment, the scientists used small diamonds with a diameter of a few 10 nanometers (1 nanometer = 1 millionth of a millimeter). These nanodiamonds contain luminous (fluorescent) quantum defects that can be observed under an optical microscope. With the help of radiated microwaves one can change the brightness of the luminous quantum defects. At a very specific microwave frequency, the defects appear a little darker. This so-called resonance frequency depends on the temperature. The researchers were now able to determine the shift in the resonance frequency very precisely and thus precisely determine the temperature change at the location of the nanodiamonds.
The nanodiamonds were inserted into a nematode (C. elegans). C. elegans is a very well understood model system and is examined in a large number of biophysical and biochemical experiments. By administering a certain pharmacological substance, the mitochondria, the “power stations” of the cells, could be stimulated to increased activity in individual cells of the worm. This then showed up as a slight local temperature increase of a few degrees.
The researchers were fascinated by the results of the experiment. "I never would have thought that the new methods of quantum technology would work so well even in living organisms," said Masazumi Fujiwara, professor at Osaka City University. "With these promising results, we are very confident that quantum sensing will establish in biochemistry and biomedicine. "adds Prof. Oliver Benson from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The research teams are now working on further improving and automating their measuring method so that it can be easily integrated into standard microscopy setups.

Funding:
Osaka City University Strategic Research Grant. Murata Science Foundation.
JSPS-KAKENHI (20H00335, 16K13646, 17H02741, 19K14636, 17H02738).
MEXT-LEADER program. Sumitomo Research Foundation.
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (FOR 1493).

Contact:
Oliver Benson
Nano-Optik
Institut für Physik und IRIS Adlershof der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Newtonstraße 15
12489 Berlin
030 2093 4711
oliver.bensonphysik.hu-berlin.de


First quantum measurement of temperature in a living organism

M. Fujiwara, S. Sun, A. Dohms, Y. Nishimura, K. Suto, Y. Takezawa, K. Oshimi, L. Zhao, N. Sadzak, Y. Umehara, Y. Teki, N. Komatsu, O. Benson, Y. Shikano, and E. Kage-Nakadai,
Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba9636
 

The Research Training Group 2575 “Rethinking Quantum Field Theory”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), has started its work. Due to the pandemic, the hiring of the first two cohorts was delayed until autumn 2020. In October, however, the Research Training Group (RTG) will start with 15 doctoral students from 10 countries and two postdocs. The RTG will deal with pressing theoretical questions and key innovations in quantum field theory that go beyond established methods. “Quantum field theory is a highly developed formalism of theoretical physics for the description of interacting many-body systems. Nevertheless, fundamental questions are still open, especially in relation to gravity, and in recent years fascinating, almost revolutionary innovations have emerged here, which are being further researched within the our new graduate school, ”says the spokesman Prof. Dr. Jan Plefka, head of the Quantum Fields and String Theory group at the Institute of Physics. However, the pandemic continues to make work difficult. “Fortunately, we theorists are almost fully operational in the home office with a laptop, paper and pencil, Mathematica and Zoom. What is missing, however, is the spontaneous exchange between us, for example in the common room over coffee or at lunch, where new ideas often arise. Every meeting is now planned. ”All courses, colloquia and seminars of the RTG will also have to be held virtually in the winter semester 2020/21. It is also currently unclear whether the first retreat in November can be held as planned. “The organization is in full swing. The first conference in particular is very important to us, in order to give everyone involved the opportunity to get to know each other in an informal setting, "explains PD Dr. Oliver Bär, the coordinator of the GRK.

The graduate college is supported by 13 principal investigators and includes all working groups in theoretical particle physics at the Institute of Physics. Further cooperation partners are the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and the Helmholtz Center DESY. “The scientific breadth is what makes the GRK so attractive. It offers young academics many opportunities to think outside the box of their own project, "explains deputy spokesman Prof. Dr. Agostino Patella." It is the stated aim of the RTG to train doctoral candidates comprehensively and broadly, and thus to provide an ideal basis for a career in science. "

Quantum field theory as the unification of quantum mechanics and special relativity represents one of the main intellectual achievements of the last century. These theoretical advances, closely connected with experimental observations, led to the standard model of elementary particle physics. With the experimental discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, we now have an empirically validated and mathematically consistent theory up to the highest energy scales. Nevertheless, a series of terrestrial experiments, as well as the astrophysically proven existence of dark matter and energy, indicate that the Standard Model cannot be the final theory of nature. At the same time, pressing theoretical questions such as the structure of quantum gravity, the hierarchy problem or the discovery of dualities between different quantum field theories force established formulations to be reconsidered. More recently, crucial innovations have been achieved in quantum field theory that have led to a serious rethinking of its basic principles. These include new methods of perturbation theory, dualities and hidden symmetries, the prominent role of effective field theories, modern methods for scattering amplitudes and the gradient flow in lattice field theory. The further development of these methods and concepts of modern quantum field theory – or simply the rethinking quantum field theory -represent the common basis of this graduate school. These demands result in a challenging qualification program that is based on the current state of research.

More information can be found here.

Since August Dr. Emanuel Malek has been establishing a junior research group on “Exploring the landscape of string theory flux vacua using exceptional field theory” at the Physics Department of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. His group will receive more than 1.2 million euros in funding over 6 years from the Emmy-Noether-Programme of the German Research Foundation. After finishing his doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge in 2014, Dr. Malek spent one year as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cape Town, followed by a three-year-long stay as a Research Fellow at the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich. He subsequently worked at the Max-Planck-Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam for two years. At Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Dr. Malek will continue his work on the field of theoretical physics and closely collaborate with Prof. Dr. Jan Plefka, Prof. Dr. Matthias Staudacher and Dr. Olaf Hohm, all of whom are members of IRIS Adlershof.

Dr. Malek’s research group will develop new computational tools that allow us to obtain predictions from string theory for our universe. String theory is based on the idea that all matter is composed of tiny vibrating strings and is our best attempt at unifying the gravitational force with quantum mechanics. A key prediction of string theory is that the universe contains six additional spatial dimensions, on top of the three spatial dimensions we observe daily. While these extra dimensions are too small to be observed directly, their shape determines the particles and forces that we experience in our 3-dimensional universe. However, a large class of shapes for the extra dimensions, so-called flux compactifications, have long evaded a systematic study due to the lack of the right mathematical framework. By using and developing the new mathematical techniques of Exceptional Field Theory, Dr. Malek’s research group will, for the first time, systematically investigate the possible shapes of string theory’s extra dimensions, especially flux compactifications. The insights gained from this research are crucial for testing string theory experimentally in the future.

IRIS Adlershof wishes Dr. Malek much success in obtaining these goals and is looking forward to a fruitful collaboration.

The Academia Europaea has accepted Prof. Stefan Hecht, already a member of IRIS Adlershof, as a new member. The Academy is based in London and was founded in 1988. It currently has more than 4,000 members, including 54 Nobel Prize winners.

The aim of the academy is to promote education and research in Europe and to strengthen interdisciplinary and international exchange in science. As an independent partner, the academy also advises governments and international organizations on scientific issues. The members are leading experts from the fields of chemistry, physics, biology, medicine, mathematics, computer science and technology, the social sciences and humanities as well as economics and law.

"The election to the chemistry section of the Academia Europaea is a great honor and I am very happy about this special personal recognition of my research," explains Stefan Hecht. His main focus is on macro- and supramolecular chemistry and organic material synthesis Interest in light-controlled and -driven processes as well as polymerisation on surfaces.

The chemistry section covers all areas of experimental and theoretical chemistry that deal with the study of matter and its properties. In addition, the members address the questions of how and why substances combine or separate to form other substances and how substances interact with energy. The section forms the interface to other disciplines and related areas of pharmacy, chemical process engineering and materials science, where research is primarily concerned with chemical aspects and less with clinical or engineering issues.

“Membership gives me an excellent network that I would like to use for interdisciplinary exchange in the future. It is a privilege to be able to participate in the advisory work of the academy in setting the political course ”, says Stefan Hecht.

With the new podcast series #AskDifferent, the Einstein Foundation Berlin is expanding its science-communication portfolio. Funded scientists and academics affiliated with the foundation give personal insights into their highly specialized field of work and their path of life.

In episode # 2 You will be challenged, the physicist Valentina Forini, member of IRIS Adlershof as well as Lecturer at City University of London, talks about her two passions:
She first graduated in classical piano. Looking for an additional challenge, she decided to study physics. Today, Forini conducts research in string and quantum field theory as an Einstein Junior Fellow at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She told us what drove her to follow this path - and why we need more female role models in top-notch science.
 

Am Juni 2020 begann ein internationales Team von gut 30 Wissenschaftler*innen die Arbeit an einem in seiner Art bislang einzigartigen gemeinsamen Text

Unter den Autor*innen aus Wissenschaftsinstitutionen weltweit war Fraser Stoddart, der 2016 den Nobelpreis für Chemie erhielt. Die Forschenden gingen der Frage nach: Wie soll unser "Zuhause“ in der Wissenschaft aussehen? Ihre Antwort, kurzgefasst: bunt, spannend und exzellent. Die gemeinsame Überzeugung, die dem Text vorangestellt wurde: "Vielfalt wertzuschätzen, das führt zu wissenschaftlicher Exzellenz, zu Fortschritt und ist vor allem richtig“.

Für ihre Arbeit am Artikel schlossen sich die Autoren spontan über soziale Medien und durch Echtzeit-Kommunikation zu ad-hoc-Teams zusammen.

Michael J.Bojdys, Juniormitglied von IRIS Adlershof, brachte verschiedene Verlagshäuser zur gemeinsamen Publikation des Artikels zusammen. Die Bereitschaft dort war wegen des universellen Charakters der angesprochenen Probleme groß, so Bojdys:

"Dieses Stück sprach für sich selbst, es brauchte nicht allzu viel Überzeugung. Wenn die Leute nicht bereit sind, den moralistischen Argumenten zu folgen, dass dieses Stück zur rechten Zeit kommt und wichtig ist, dann doch wenigstens, dass dieser Aufsatz Aufmerksamkeit erzeugen wird. Und das wird er, da bin ich mir sicher."

Vor allem aber hätten die Autoren hart daran gearbeitet, einen Ton des Fortschritts und der Zusammenarbeit zu finden, und nicht der Konfrontation. "Wir wählten die Sprache eines positiven Ausblicks, wie ein wissenschaftliches Miteinander aussehen könnte. Das ist es, was die Verleger letztlich überzeugt hat."

Ausgangspunkt für den Blog "Diverse Views in Science" sind drei Fragen, die Wissenschaftler*innen aus der ganzen Welt aus ihrer Perspektive beantworten:

• Welche wissenschaftlichen Probleme werden die Trends im kommenden Jahrzehnt bestimmen?
• Wie erleben Sie in Ihrem Leben, in Ihrem Labor und in Ihrem Gastland Vielfalt, Gerechtigkeit und Inklusion?
• Was ist Ihre Botschaft an die nächste Generation von Wissenschaftlern, und was sind Ihre Tipps für ihren Erfolg?

Dieser Blog ist eine lebendige, wachsende Sammlung von Ideen, wie Wissenschaftler*innen zusammen leben und arbeiten sollten.

Die ersten Fragen und Antworten dienten als Grundlage für den Aufsatz „A diverse view of science to catalyse change“. Dieser wurde am 17. August 2020 veröffentlicht in den Zeitschriften Nature Chemistry, Chemical Science, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Canadian Journal of Chemistry und Croatica Chemica Acta.

 

The Department of Physics and IRIS Adlershof are delighted about the appointment of Prof. Dr. Jan Lüning to the W3-S professorship "Electronic properties of materials / X-ray analysis" at the Physics Department of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Since June 1st, 2019, Mr. Lüning has also been Scientific Director for the "Matter" department at the Helmholtz Center Berlin (HZB). He is an internationally recognized expert in research with synchrotron radiation who, before joining the HZB, also did research at Marie-Curie University in Paris and at the synchrotron in Stanford.

IRIS Adlershof warmly congratulates Jan Lüning and is looking forward to a good cooperation.
 

Dr. Michael J. Bojdys, ERC Junior Research Group Leader at Humboldt-Universität's Chemistry department and member of IRIS Adlershof, is now moving to King's College London. There he will hold the position of a Reader in Chemistry. He will continue to be a member of IRIS Adlershof. Before his time at Humboldt-Univerität zu Berlin, Dr. Bojdys had worked at Charles University Prague, TU Berlin as well at the University of Liverpool.

IRIS Adlershof warmly congratulates, wishes Dr. Bojdys good luck in his new job and looks forward to continued good cooperation.

Professor Christoph T. Koch, PhD was elected new director of the Department of Physics of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Prof. Koch has been at HU since 2015 and focuses on the development of new methods in quantitative transmission electron microscopy and their application to materials science problems. He has been a member of IRIS Adlershof since 2016 and is a member of the research building commission. Prof. Dr. Heiko Lasker was elected as his deputy. IRIS Adlershof congratulates them both and wishes them every success in their new role.

539 participants from 33 countries and 6 continents: the Conference on a FAIR Data Infrastructure for Materials Genomics was a big success. IRIS Adlershof members were also involved.
With the five plenary speakers:

• Barend Mons (Leiden University, Co-Leader of the GO-FAIR Initiative, President of CODATA - The FAIR Guiding Principles in Times of Crisis),
• Claudia Draxl (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, IRIS Adlershof, FAIR-DI e.V. -  New Horizons for Materials Research - Role of FAIR Data),
• York Sure-Vetter (Director of the NFDI Directorate, KIT - The German Research Data Infrastructure: Concepts, Challenges and Chances),
• James Warren (Director of the Materials Genome Program, NIST - The US Material Genome Initiative and the Materials Data Infrastructure), and
• Tong-Yi Zhang (Director of the Materials Genome Institute, Shanghai University  - From Data to Knowledge: Data Driven Discovery of Formulas),

as well as 28 renown invited speakers, essentially all worldwide leading experts were present. In addition, numerous young scientists presented their research at a poster session and two satellite workshops on Data Acquisition in Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy and NFDI@Teaching. IRIS Adlershof member Christoph Koch was involved in the latter as speaker, he also acted as one of the moderators.

High-resolution videos of all the 33 talks and the discussions as well as the poster pitch videos are available on the conference website, on the NOMAD Laboratory YouTube Channel  and on KouShare.

The conference was organized by FAIR-DI e.V., an association dedicated to building a worldwide data infrastructure for big data from material science, engineering, and astronomy that follows the FAIR principles.

A team of researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin has succeeded for the first time in producing light-emitting diodes (LEDs) from a hybrid perovskite semiconductor material using inkjet printing.This opens the door to broad application of these materials in manufacturing many different kinds of electronic components.The scientists achieved the breakthrough with the help of a trick: "inoculating" (or seeding) the surface with specific crystals.

Microelectronics utilise various functional materials whose properties make them suitable for specific applications. For example, transistors and data storage devices are made of silicon, and most photovoltaic cells used for generating electricity from sunlight are also currently made of this semiconductor material. In contrast, compound semiconductors such as gallium nitride are used to generate light in optoelectronic elements such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The manufacturing processes also different for the various classes of materials.

Transcending the materials and methods maze

Hybrid perovskite materials promise simplification – by arranging the organic and inorganic components of semiconducting crystal in a specific structure. “They can be used to manufacture all kinds of microelectronic components by modifying their composition“, says Prof. Emil List-Kratochvil, head of a Joint Research Group at HZB and Humboldt-Universität. What's more, processing perovskite crystals is comparatively simple. “They can be produced from a liquid solution, so you can build the desired component one layer at a time directly on the substrate“, the physicist explains.

First solar cells from an inkjet printer, now light-emitting diodes too

Scientists at HZB have already shown in recent years that solar cells can be printed from a solution of semiconductor compounds – and are worldwide leaders in this technology today. Now for the first time, the joint team of HZB and HU Berlin has succeeded in producing functional light-emitting diodes in this manner. The research group used a metal halide perovskite for this purpose. This is a material that promises particularly high efficiency in generating light – but on the other hand is difficult to process. “Until now, it has not been possible to produce these kinds of semiconductor layers with sufficient quality from a liquid solution“, says List-Kratochvil. For example, LEDs could be printed just from organic semiconductors, but these provide only modest luminosity. “The challenge was how to cause the salt-like precursor that we printed onto the substrate to crystallise quickly and evenly by using some sort of an attractant or catalyst“, explains the scientist. The team chose a seed crystal for this purpose: a salt crystal that attaches itself to the substrate and triggers formation of a gridwork for the subsequent perovskite layers.

Significantly better optical and electronic characteristics

In this way, the researchers created printed LEDs that possess far higher luminosity and considerably better electrical properties than could be previously achieved using additive manufacturing processes. But for List-Kratochvil, this success is only an intermediate step on the road to future micro- and optoelectronics that he believes will be based exclusively on hybrid perovskite semiconductors. “The advantages offered by a single universally applicable class of materials and a single cost-effective and simple process for manufacturing any kind of component are striking“, says the scientist. He is therefore planning to eventually manufacture all important electronic components this way in the laboratories of HZB and HU Berlin. List-Kratochvil is Professor of Hybrid Devices at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and head of a Joint Lab founded in 2018 that is operated by HU together with HZB. In addition, a team jointly headed by List-Kratochvil and HZB scientist Dr. Eva Unger is working in the Helmholtz Innovation Lab HySPRINT on the development of coating and printing processes – also known in technical jargon as "additive manufacturing" – for hybrid perovskites. These are crystals possessing a perovskite structure that contain both inorganic and organic components.

The work was published in Materials Horizons, the journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, in an article entitled:
„Finally, inkjet-printed metal halide perovskite LEDs – utilizing seed crystal templating of salty PEDOT:PSS“
Felix Hermerschmidt, Florian Mathies, Vincent R. F. Schröder, Carolin Rehermann, Nicolas Zorn Morales, Eva L. Unger, Emil. J. W. List-Kratochvil. DOI: 10.1039/d0mh00512f

Ralf Butscher

The European project HI-ACCURACY with the involvement of the Hybrid Devices group at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and coordinated by Joanneum Research, started on April 1st, 2020. HI-ACCURACY is funded by HORIZON 2020 research framework programme with a total volume of around 5 million euros and a project term of 36 months.

According to current estimates, the global market for printed, flexible and organic electronics amounts to 28.3 billion euros with an annual growth rate of >8%. This market is mainly dominated by the display industry, which is looking for new and innovative ways to increase screen resolution and incorporate new user interfaces throughout the display range. High-resolution printing technology is an important factor in achieving these goals.

HI-ACCURACY aims to produce structures with very high resolution up to the μm range and thus the next generation of large area production of flexible organic electronics. This goal is to be achieved through a unique range of advanced materials and printing inks combined with scalable, cost-effective printing and coating processes that require no or minimal vacuum. HI-ACCURACY will thus demonstrate the production of front and backplane structures with structure sizes approaching 1 μm that can operate at frequencies of >1MHz.

Further information on the project can be found here.
Further information on the work of the Hybrid Devices group can be found here. 

This year's Fischer-Nernst Study Award of the Department of Chemistry of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin has been awarded to Max Heyl for his Master's thesis work on the exfoliation and polymer-free transfer of TMDC monolayers using template-stripped gold substrates. Max Heyl has conducted this work as part of the Collaborative Research Center CRC 951 - "Hybrid Inorganic/Organic Systems for Opto-Electronics (HIOS)", where he now also continues to working as a doctoral student in the Hybrid Device group of the Prof. Emil List-Kratochvil, who is a Deputy Director of IRIS Adlershof.

Well deserved Max!

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved a new Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The CRC 1404 entiteld „FONDA – Foundations of workflows for large- scale scientific data analysis“ will initially be funded for four years from July 1, 2020. Spokesperson of the CRC is Prof. Ulf Leser from the Department of Computer Science of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The new research network focuses on the research of techniques, processes and tools that enable scientists to be more productive when creating and using data analysis workflows. Special emphasis is laid on portability, adaptability and reliability that are important for this goal. On the part of  IRIS Adlershof, the professors Claudia Draxl, Christoph T. Koch and Alexander Reinefeld are involved in the new CRC.

We congratulate the successful applicants and wish the new project a good start.

more...

Congratulations! Fengshuo Zu, former doctoral student in the group of Norbert Koch, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof, received the  “2019 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad” of the China Scholarship Council. Meanwhile Fengshuo is postdoc in the Koch group and investigates the electronic structure of metal halide perovskites for high-efficiency solar cells.

Well deserved, Fengshuo!

 

Funding for Master's students with strong research skills who plan to pursue a doctorate.
The Humboldt Research Track funding line is designed to support outstanding Master’s students from Humboldt-Universität who plan to pursue a doctorate. Graduates from other universities may also be funded if they pursue a doctorate at Humboldt-Universität. The program offers funding for the transition phase between the end of a Master’s program and the beginning of a doctorate. Requirements for funding are excellent academic results and an original, high-quality proposal of the doctoral project. Applications may already be submitted during the Master’s studies, but funding can only start after graduation. The scholarship helps recipients to focus on the preparation of their doctorate.

How much funding is provided?
Funding of 800 EUR per month is awarded for up to six months. Scholarship holders with children receive an additional 400 EUR a month for the first child, plus 100 EUR for each additional child. In exceptional cases, funding can be extended for up to an additional six months Monatlich 800 EUR Stipendium über sechs Monate, ggf. Familienzuschlag (gemäß Richtlinien der DFG), Verlängerung in Ausnahmefällen um weitere sechs Monate möglich.

What are the application deadlines?
The Humboldt Research Track Scholarships are awarded four times a year. Application periods are
1 June to 15 July for funding starting 1 October
1 September to 15 October for funding starting 1 February
1 December to 15 January for funding starting 1 April.

Further information is provided here. 
 

This April, the Graduate School "Advanced Materials" (GS-AM) admitted 22 doctoral students as members, from HU Berlin, FU Berlin, TU Berlin, and Potsdam Universität. The mission of GS-AM is to provide superior qualification for doctoral students across Berlin and Potsdam, in research on modern and emerging advanced materials for optics, electronics, and optoelectronics, as well as in transferable skills.

The spokesman of the graduate school, Professor Norbert Koch from the Department of Physics and IRIS Adlershof at HU explains: The research projects of our students are devoted to unraveling fundamental and applied aspects of 3D and 2D inorganic semiconductors, organic semiconductors, and their hybrids. During the current period of reduced access to the universities, GS-AM offers online-courses by professional trainers, on topics such as scientific writing/presentation, project management, and scientific leadership. We all hope that meeting in person will become possible eventually, but for the time being digital instruments are our key for interaction.

The next term of applications to GS-AM will be in the fall of 2020.

more information

On April 27, the European Research Council (ERC) announces the recipients of the Proof of Concept (PoC) Grant scheme: one of them is Michael J. Bojdys, materials chemist and junior research group leader at IRIS Adlershof and the department of chemistry of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. This makes Bojdys one of the first two ERC PoC grantees in Berlin since the grant was established in 2018. This year’s second recipient is from the TU Berlin.
Proof of Concept Grants are exclusively awarded to researchers who already hold an ERC Grant and wish to move the output of their research towards the initial steps of pre-commercialisation.
In the course of his ERC PoC Grant "Ultra-high energy storage Li-anode materials" (LiAnMAT) Michael Bojdys will develop together with VARTA Micro Innovation GmbH and the Adlershof start-up INURU GmbH, Li anode materials for high capacity applications.
First promising results are part of a patent application of HU Berlin and the start-up incubator Humboldt Innovation GmbH: the capacity of the novel anodes exceeds that of commercially available anodes by a factor of 10-40.

Dr. Michael J. Bojdys
Head of the Functional Nanomaterials Group, Department of Chemistry and IRIS Adlershof, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
tel (D): +491774818190
m.j.bojdys.02cantab.net
http://bojdyslab.org/

Für das Jahr 2020 können Mittel aus dem Familienfonds der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin beantragt werden.

Der Familienfonds wurde mit dem Ziel eingerichtet, bestimmte Maßnahmen zur noch besseren Förderung der Vereinbarkeit von Beruf, Studium und Familie an der HU finanziell zu unterstützen. Grundlage ist das umfassende Familienverständnis der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin entsprechend ihrem Leitbild als familiengerechte Hochschule.
Ab heute können sich alle Mitglieder der HU für die unterschiedlichen Programmlinien bewerben, sofern sie die jeweils genannten Voraussetzungen erfüllen. Anträge können vom 1. April bis zum 15. Mai 2020 gestellt werden (Ausschlussfrist).

Weitere Informationen finden Sie hier.

 

Funding for Master's students with strong research skills who plan to pursue a doctorate.
The Humboldt Research Track funding line is designed to support outstanding Master’s students from Humboldt-Universität who plan to pursue a doctorate. Graduates from other universities may also be funded if they pursue a doctorate at Humboldt-Universität. The program offers funding for the transition phase between the end of a Master’s program and the beginning of a doctorate. Requirements for funding are excellent academic results and an original, high-quality proposal of the doctoral project. Applications may already be submitted during the Master’s studies, but funding can only start after graduation. The scholarship helps recipients to focus on the preparation of their doctorate.

How much funding is provided?
Funding of 800 EUR per month is awarded for up to six months. Scholarship holders with children receive an additional 400 EUR a month for the first child, plus 100 EUR for each additional child. In exceptional cases, funding can be extended for up to an additional six months Monatlich 800 EUR Stipendium über sechs Monate, ggf. Familienzuschlag (gemäß Richtlinien der DFG), Verlängerung in Ausnahmefällen um weitere sechs Monate möglich.

What are the application deadlines?
The Humboldt Research Track Scholarships are awarded four times a year. Application periods are
1 April to 15 May for funding starting 1 August
1 June to 15 July for funding starting 1 October
1 September to 15 October for funding starting 1 February
1 December to 15 January for funding starting 1 April.

Further information is provided here. 

 

Our modern society depends on the efficient processing of information, but conventional electronic data processing is reaching its limits. We need new approaches to store and process large amounts of information. Quantum computing is  the promising candidate, and quantum supremacy has already been shown in 2019.

If photons are used as qubits, they have to be controlled, slowed and stored, f.e. in a waveguide or a light-cage. Flavie Davidson-Marquis, a PhD-student in the group of Prof. Oliver Benson, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof, is investigating a novel light-cage type waveguide: She explores the enhanced light-matter interaction resulting from cohabitation of caesium vapour and a guided field.

IRIS Adlershof supports this research with a fellowship, so Flavie can focus on finalizing the project and getting the results ready for publication.

The Ministry of Science and Culture of the State Niedersachsen, has appointed Professor Caterina Cocchi the W3 professorship "Theoretical Solid State Physics" at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg. Ms. Cocchi, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof, will move to her new position in Oldenburg at the beginning of the summer semester 2020. She will keep in touch with Humboldt-Universität as a visiting scientist, as project leader within the CRC 951 “HIOS”, as well as a member of IRIS Adlershof.

We warmly congratulate Ms. Cocchi and wish her every success and all the best for her new position. We look forward to our further fruitful cooperation.

more...

An essential prerequisite for quantum communication and technology is the transmission of quantum information over long distances, but far-reaching and stable networks can only be realized with quantum amplifiers. Dr. Tim Schröder conducts research on such amplifiers with the ERC project QUERP “Quantum Repeater Architectures Based on Quantum Memories and Photonic Encoding” and also attempts to combine complementary technologies from quantum communication: In a hybrid quantum repeater module, two different concepts, such as quantum memory in tin defect centers in diamond, and photonic cluster states are to be brought together.

Dr. Olaf Hohm leads the ERC Consolidation Group “Symmetries and Cosmology”. He‘s developing a computational approach based on string theory, arguably the most promising candidate for a complete theory of quantum gravity. This approach might answer questions relating to the very early history of the Universe, and even test string theory on measurements of background radiation.

IRIS Adlershof welcomes its new members warmly and looks forward to a long and fruitful cooperation.

The Innovative Training Network iSwitch is awarded the "Étoiles de l'Europe" prize of the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation for its outstanding and European-oriented research. With this, the project, in which  IRIS Adlershof members Prof. Norbert Koch and Prof. Stefan Hecht were participating as Principle Investigators, now literally belongs to the shining "stars of Europe".

The award is given each year to twelve research and innovation projects initiated in France to reward and strengthen international cooperation in the field of science and technology at a European level. iSwitch was coordinated by Paolo Samorì, Professor at the University of Strasbourg, and since 2015 has brought together leading international research groups at the interface between chemistry, physics and engineering with the aim of educating and promoting the next generation of researchers in the emerging fields of materials science and nanoscience. The network consisted of 14 interdisciplinary academic and industrial partners from seven European countries (France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Great Britain and Switzerland).

In December 2018, the project funded by the EU under Horizon2020 ended successfully: The iSwitch training program qualified its young scientists for employment with leading global companies such as Johnson & Johnson, universities of excellence or prestigious research institutions. In addition, the knowledge gained and technologies developed in the project have provided significant impetus in the research field of optoelectronic devices, for example for the manufacture of artificial retinae and smart textiles such as special clothing, which can measure temperature changes and then adapt shape and color.

IRIS Adlershof congratulates the iSwitch team for this great success!

The Research Training Group (RTG) "Rethinking Quantum Field Theory" is based in the Physics Department and the IRIS Adlers­hof of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin(HU). From April 2020, it will be funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for four and a half years with about 4 Mio Euro. The RTG will address urgent theoretical questions and significant innovations in quantum field theory (QFT) that go beyond established methods.

Quantum field theory (QFT), the unification of quantum mechanics and special relativity, represents a major intellectual achievement of the past century. These innovations culminated in the formulation of the Standard Model (SM). With the discovery of the Higgs boson, the SM is an empirical validated and mathematically consistent theory valid up to highest energies. However, a number of terrestrial experiments exhibit significant tensions with the SM, while astrophysical observations require the existence of dark matter and energy showing that the SM is not the ultimate theory of particle physics. In addition, pressing theoretical issues as the quest for a quantum theory of gravity, the hierarchy problem and the discovery of dualities between different QFTs raise questions about the foundations of the SM and QFT in general. In recent years important innovations in QFT occurred leading the community to a serious rethinking of its core concepts. These include the methodology of perturbation theory, dualities and hidden symmetries, the prominent role of effective field theory in fundamental physics, modern on-shell methods for scattering amplitudes and the gradient flow methodology in lattice field theory. The further development of these methods and concepts of modern QFT leading to a deep rethinking of it provides the common basis of this proposed research training group (RTG). We designed a timely qualification program for the new generation of quantum field theorists. The RTG is headed by 12 principal investigators including senior and junior research group leaders, encompassing all groups working in theoretical high energy physics Humboldt University. Partners of the RTG are the Max-Planck-Insitute for Gravitational Physics and the Helmholtz Center DESY. IRIS Adlers­hof is involved with several members in the newly established RTG. These are RTG-spokesman Prof. Jan Plefka, Dr. Valentina Forini, Prof. Dirk Kreimer and Prof. Matthias Staudacher.

IRIS Adlers­hof congratulates the successful applicants and wishes a lot of success.

The IRIS Symposium has firmly established itself as an annual highlight in the scientific life of IRIS Adlershof, and it has a growing interest far beyond the Adlershof location, as the annually increasing number of participants impressively demonstrates. This year, ideas for the further development of IRIS in the areas of 2D Based Heterostructures, Energy Conversion, Data Science, and Emerging Fields were in the focus of interest. These topics were introduced to an extremely open-minded audience of internationally renowned researchers.

The junior researchers had the opportunity to present their own research results during a poster competition to the invited speakers and the other participants of the symposium. The jury, consisting of the junior researchers Dr. Zsuzsanna Heiner and Dr. Felix Hermerschmidt, as well as the IRIS member Prof. Nicola Pinna, was visibly struggling to make the choice for the best poster.

Finally, Dr. Benedikt Haas was able to prevail with a total of 33 competitors with his poster. Benedikt, PostDoc in the group „Structure Research and Electron Microscopy“, which is led by IRIS member Prof. Christoph T. Koch, received the Best Poster Award and a voucher for a travel allowance up to a maximum of 500 EUR for active participation in a scientific conference. Doctoral students Martin Rothe (AG Nanooptik) and Niklas Mutz (AG Hybride Bauelemente) were awarded second and third prize as well as book vouchers for their poster contributions. The event ended with grilled and drinks.

IRIS Adlershof congratulates the winners and thanks everyone who has contributed actively to the success of the symposium.
 

"Getting to the bottom of the materials of the future" - in a newly published article, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin addresses the research of the CRC 951 - Hybrid Inorganic/Organic Systems for Opto-Electronics (HIOS), in which members of IRIS Adlershof are also involved.
The importance of the CRC’s theoretical und application-oriented research on materials is discussed, especially with regard to the indispensable use of optoelectronics in modern everyday life and the ever-increasing demand for sustainable and environmentally friendly materials.
Claudia Draxl’s SOLgroup and Emil List-Kratochvil’s Hybrid Devices Group are covered in detail. Both are members of IRIS Adlershof and professors at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the HU, as is the spokesperson of HIOS, Norbert Koch.
The article can be found in the press portal of the HU. Here you can find the website of the CRC, which entered its third funding period in July this year.  More information about the working group of Claudia Draxl can be found here, the working group of Emil List-Kratochvil here.

The Institute of Physics (IOP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and IRIS Adlershof want to intensify their scientific collaboration. After the first joint workshop at   IRIS Adlershof   on June 25./26. the second workshop took place at the IOP (SLAB) in Dongguan, Guangdong, followed up by visits of the IOP in Beijing and at the University of CAS (UCAS, North Campus). The focus of interest were priority subjects at both institutes, including 2D- and nano-materials, soft matter, hybrid electronic devices, photoemission, synchrotron research, and quantum information.

During their visit to Beijing, members of the Berlin delegation headed by IRIS Director Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe also met Academician Prof. Hongjun Gao, who will visit Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on October 21, with an official delegation of IOP/CAS.

Starting in November, Carlos-Andres Palma, Professor at the IOP, will regularly carry out research at IRIS Adlershof within the framework of a research fellowship granted by the Alexander von Humboldt. Furthermore, the participating institutes plan to regularly exchange students and scientists, establish a joint postdoctoral program, and implement joint scientific events.

 

The mathematicial physicist Nichol Furey (University of Cambridge) has been awarded a Freigeist Fellowship by the Volkswagen Foundation. 

These Fellowships are aimed at unusual and courageous lateral thinkers from all disciplines in the first four years following their doctorate. In order to become a Freigeist Fellow, the young researchers must not only possess outstanding specialist expertise, but also look beyond their own discipline and combine critical analytical skills with new perspectives and approaches.

At the IRIS Adlershof of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Ms. Furey will study a special number system, the octaves, and would like to prove that the behavior of elementary particles can be predicted using this system. Her project "In-depth Study into the Algebraic Structure of Elementary Particle Physics" explores the question of whether there is a mathematical logic behind the inner processes of elementary particle physics. 

Anyone interested in learning more about this exciting topic can experience Ms. Furey as invited speaker at the symposium IRIS 2019.

IRIS Adlershof congratulates the successful young scientist and looks forward to a fruitful cooperation.

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Professor Carlos-Andres Palma has been awarded a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers. The fellowship provides funding for international experts to make extended research visits to Germany. At IRIS Adlershof and at the physics department of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Prof. Palma will contribute with expertise in ultrahigh-vacuum variable temperature, low-temperature atomic force microscopy (AFM) and complementary surface analytics. Together with Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe’s group and co-hosted by Prof. Norbert Koch’s group, he will explore nanographane materials and their phonon properties in the project entitled ‘Low-dimensional carbon sp3 materials at well-defined interfaces’, in collaboration with Prof. Klaus Müllen (MPI Mainz) and Prof. Thomas Frauenheim (University of. Bremen). The first publication from his fellowship "Edge Phonon Excitations in a Chiral Self-Assembled Supramolecular Nanoribbon" has been recently published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.

Carlos-Andres Palma (36) is associate professor of physics at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)–a leading research institute in condensed matter physics, contributing extensively to copper-and iron-based high-temperature superconductors, Weyl semimetals, the quantum anomalous Hall effect, topological insulators and related physics. Prior to joining the Institute of Physics, he worked at the TU Munich, the Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research, ETH Zurich, University College London and the University of Strasbourg, where he completed his MSc and PhD in 2010.

His group is funded by the Thousand Youth Talent Plan, the CAS Instrument Development, the CAS Frontier Research Grant and Sino-German NSFC-DFG Grants. His research interests lie in the physics of precision molecular architectures at interfaces.

Anyone interested in learning more about Prof. Palma's exciting research can experience him as an invited speaker at the symposium IRIS 2019.


 

Aron Vanselow has been awarded the second prize of the Quantum Futur Award 2019 by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for his master thesis on “Mid-infrared frequency-domain optical coherence tomography with undetected photons”. Mr. Vanselow did his work in the group “Nonlinear Quantum Optics”, led by Dr. Sven Ramelow, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof. Some results of this work were recently published in the journal Optics Letters and have already led to a patent.

IRIS Adlershof warmly congratulates the young award winner.

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Valentin Reiter-Scherer, doctoral student in the group of Jürgen P. Rabe, director of IRIS Adlershof was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Poster Prize at the Polydays 2019 of the Berlin-Brandenburg Association of Polymer Research (BVP) for his poster "Dynamic interactions of influenza A virus proteins hemagglutinin and neuraminidase with sialic acid revealed by Single Molecule Force Spectroscopy". Well deserved, Valentin!

Dr. Tim Schröder, junior research group leader at the Department of Physics of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut fuer Höchstfrequenztechnik (FBH), was awarded an ERC Starting Grant and will receive EUR 1.5 million for five years.

With his project QUERP "Quantum Repeater Architectures Based on Quantum Memories and Photonic Encoding", Mr. Schröder is researching the next generation of faster, safer and future-compatible communication at the interface of integrated quantum optics, communication and new material systems.

He can also use resources from IRIS Adlershof when working on this topic. We congratulate and look forward to the continuation of our good cooperation.

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The Berlin University Alliance has won funding as a group in the Universities of Excellence funding line of the German federal and state governments’ Excellence Strategy. The German Council of Science and Humanities announced the decision on July 19, 2019, in Bonn. The four Berlin partners – Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin – submitted a joint proposal entitled Crossing Boundaries toward an Integrated Research Environment and in a highly competitive process were able to convince the reviewers of its feasibility.

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The IRIS junior research group leader Michael J. Bojdys and his international team have achieved a great success: Their article “Real-time optical and electronic sensing with a β-amino enone linked, triazine-containing 2D covalent organic framework” has been selected to be published in the renowned journal Nature Communications.
Bojdys article deals with aromatic two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks (2D COFs), which are a class of porous polymers that allow the precise incorporation of organic units into periodic structures.COFs can be chemically designed to incorporate particular surface functional groups which can be exploited to tune the optical and electronic properties. However, low stability towards chemical triggers has hampered their practical implementations.
Together with a team from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Prague, Czech Republic), IRIS junior research group leader Michael J. Bojdys and his team from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin have explored a new design principle for COFs that makes use of strong, overall conjugation and incorporation of donor-acceptor domains. In this study a new, a highly stable chemoresistant β-amino enone linked, triazine-containing COF was used as a real-time, reversible optical and electronic sensor for volatile acids and bases. The team was further able to conclude that the sensing capabilities of the COF was achieved by preferential protonation of the electron accepotor – a triazine ring in the structure – , resulting in an optical response visible to the naked eye and an increase of bulk electrical conductivity by two orders of magnitude. These findings demonstrate a powerful approach to design more practical sensors and switches, and take genuine advantage of the chemoresistant make-up, porous structure, and overall conjugation of fully-aromatic systems.
IRIS Adlershof would like to congratulate Michael J. Bojdys and his team on this successful study and its publication in Nature Communications!
Due to his great enthusiasm for the concept of IRIS Adlershof and the research carried out here, ERC-grant holder Bojdys joined the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and IRIS Adlershof in 2018 as leader of the junior research group “Functional Materials”. The group’s research aims at the development of metal-free, electronic components for transistors and sensors on the basis of functional materials made up of light, covalently-bonded atoms. At the heart of the project lies the challenge to transfer the control mechanisms and modularity known from molecular, organic chemistry to macroscopic structures.

Real-time optical and and electronic sensing with a β-amino enone linked, triazine-containing 2D covalent organic framework
R. Kulkarni, Y. Noda, D.K Barange, Y.S. Kochergin, P. Lyu, B. Balcarov, P. Nachtigall, and M.J. Bojdys
Nat. Commun 10 (2019) 3228

Click here for the press release of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin!

The European Research Council (ERC) brings pioneering science to the Annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC), also known as "Summer Davos", organised by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Dalian, China, from 1 to 3 July. The 2019 edition will address the topic of "Leadership 4.0: Succeeding in a new era of globalization".

For the eighth year running, the ERC will take part with a delegation, composed of ERC President Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon and ten ERC grantees, all leaders in their respective fields. Among these these ten ERC grantees is Dr. Michael J. Bojdys, junior research group leader at IRIS Adlershof and at the Chemistry Department of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Dr. Bojdys is pleased about the invitation to Dalian and summarizes his impressions: "The WEFfocused this year in particular on "Leadership 4.0" to deliver on sustainable development goals. The technology for sustainable electronics, smart energy storage, food security and healthier living is out there, sponsored by tax-payer's money via the ERC, for example, who are supporting my research. But most scientists lack the business literacy to bring their projects to the market. WEF and ERC identify the need for (1) better business training of scientists - that means: can you deliver an "elevator pitch" on the impact of your research on society? Can you make the same pitch to funders? (2) Better funding instruments to develop prototype devices - here, the ERC is leading with the ERC "Proof of Concept" grant scheme that pays not only for prototype development but also for a market study, and (3) how can we help scientists find the right type of funders for their pre-IPO [initital public offering] projects - an exciting new initiative by the ERC is the "Virtual Ventures Fair" that aims to bring scientists that succesfully resolved their "Proof of Concept" grants together with investors. I am particularly looking forward to work together with the new leadership of the ERC on the "Virtual Ventures Fair" project - if there's anything we know as scientists, then it is to contribute expert opinions via peer-review."

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Research teams from the Humboldt-Universität and the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB) have investigated a new material from the family of carbon nitrides. Triazine-based graphitic carbon nitride (TGCN) is a semiconductor that is useful in optoelectronic applications. Its structure is two-dimensional and layered, and it resembles that of graphene. Unlike graphene, its conductivity between the layers is 65-times higher than in-plane.

Some organic materials can be used in optoelectronics just like silicon-based semiconductors. Whether in solar cells, light-emitting diodes, or as transistors – the important property is the bandgap, i.e. the energy-difference of the electrons in the valence band and the conduction band. The basic principle underlying all electronic components is that electrons can be promoted by light or by voltage between the valence and the conduction band. Here, bandgaps between 1 and 2 eV are ideal.

A team led by the chemist Dr. Michael J. Bojdys from the chemistry department and IRIS Adlershof of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, has recently synthesized an organic semiconductor from the family of carbon nitrides. This triazine-based graphitic carbon nitride (TGCN) consists exclusively from carbon and nitrogen atoms and can be grown as a brown film on quartz glass substrates. The C- and N-atoms connect in hexagonal, honeycomb patterns like carbon atoms in graphene. Just like in graphene, the crystal structure of TGCN is based on layered, two-dimensional sheets. In graphene, in-plane conductivity is excellent, however, it is much lower through the planes. In the case of TGCN, the opposite is observed: through-plane conductivity is 65-times higher than in-plane. With a bandgap of 1.7 eV TGCN is a good candidate for optoelectronic applications.

The HZB-physicist Dr. Christoph Merschjann has examined the charge carrier transport in samples of TGCN using time-resolved absorption measurements in the femto- to nanosecond regime at the laser lab JULiq – a joint lab between the HZB and the Freie Universität Berlin. Such laser experiments offer a unique way to correlate macroscopic conductivity and microscopic transport models. From his measurements, he was able to deduce how the charge carriers diffuse throughout the material. “Electrons do not exit the hexagonal honeycombs of triazine units horizontally, but they move at a slope to the nearest triazine-unit in the neighboring layer. The crystal structure of the material leads to a preferred movement of charge carriers along tube-like channels.” This mechanism could explain why the conductivity of TGCN is fundamentally higher through-plane than in-plane. “TGCN is the hitherto best candidate to replace silicon semiconductors and the critical, rare-earth dopants used in their manufacture”, says Michael Bojdys. “The production method for TGCN that we developed in my group at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin yields flat layers of semiconducting TGCN on insulating quartz glass. This enables relatively easy upscaling and device production.”

As of 1 June 2019, Prof. Dr. Bernd Rech and Prof. Dr. Jan Lüning are the new scientific directors of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie. Bernd Rech is responsible for the “Energy and Information” department and Jan Lüning heads the “Matter” department. Thus the HZB Supervisory Board has appointed two internationally recognised experts at the top of HZB.

IRIS Adlershof congratulates and looks forward to the continuation of the close scientific collaboration.

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The “14th International Symposium on Functional π-Electron Systems” is part of a regular international conference series that began in 1989 in Osaka, Japan. The 14th edition of this series is jointly organized by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH (HZB) and IRIS Adlershof of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. It takes place 2nd - 7th June 2019 in the Berlin-Adlershof Science and Technology park, with over 400 participants. The scientific program is co-organized by Prof. Stefan Hecht (Department of Chemistry of HU) and Prof. Norbert Koch (Department of Physics of HU). Both are members of IRIS Adlershof.

The symposium focuses on:
- design and synthesis of new π-conjugated molecules and polymers,
- organic and polymeric semiconducting materials for thin film transistors,
- organic and polymeric photovoltaic and photo-responsive materials and devices,
- organic light-emitting materials for display and lighting application,
- hybrid and perovskite materials and devices,
- conjugated polymers and oligomers in chemo/bio-sensors, and
- bioelectronics.

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The Collaborative Research Centre 951 "Hybrid Inorganic / Organic Systems for Opto-Electronics" (HIOS) will receive funding for another four years. This was decided by the German Research Foundation (DFG) at this years’ spring meeting in Bonn.
Since its establishment in 2011, the development and investigation of innovative hybrid systems has been the scientific focus of the CRC 951. These hybrid systems combine inorganic semiconductors, conjugated organic materials, and metal nanostructures with long-term goal to realize novel and superior opto-electronic functions in the meso- or nanoscopic range not achievable with any of the individual material classes alone. These functionscould be used, for example, in high-frequency and multi-colored light sources and sensors, as well as electronic and optical multifunctional devices of future generations of information technology.
In the past years, the CRC elucidated the fundamental chemical, electronic, photonic, and plasmonic interactions arising from the different nature of the components combined in HIOS. As one of many results, novel hybridized quantum states and coupled excitations at the inorganic/organic interfaces were uncovered. These impressive results laid the foundation for the next four years of exciting HIOS-research.
The German Research Foundation (DFG) has now acknowledged the achievements of the CRC 951 by granting a third funding period for 2019 – 2023. The CRC's spokesperson and deputy spokesperson, Norbert Koch and Oliver Benson (both members of IRIS Adlershof) look forward to the joint work with 21 principal investigators from physics and chemistry of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (coordinating university), Technische Universität Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Universität Potsdam, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, and Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.
 

you can find more information about the cluster of excellence MATH+ here.

Valentina Forini is a theoretical physicist who conducts research in the field of mathematical physics with a focus on string and quantum field theory. She specializes in the Anti-de-Sitter/Conformal Field Theory correspondence, hence the study of space-time-matter. Her contributions to string and gauge field theory are internationally recognised. From 2012 to 2017 Valentina Forini was group leader of an Emmy Noether Research Group at the Department of Physics of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Since then, Forini has been engaged in several research projects at IRIS Adlershof. Meanwhile Valentina Forini has been awarded a 2018/19 Simons Emmy Noether Fellowship at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada. At IRIS she is also project leader for the European Marie-Curie ITN network Europlex. Moreover, Forini is a lecturer in Mathematics at City University London.

Now, Ms Forini has been awarded an Einstein Junior Fellowship by the Einstein Foundation Berlin.  IRIS Adlershof congratulates Ms. Forini warmly and looks forward to further cooperation.

Professor Thomas Elsaesser receives a prestigious Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) which supports, for a period of 5 years, basic research on dynamic electric interactions of DNA and RNA with ions and their water environment. The ERC Advanced Grant is endowed with up to 2.5 million euro and awarded to top researchers in Europe pursuing groundbreaking high-risk projects in science..

Thomas Elsaesser is a director at the Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy, a professor for experimental physics at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and a member of IRIS Adlershof. With his research on ultrafast phenomena in condensed matter, including liquids, biomolecular systems, and crystalline materials, he plays a leading role in ultrafast science worldwide. In his experiments, he combines methods of femtosecond spectroscopy and structure research with x-rays. He has received numerous awards for his scientific work, among them a first ERC Advanced Grant in 2009.

IRIS Adlershof congratulates and looks forward to the further close cooperation.

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From 20.3.-22.3.2019 Wolfgang Knoll (Austrian Institute of Technology), Franz Aussenegg (Universität Graz and Erwin-Schrödinger Institute) and Emil J.W. List-Kratochvil (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Member of IRIS Adlershof) jointly organize the 8th “Nano and Photonics” meeting in the Castle of Mauterndorf, Austria.

In the Cluster of Excellence "Matters of Activity. Image Space Material", researchers from more than 40 disciplines collaborate in six subprojects to lay the foundations for a new way of thinking of the material. Key to this endeavour is the vision of re-thinking the object world not like commonly done as passive and rigid, but as based on active, changeable and recyclable building materials. Adaptive fiber architectures and complex structured biofilms are among the sources of inspiration for novel designs in the future. The cluster of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin is conceptually close to the Bauhaus as well as to the academic movement of New Materialism. The members of IRIS Adlershof Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe and Prof. Matthias Staudacher are involved as principal investigators in the cluster.

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Researchers from the University of Strasbourg & CNRS (France), in collaboration with University College London (United Kingdom), and Humboldt University Berlin (Germany), have shown that a subtle combination of light-emitting semiconducting polymers and small photoswitchable molecules can be used to fabricate light-emitting organic transistors operating under optical remote control, paving the way to the next generation of multifunctional optoelectronic devices. These achievements have now been published in Nature Nanotechnology.

Organic light-emitting transistors are widely recognized as key components in numerous optoelectronic applications. However, the integration of multiple functionalities into a single electronic device remains a grand challenge in this technological sector. Moreover, the next generation of displays requires to encode high-density visual information into single and ultra-small pixels.

Now a team of researchers from Strasbourg, London, and Berlin has taken a big step forward by creating the first organic light-emitting transistor that can be remote-controlled by light itself. They have been blending a custom-designed molecule as a miniaturized optical switch with a light-emitting semiconducting polymer. Upon illumination with ultraviolet and visible light, the molecular switch reversibly changes its electronic properties. As a consequence, the electrical and optical response of the device can be modulated simultaneously by light, which serves as an optical remote control.

However, having a device capable of producing only one color is not sufficient for daily-life applications, such as full-color displays. By choosing appropriate photoswitchable molecules and blending them with suitable light-emitting polymers, the researchers have demonstrated that this new type of organic light-emitting transistors can shine in the range of the three primary colors (red, green, and blue), thereby covering the entire visible spectrum.

The disruptive potential of such approach was demonstrated by writing and erasing spatially defined emitting patterns (a letter for example) within a single device with a beam of laser light, allowing a non-invasive and mask-free process, with a response time on the microsecond scale and a spatial resolution of a few micrometers, thus outperforming the best “retina” displays. Clearly, these findings represent a major breakthrough that offers multiple perspectives for smart displays, active optical memories, and light-controlled logic circuits.

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The Cluster of Excellence "Matters of Activity" is looking for PostDocs on "Molecular Filtering" and "Sensing Knife". Applications until January 22nd!

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Since 2015 the EU-funded Integrated Training Network "iSwitch" has been bringing together some of the leading European research groups at the interface of chemistry and physics to train the next generation researchers on the the emerging topic of smart electronics. The final symposium of the network organized by Prof. Stefan Hecht and Prof. Norbert Koch, both members of IRIS Adlershof, will highlight key achievements and discuss future perspectives in this burgeoning area of research.

Distinguished Professor Rich Spontak from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering of North Carolina State University visits IRIS Adlershof from November 05th to December 02nd as a guest professor of the Cluster of Excellence Image Knowledge Gestaltung within the project Experimental Systems. Professor Spontak’s focus areas in research are polymer morphology and phase stability, multifunctional and nanostructured polymers, blends and networks, and the application of microscopy techniques to polymer science and engineering. On November 19th, he will speak at an IRIS seminar on "Designing selective membranes from the ground-up: A Polymer Scientists Playground".
 

Since October Dr. Tim Schröder has been forming a junior research group on “Spin-defect centers in nanophotonic circuits for quantum information processing” at the Physics Department of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. His group will be funded by a five-year BMBF project “Diamond nanophotonics for on-chip quantum technology” within the framework of the program Quantum Futur. Before his return, Dr. Schröder who finished his doctoral studies at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2012 spent the last four years as a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, USA) and two years as an assistant professor at the Niels Bohr Institute (NBI, Denmark) where he worked on hybrid integrated photonic systems to control individual spin-based quantum memories in diamonds and gallium arsenide. His research was awarded the Carl Ramsauer Prize and has been funded by a Feodor Lynen scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and a Marie Sklodowska Curie fellowship from the European Union. At Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Dr. Schröder will continue to work on these topics while taking advantage of the resources that  IRIS Adlershof has to offer. For example, he will collaborate closely with the nano optics research group of Prof. Oliver Benson who is also an IRIS member.

The overall scientific goal of the project “Diamond Nanophotonics for On-Chip Quantum Technology” is to combine defect centers in diamonds and nanophotonic structures into compact, hybrid on-chip modules and then to demonstrate their operational interconnections, which will be a crucial step towards quantum information processes based on optically active solid state materials. Defect centers that interconnect with high rates form the basis for quantum networks, which can be used for remote quantum communication or complex quantum computing. IRIS Adlershof wishes Dr. Schröder much success in obtaining these goals and is looking forward to a fruitful collaboration.
 

The president of the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Professor Vahan Agopyan, as well as USP’s vice-president for International Relationships, Professor Raul Machado Neto, visited within the framework of a several day Berlin stay to inform themselves as well about the current study conditions and opportunities to do research at the natural science campus of Humboldt-University zu Berlin (HU).

Prof. Jan Plefka, the vice dean for research at the HU’s mathematics and natural science department and a member of IRIS Adlershof, and Dr. Nikolai Puhlmann, IRIS’s managing director, gave an overview of the HU’s natural science campus and IRIS Adlershof’s concept and development. They also gave details on the IRIS research building still under construction. Prof. Ulf Leser and Prof. Henning Meyerhenke from the Department of Computer Science informed the guests about their department’s current research plans and projects.

The HU and USP’s jointly run international research training group IGRT 1740 „Dynamical Phenomena in Complex Networks: Fundamentals and Applications“ was introduced to the guests in detail by the research training group’s speaker, Prof. Jürgen Kurths (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and HU Berlin). At the end of their visit, the guests saw the prototype of a Cherenkov telescope that is being erected in Adlershof within the framework of the international major project „Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA)“ in which the HU and USP are both participating. Prof. Thomas Lohse from the Department of Physics at the HU described how the telescope functioned and the scientific focus of the CTA project.

The São Paulo guests were very interested in and impressed by the progress made in the HU’s research results and praised the diverse opportunities that Adlershof science site has to offer for top-ranking natural science research and the education of international young scientists.

The Universidade de São Paulo (USP) is one of three strategic profile partners of the Humboldt University and consistently ranks one of the top universities in the South American subcontinent.
 

Digitization permeates our entire society - from Industry 4.0 to healthcare applications. Data security and secure communication are becoming increasingly important. Quantum communication is a promising approach for this: It uses quantum states as information carriers, which can not be copied or unnoticed due to fundamental physical laws. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is supporting this departure into quantum technology by funding the joint project Quantum Link Expansion (Q.Link.X) with a total of 14.8 million euros over the next three years. The working groups of IRIS Adlershof member Prof. Oliver Benson and IRIS Adlershof young research group leader Sven Ramelow are involved.

The goal of the collaborative project is physically tap-proof fiber optic networking. However, this paradigm shift in message encryption away from conventional methods and towards quantum technology encounters a technological challenge: transmission of quantum information with light particles (photons) leads to unavoidable line losses, limiting transmission distances to less than 100 kilometers. With quantum repeaters, this limit should be overcome without security restrictions. Repeaters (repeater stations) are signal amplifiers and conditioners in communication technology. Unlike these repeaters, however, the quantum repeater has to connect signals from different sections using quantum processes in order to bridge larger distances.

The joint project Quantum Link Extension (Q.Link.X) is now intended to promote the development of such quantum repeaters, which use quantum memory and quantum couplers. In the next three years, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research is supporting this move into quantum technology with a total of 14.8 million euros. With quantum dots, diamond color centers and a combination of atomic and ionic systems as three different technical platforms, transmission distances between ten and 100 kilometers are to be realized and the advantages of the respective systems compared to each other. The work should prepare the technology to bridge much longer distances in later phases. For the first time, Q.Link.X not only researches and develops individual components of a quantum repeater, but also entire communication routes.

In the Q.Link.X network, 24 partners from research institutions from universities to industrial laboratories have come together to explore the key technology of quantum repeaters. The close involvement of industrial partners and consultants should facilitate the feasibility from an industrial and engineering perspective from the outset. The exploitation of earnings in Germany is to be secured by patents and spin-offs of the consortium.

The following partners are involved in the project: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Bonn, Technical University Munich, Technical University Dortmund, High Finesse Laser and Electronic Systems GmbH, Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute Berlin, Technical University Berlin, University of Stuttgart, University of Paderborn, University Saarland, Freie Universität Berlin, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden, Ruhr University Bochum, Swabian Instruments GmbH, Leibniz University Hannover, Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics (Garching), Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg, University of Bremen , Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, University of Ulm, Humboldt University Berlin, University of Kassel, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Seven Cluster of Excellence in the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder approved for the Berlin University Alliance. Members of IRIS Adlershof participate in the following clusters as PIs:

Matters of Activity: Image Space Material - A new culture of material (Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe, Prof. Matthias Staudacher)

MATH+  - How Berlin mathematics is shaping the future (Prof. Michael Hintermüller)

Unifying Systems in Catalysis (UniSysCat) - How to Understand and Utilize Networks in Catalysis (Prof. Stefan Hecht, Prof. Christian Limberg)

We congratulate the participating researchers and look forward to a good cooperation!

Great minds, 3 minutes, 1 day:
On September 28, 2018, 18 junior researchers and young professionals will present their research projects, ideas and initiatives in 3 minutes each. The winner of this preliminary decision will receive an invitation to the final in Berlin on 8 November and the opportunity to participate in the Falling Walls Conference.
In addition to 16 other participants, two junior scientists from IRIS Adlershof will also be taking part: Inna Kviatkovsky from the group of Sven Ramelow, who already won the IRIS Roots Day 2017, and Wadim Wormsbecher from the group of Jan Plefka.

The event will take place at BAM (Richard-Willstätter-Straße 15, 12489 Berlin) on Friday, September 28, at 11:00 - 14:00. Admission is free.

Die IRIS-Geschäftsstelle sucht eine Elternzeitvertretung, vorauss. befristet bis 30.11.2019.

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The Mathematical Physicist Olaf Hohm, who acquired an ERC Consolidator Grant for his research project "Duality Symmetries, Higher Derivatives and their Applications in Cosmology", has moved to the Department of Physics at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Previously, he received a "Heisenberg scholarship from the DFG and worked at MIT in Boston and at Stony Brook University in New York. His current research interest is the development of a string-theoretical approach to answer questions about the beginning of the universe purely arithmetically. He will work closely with the IRIS member groups Prof. Jan Plefka and Prof. Matthias Staudacher. Dr. Hohm presents his research at 26.10.2018, 1:15 pm in the IRIS-building, room 2'07.

IRIS Adlershof is looking forward to a fruitful cooperation!
 
 

IRIS junior research group leader David Bléger joins CREAVIS, the strategic innovation unit of EVONIK. After studying and working in France, he joined IRIS member Stefan Hecht as a postdoc in 2009 and started his own working group in 2013. He is an expert in the design and manufacture of molecules, polymers and various organic materials that respond to chemical and physical stimuli.

IRIS Adlershof wishes you lots of success!
 
 

IRIS Junior Scientist Egon Steeg successfully defended his dissertation "Investigations on growth and structure of silver and silver halide nanostructures formed on amphiphilic dye aggregates". His research was supported by CRC 951 "Hybrid Inorganic/Organic Systems for Opto-Electronics (HIOS)" and supervised by PD Dr. Stefan Kirstein in the group of  IRIS-Director Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe.

IRIS Adlershof congratulates!
 

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin form a joint lab and research group “Generative production processes for hybrid components”.
Solar cells, LEDs and detectors made of organic and hybrid semiconductors can nowadays be simply printed out, even together with teensy nanostructures that make them function better. The development of low-cost printing methods for electronic and optoelectronic components is at the centre of things for the new joint research group and the joint laboratory of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU).

	The HySPRINT logo (Helmholtz Innovation Lab) printed on a copper solution symbolizes how the thinnest material layers can be produced simply and cost-effectively. Possible applications are solar cells, organic LEDs or transistors. Photo credit: Humboldt Universität zu Berlin/List-Kratochvil

Cooperating together in the new research group are the HU workgroup “Hybrid Devices” led by Prof. Dr. Emil List-Kratochvil, the HZB young investigator group of Dr. Eva Unger, the Helmholtz Innovation Lab HySPRINT, and the Competence Centre Photovoltaics Berlin (PVcomB) directed by Prof. Dr. Rutger Schlatmann. The partners are building up a joint lab at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin that will allow the researchers to acquire and use complementary laboratory infrastructures for various coating methods.
Prof. Emil List-Kratochvil is the head of the HU workgroup “Hybrid Devices” at IRIS Adlershof, and has been working for 15 years on developing electronic and optoelectronic hybrid components, resource-efficient deposition techniques (inkjet printing) and in-situ nanostructuring and synthetic methods. This expertise complements the aims of the HZB young investigator group led by Dr. Eva Unger. She will be developing solution-based manufacturing methods for depositing perovskite semiconductor layers onto larger surface areas for solar cells. “The new research group with List-Kratochvil is a real win for us. With his experience in printed electronic components, he is an ideal cooperation partner for us,” Unger says.
In recent months, the researcher and her team have already come much closer to her goal of developing hybrid tandem solar cells with large-surface-areas in the scope of the Helmholtz Innovation Lab HySPRINT. Now, the next step is to upscale the process in order to drive the novel solar cells towards market maturity. The Competence Centre Thin-Film- and Nanotechnology for Photovoltaics Berlin (PVcomB) is the ideal partner for the development of industrially relevant manufacturing processes. The joint research group is now striving towards building a pilot line on which to develop prototypes of hybrid components.

• Helmholtz Innovation Lab HySPRINT
• HU-Group 'Hybride Devices' directed by Prof. Dr. Emil List-Kratochvil
• HZB Young Investigator Group 'Hybrid Materials Formation and Scaling’ directed by Dr. Eva Unger
• Competence Centre Photovoltaics Berlin directed by Prof. Dr. Rutger Schlatmann

The dissertation of Dr. Michael N. Borinsky was selected to be published in Springer Theses, a dedicated book series to recognize outstanding doctoral research and received an reasearch award worth 500 €. Borinsky was IRIS Junior Scientist and supervised by  IRIS-Member Prof. Dirk Kreimer.
"This thesis provides an extension of the work of Dirk Kreimer and Alain Connes on the Hopf algebra structure of Feynman graphs and renormalization to general graphs. Additionally, an algebraic structure of the asymptotics of formal power series with factorial growth, which is compatible with the Hopf algebraic structure, will be introduced. [...] [Part of these] structures are motivated by and used to analyze renormalized zero-dimensional quantum field theory at high orders in perturbation theory. As a pure application of the Hopf algebra structure, an Hopf algebraic interpretation of the Legendre transformation in quantum field theory is given."

IRIS Adlershof would like to congratulate Michael Borinsky and wishes him much success in his future work.¹

Discovery lays the foundation for recycling of yet non-recyclable plastics.


Robust plastics are composed of molecular building-blocks, held together by tough chemical linkages. Their cleavage is extremely difficult to achieve, rendering the recycling of these materials almost impossible. A research team from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) developed a molecule, which can drive or reverse specific chemical reactions with light of different colors. This enables making and breaking of connections on the molecular scale, even if they are exceptionally strong. The discovery paves the way for the development of novel recycling methods and sustainable materials. Light-driven recovery of individual molecular building-blocks has great potential to enable recycling of yet non-recyclable plastics without compromising on color, quality, or shape.

"The working principle of our system is quite similar to the one of ready-to-assemble furniture” explain Michael Kathan and Fabian Eisenreich, the two first authors of this study. “We are able to repetitively assemble or disassemble molecular architectures, but instead of a hammer and screw-driver, we use red and blue LEDs as tools to control our molecules."

The results of their study have just been published in Nature Chemistry

Further Information
 
Publication
“Light-driven molecular trap enables bidirectional manipulation of dynamic covalent systems”
by: Michael Kathan, Fabian Eisenreich, Christoph Jurissek, Andre Dallmann, Johannes Gurke, and Stefan Hecht
in: Nature Chemistry (2018), DOI: 10.1038/s41557-018-0106-8

 

The Humboldt-Universität opens up time for reflection and concentration on new research concepts, as well as the opportunity to exchange ideas, to read and to write without the distraction of everyday responsibilities with its funding line Creating Opportunities. Among the five professors is Prof. Jan Plefka, whi is a member of  IRIS Adlershof. His mandatory teaching assignments will be covered by a visiting lecturer for the winter term 2018/19 and Jan Plefka will use the time gained  for exploring the Generalized Unitarity for Gravitational Waves:

"For quantum field theories, such as the Standard Model, revolutionary innovations, the so-called generalized unitarity, have existed in recent years, which can circumvent and greatly simplify this diagrammatic development, thus making it possible to produce highly complicated graviton scattering processes. The central idea of ​​this project is to transfer this innovation in the field of quantum field theory to the problem of gravitational waves in the classical theory of relativity, which results from the collision of massive bodies (black holes or neutron stars).", says Jan Plefka.

We congratulate and wish you much pleasure in this exciting topic!
 
 
 

At the constituent meeting of the new faculty council after the committee election in early July, Prof. Jan Plefka was elected on 11.07.2018 as the new Vice Dean for Research of the Faculty of Mathematics and Science. He succeeds Prof. Johann-Christoph Freytag, who was also a member of IRIS Adlershof.

We congratulate!
 
 
 

For the first time, two-dimensional materials have been decorated with a photoswitchable molecular layer, and electronic components have been fabricated from the resulting hybrid materials that can be controlled by light. The results of this fruitful collaboration of several European research groups have been published in Nature Communications.

Owing to their outstanding electrical, optical, chemical and thermal properties, two-dimensional (2D) materials, which consist of a single layer of atoms, hold great potential for technological applications such as electronic devices, sensors, catalysts, energy conversion and storage devices, among others. Thanks to their ultra-high surface sensitivity, 2D materials represent an ideal platform to study the interplay between nanoscale molecular assembly on surfaces and macroscopic electrical transport in devices.

In order to provide a unique light-responsivity to devices, the researchers have designed and synthesized a photoswitchable spiropyran building block, which is equipped with an anchoring group and which can be reversibly interconverted between two different forms by illumination with ultraviolet and visible light, respectively. On the surface of 2D materials, such as graphene or molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), the molecular photoswitches self-assemble into highly ordered ultrathin layers, thereby generating a hybrid, atomically precise superlattice. Upon illumination the system undergoes a collective structural rearrangement, which could be directly visualized and monitored with sub-nanometer resolution by scanning tunneling microscopy. This light-induced reorganization at the molecular level induces an optical modulation of the energetics of the underlying 2D material, which translates into a change in the electrical characteristics of the fabricated hybrid devices. In this regard, the collective nature of self-assembly allows to convert single-molecule events into a spatially homogeneous switching action, which generates a macroscopic electrical response in graphene and MoS2.

"With our versatile approach of molecularly tailoring 2D materials, we are taking supramolecular electronics to a new level and closer to future applications," says Prof. Stefan Hecht, who is researching hybrid materials at IRIS Adlershof. The work is groundbreaking for the realization of multifunctional hybrid components powered by nature's primary energy source - sunlight.

Further Information

Publication

by: Marco Gobbi, Sara Bonacchi, Jian X. Lian, Alexandre Vercouter, Simone Bertolazzi, Björn Zyska, Melanie Timpel, Roberta Tatti, Yoann Olivier, Stefan Hecht, Marco V. Nardi, David Beljonne, Emanuele Orgiu and Paolo Samorì

In August 2017, the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, together with the Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing, announced an art competition with 10 invited artists for the new research building of IRIS Adlershof. In February 2018, a jury approved the draft by BORGMAN | LENK with the title "Accesss" recommended for implementation (see news from Febr. 05, 2018). This winning design, which features the installation of gold-colored components and elements that are inconsistent with the functional processes and entrances of the house, will be on display at the IRIS-House from 09 to 20 July 2018, along with the other designs submitted to the art competition be visited.

A research team from Berlin, leaded by Prof. Stefan Hecht, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof, has developed a novel catalyst system, which enables the regulation of multiple polymerization processes to produce biodegradable plastics solely by illumination with light of different colors. The results of this work have now been published in Nature Catalysis.

The properties of a polymeric material are highly dependent on factors, such as the connected monomer building blocks as well as the length and composition of the formed polymer chains. Typically, these factors are predetermined by the choice of the employed reaction conditions. In order to overcome this limitation and generate materials with new and unprecedented properties, regulation of polymerizations by means of external stimuli represents an attractive goal. Similarly to dental repair, light serves to precisely control the location and duration of the chemical reaction during polymer formation.

Weitere Informationen
 
Publication
“A photoswitchable catalyst system for remote-controlled (co)polymerization in situ”
by: Fabian Eisenreich, Michael Kathan, Andre Dallmann, Svante P. Ihrig, Timm Schwaar, Bernd M. Schmidt and Stefan Hecht
in: Nature Catalysis (2018), DOI: 10.1038/s41929-018-0091-8

 

IRIS Junior Scientist Francesco Bianchi successfully defended his dissertation "Energy Transfer in Organic-Inorganic Semiconductor Structures" at IRIS Adlershof. His research was supported by CRC 951 "Hybrid Inorganic/Organic Systems for Opto-Electronics (HIOS)" and supervised by IRIS-members Prof. Fritz Henneberger and Prof. Oliver Benson.

We  congratulate very much!
 

A new method developed by a team of chemists in Berlin open the door for using optically switchable molecules. The results of the study have been published in Chem.

Smart materials become increasingly common in our daily life as they adapt their properties to their surroundings, such as temperature and light. Think about light-adaptive lenses in sunglasses that change their color in response to brightness or darkness. In these materials, photoswitchable molecules able to change their properties, such as color or the ability to conduct electricity, upon illumination serve as key components. However, photoswitches typically require the use of high-energy UV light and in addition do neither switch quantitatively nor efficiently since many more quanta than molecules are needed. These drawbacks limit the applicability of photoswitches, in particular since the more energy-rich light is, the less it can penetrate into materials.
 
Now, chemists of Berlin’s Humboldt University and the University of Potsdam have developed a method, which allows one to efficiently and quantitatively operate photoswitches with the smallest amounts of low-energy red photons, thus solving both issues described above. By coincidence they came across the phenomenon that the oxidation of only a few switch molecules was sufficient to switch the entire sample. Subsequently, they investigated the underlying chain reaction in great detail and optimized it by introducing dyes to allow for the use of red light. The latter allowed them to boost the quantum yield – typically way below 100% – to a record-setting value of almost 200%.
 
The impact of their discovery is tremendous according to Dr. Alexis Goulet-Hanssens and Prof. Stefan Hecht, who works at the Department of Chemistry and IRIS Adlershof: „With our method, for the first time we can address molecular switches deep in a material. Thus, we can operate optical devices efficiently but also penetrate deep into the skin through the biological window“ they explain and are excited about possible applications in optoelectronics as well as medicine.

Further Informationen
 
Publication
 
“Hole Catalysis as a General Mechanism for Efficient and Wavelength-Independent Z/E Azobenzene Isomerization”
by: Alexis Goulet-Hanssens, Clemens Rietze, Evgenii Titov, Leonora Abdullahu, Lutz Grubert, Peter Saalfrank und Stefan Hecht
in: Chem (2018), DOI: 10.1016/j.chempr.2018.06.002
 

	Director Jürgen P. Rabe, Awardee Laura Orphal, Jury member Emil List-Kratochvil

The IRIS Symposium has firmly established itself as an annual highlight in the scientific life of IRIS Adlershof, and it has a growing interest beyond the Adlershof location, as the annually increasing number of participants impressively demonstrates. This year, ideas for the further development of IRIS in the areas of Advanced Microscopies, Hybrid Materials for Optics and Electronics, Mathematical Physics of Complex Systems, and Quantum Technologies were in the focus of interest. These topics were introduced to an extremely open-minded audience of internationally renowned researchers and representatives of business enterprises.

In order to give young scientists the opportunity to present their own research results to the invited speakers and the symposium participants, this year's symposium has been expanded to include a poster competition. The jury, consisting of the representative of the young researchers Julian Miczajka, as well as the IRIS members Prof. Yan Lu and Prof. Emil List-Kratovchvil, was visibly struggling to make the choice for the best poster. Finally, Laura Orphal was able to prevail with a total of 30 competitors with her poster. Laura Orphal, master student in the group 'Photonics', which is currently led by IRIS member Prof. Oliver Benson, received the Best Poster Award and a book voucher at the end of the symposium by IRIS Director Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe before the event ended with grilled and drinks.
 
 

	Anne Spiering, M.Sc.

Anne Spiering, former Master in the group "Quantum Field and String Theory", led by IRIS Adlershof member Jan Plefka, has been awarded with this year's Lise-Meitner Prize of the "Vereinigung der Freunde und Förderer des Instituts für Physik" in the category Mono-Master for her thesis "From Yangian symmetry to factored scattering". The jury said: "in her Master thesis she showed her ability to further develop advanced and highly complex concepts in particle physics. In addition to being of high scientific value, her thesis is also written in a pedagogically highly valuable manner." Ms. Spiering is currently continuing her research with at the Trinity College Dublin with a doctorate in mathematical physics.

We congratulate very much!
 

The Cube of Physics in action; photographed by Stephan Röhl

Members from IRIS Adlershof were able to present some of their projects to the broader public in this year’s "Long Night of the Sciences", too.

IRIS member Alexander Reinefeld offered lectures and tours at the Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum für Informationstechnik ranging from the origin of computers and autostereoscopic displays to the computer-supported molecule development. In the Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy, IRIS member Thomas Elsässer could inform visitors about extremely short light impulses and lasers with lab tours, exhibits, and experiments. In the Institute for Physics, IRIS’s young researchers gave some interesting insights into molecular physics; IRIS member Jan Plekfa could present some of his current research findings in the lecture, "The world as a hologram: some news about string theory", in a chock-full Gehrtsen lecture hall.

A highlight was a presentation of "The cube of physics" (#cubeofphysics) from the Excellence Cluster on "Image Knowledge Gestaltung" in the foyer of the Lise-Meitner-Haus. IRIS members, Jürgen P. Rabe and Mathias Staudacher, presented there together with Professor Christian Kassung from the Social Sciences, as well as the scenographer Franziska Paul and several other colleagues some ways to approach a world formula from Newtonian mechanics with an interactive media station and a meter-high installation.

Prof. Claudia Draxl and Prof. Oliver Jens Schmitt, President at ÖAW

The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) welcomes 29 new members in its ranks. At the annual election meeting 16 male and 9 female researchers from a wide range of disciplines in the humanities, social and cultural sciences as well as mathematics, natural and engineering sciences were admitted to the academy due to their outstanding scientific achievements and their professional reputation. Among them is Prof. Claudia Draxl, who has been conducting research at the IRIS Adlershof since 2012 with her research group "Theoretical Solid State Physics".

We congratulate!

The Physical Society of Berlin has awarded the Physics Study Award 2018, sponsored by Siemens AG, to outstanding graduates of the diploma or master's degree in physics. Among the winners is also the elected representative of the junior researchers of IRIS Adlershof, Julian Miczajka. Mr. Miczajka is currently a doctoral student in the group of IRIS-member Professor Jan Plefka and is focusing on an exceptional class of higher spin theories in flat spaces, especially on their relationship with hidden symmetries, integrability, and duality.

The award will be presented on July 12, 2018 as part of a public celebration in the Magnus House.
We congratulate Julian Miczajka very much!

Dr. Stijn van Tongeren, a member of the group Mathematical Physics of Space, Time and Matter, has been selected to lead an Emmy Noether Junior Research Group. This will allow him to run his own independent research group here at Humboldt University and IRIS Adlershof for up to 5 years in collaboration with the group Mathematical Physics of Space, Time and Matter. He and his group will be working on deformations of AdS/CFT and related integrable structures, beginning in september 2018.

We congratulate Mr. van Tongeren very much and are looking forward to an exciting and fruitful continued cooperation!
 

Seth Marder, Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering (courtesy) at the Georgia Institute of Technology, was awarded the renowned research prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Seth Marder is internationally recognized for his leadership in developing structure-property relationships for organic and metallo-organic materials for optical and electronic applications. Among his accomplishments he created a new class of extremely efficient two-photon absorbing materials that helped to enable the field of two-photon 3D microfabrication, which is now a commerical technology used around the world. He has also contributed to the development of organic electronic materials, in particular dopants that can be used to convert semiconducting materials to materials with substantial conductivities. While in Germany he will continue his collaborative studies of the effects of dopants on the properties of both organic and inorganic materials. Professor Seth Marder is hosted by Professor Nobert Koch at IRIS Adlershof and the Department of Physics of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

We heartily congratulate Prof. Marder and are looking forward to an exciting and productive collaboration!
 

A group of students and professors from Morehouse and Spelman Colleges, two so-called “historically black colleges and universities” or colleges from the “Black Ivy League” from Atlanta, Georgia (USA), visited the natural science campus of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in the framework of several day Berlin stay to inform themselves about the local study conditions and research opportunities. IRIS administrative head Dr. Nikolai Puhlmann and IRIS member Prof. Christoph Koch as well as Mohammad Fardin Gholami, a doctoral student in the group from IRIS director Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe gave some insight into IRIS Adlershof’s research and graduate education. The guests were quite interested in and impressed about the nascent IRIS research building as well as the diverse opportunities for international young scientists at the Adlershof location.
 

Niklas Beisert, professor for mathematical physics at the ETH Zürich, Switzerland, was awarded the renowned research prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Prof. Beisert is an internationally known leading researcher in the area of the quantum field theory and integrable models. His work was important for the creation of research area integrability of the string-gauge theory duality that led for the first time to exact results in four-dimension quantum field theories. He also concerns himself with extremely complex questions into quantum gravitation and has produced a program to prove integrability in super symmetrical models.

The research prize gives Prof. Beisert the opportunity to discover with his colleagues, Jan Plefka, Matthias Staudacher, and Dirk Kreimer from IRIS Adlershof as well from the Institutes for Physics and Mathematics of the Humboldt University Berlin, some exact nonperturbative solutions in quantum field theory and to investigate the hidden symmetries in quantum field theories in depth. He will stay seven months as guest of IRIS Adlershof and strengthen with his expertise the IRIS research field “Space-Time-Material” in the academic year of 2018/2019.

We heartily congratulate Prof. Beisert and are looking forward to an exciting and productive collaboration!

IRIS Junior Scientist José David Cojal González successfully defended his dissertation "Self-Assembly and Electronic Properties of π-expanded Macrocycles". His research was supported by CRC 658 "Elementary Processes in Molecular Switches at Surfaces", CRC 951 "Hybrid Inorganic/Organic Systems for Opto-Electronics (HIOS)" and IRIS Adlershof and supervised by Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe.

IRIS Adlershof congratulates!
 

Die Humboldt-Innovation GmbH (HI) ist vom Deutschen Institut für Erfindungswesen (DIE e.V.) in der Kategorie „Beste Innovationsförderung“ mit der Dieselmedaille 2018 ausgezeichnet worden.Die 2005 gegründete Humboldt-Innovation GmbH ist ein 100-prozentiges Tochterunternehmen der HU und engagiert sich an der Schnittstelle von Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft.

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The Innovative Training Network of the European Commission SAGEX "Scattering Amplitudes: from Geometry to Experiment" was accepted for funding and will start on Sep. 1st 2018. Two Early-Stage Researcher (PhD) positions will be funded at Humboldt University, one in the Research Group "Mathematical Physics of Space, Time and Matter" (Prof. Dr. Matthias Staudacher) and one in the Research Group "Quantum Field and String Theory" (Prof. Dr. Jan Plefka). Both are members of IRIS Adlershof.
Applications will open in April.

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Together with the universities of Kiel, Koblenz-Landau, Würzburg, and Kaiserslautern, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin will be developing,
testing, and integrating concepts for good STEM lessons in the digital world for the education and further training of STEM teachers from
autumn 2018 onwards. The Telekom Foundation is supporting the project with € 1.6 million.

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At the 20th Younger Chemists' Forum in Konstanz, Anne Fuhrmann, a doctoral student at the Department of Chemistry and IRIS Adlershof of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, was awarded the Carl Roth Prize by the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) "in recognition of her innovative contributions developing polymer networks with optically switchable healing properties for smart and sustainable materials." The Carl Roth Prize is annually rewarded to the young scientists in Germany in the area of a sustainable chemistry for "an efficient use of chemical resources for synthesis or an innovative application of chemicals."

Anne Fuhrmann developed her plastic coatings, which can target and heal damage with the help of light, for her doctoral work in the research group of Prof. Stefan Hecht who is an IRIS member. The damaged site repairs itself only where it has previously been heated up and then lit with a special color of light. These promising results were published, for example, in Nature Communications.

IRIS Adlershof cordially congratulates the prize winner.

Everything should be like a real university at the Humboldt-Kinder-Uni, which means real lectures on interesting topics, smart professors, and a large auditorium. Our member, Prof. Dr. Ing. Emil J. W. List-Kratochvil, gave a lecture entitled “Bendable screens - fluorescent fish - red beets” in front of the elementary students on March 15, 2018.

Im Rahmen der ausge­buchten Vor­lesung wurt.At the fully booked lecture, it was found that the glow of fish in the deep sea, the color of leaves, and flexible screens are based on very
similar material concepts. At the end of the lecture, a solar cell was made from beet juice.

The Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin has awarded Prof. Dr. Ingolf V. Hertel an honorary professorship because of his excellent scientific work, his service to the science and technology park in Berlin-Adlershof, as well as his many years of dedication to the MINT teachers’ training.

Professor Hertel is one of Germany’s leading and internationally outstanding representatives in the field of experimental physics for atomic, molecular, and laser physics. In 2009 he was appointed to the Humboldt University’s “Wilhelm and Else Heraeus” senior professorship for further development of teacher education in the physics field. His particular focus is on didactics on the university level for teachers’ education and didactics regarding physics. Prof. Hertel is linked with IRIS Adlershof through the interdisciplinary Humboldt-ProMINT-Kolleg, where he is actively involved and supervises didactic research and development work.

We congratulate Prof. Hertel very much.

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Michael Hintermüller is a new member at IRIS Adlershof. The Professor for Applied Mathematics at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Director of the  Weierstraß-Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics, and Chair of the Einstein Center for Mathematics Berlin is a new member at IRIS Adlershof. His current research interests lie in the area of mathematical modeling, the analysis of the resulting variational problems or operator equations as well as in the development, analysis and numerical implementation of associated solution methods.
 
IRIS Adlershof  is looking very much forward to a fruitful collaboration.

The General Assembly of the  Berlin-Brandenburgischen Verband für Polymerforschung (BVP) has re-elected its Executive Board for further two years. Chairman is Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Deputies are Prof. Rainer Haag (Freie Universität Berlin) and Prof. Dieter Neher (Universität Potsdam), treasurer is Prof. Michael Gradzielski (Technische Universität Berlin), and Managing Director is Prof. Andreas Lendlein (Universität Potsdam).

IRIS Junior Scientist Christian Seifert successfully defended his dissertation Control of the electrical transport through single molecules and graphene. His work was supervised by IRIS director Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe.
Congratulations!
 
 

Lance J. Dixon Professor at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, USA, has been awarded an Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Lance Dixon is a leading researcher in theoretical high-energy physics.  His contributions range from seminal and mathematically profound papers in the early phase of string theory to very practical high precision calculations in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) relevant to collider physics, and to an ever deeper understanding of scattering amplitudes for quantum field theory. He has even tackled the daunting subject of understanding the perturbative structure of field theory approaches to quantum gravity.

The price will allow him to work for a total of one year with scientists at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin to develop new ways to solve quantum field theory nonperturbatively, and to investigate further the elusive theory of quantum gravity. He will be hosted by IRIS Adlershof within the research area "Space-Time-Matter“ (AG Staudacher) and the fields of competence "Mathematical Physics“ (AGs Kreimer, Plefka, Staudacher).

IRIS Adlershof congratulates Mr. Dixon very much and is looking forward to an exciting and fruitful cooperation.
 

The IRIS General Assembly re-elected Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe as the director and Prof. Norbert Koch as his deputy for the second IRIS funding phase (Nov. 01, .2017 - Oct. 31, .2021). Matthias Staudacher, Bridge Professor for Mathematics and Physics, and Emil List-Kratochvil, Bridge Professor for Chemistry and Physics, have been elected as members of the IRIS Council. All elections were unanimous. The elected representative of the IRIS junior scientist Julian Miczajka is also a member of the council.
 

Following an earlier than planned Berlin wide application process, the Senate Department for Culture and Europe together with the Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing held an art competition in August 2017 with 10 invited artists for the newly built research building of the IRIS Adlershof (Integrative Research Institute for the Sciences) at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

The goal of the art competition was to develop independent artistic designs that also corresponded with the scope of the institute’s cutting-edge research work. The artwork was supposed to reflect and contribute to the ongoing discussion with the architecture, urban environment of the Adlershof campus, and the use of the building as a lively place of research and exchange.

The jury, which was chaired by the artist Veronike Hinsberg, unanimously awarded on February 1st, 2018, first prize to the artist group BORGMAN | LENK (Anna Borgman and Candy Lenk). Second prize was awarded to Gunda Förster and Barbara Trautmann and an honorable mention went to Thomas Henninger.

The winning proposal designed by BORGMAN | LENK with the title “Accesses” is an installation of inoperative golden building blocks and elements thus contrasting the working processes and approaches of the institute. The jury therefore honors the artistic idea of contradicting architecture’s functionality. Gold-colored elements like an air lock door, entrance hatch, and elevator display give a new momentum to a “free and searching movement of thoughts.” The proposed design has a dry humor and great sensitivity for the used materials.

We plan to exhibit all the submitted entries of art competition in IRIS Adlershof in due time.

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Dr. Agostino Patella (Theoretical Physics Department, CERN) has accepted the W2-Professorship "Theoretical Particle Physics - Lattice Field Theory" at the Department of Physics of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

IRIS Junior Scientist David Meidinger successfully defended his dissertation Integrability in weakly coupled super Yang‐Mills theory: form factors, on‐shell methods and Q‐operators. His work was supervised by IRIS council member Prof. Matthias Staudacher.
Congratulations!

At an IRIS Roots-Day, which was being held for the first time this year, numerous participants followed with much interest and pleasure the contributions from nine IRIS young scientists who took up the challenge to give a synopsis of their current research work in just five minutes. The jury, who was made up of IRIS members and representatives from IRIS’s young scientists, found it difficult to choose the best ones. In the end, they decided to increase the award money so they could give a second third place.
The first prize, which was coupled with a travel grant so that the awardee could take an active part at a national or international scientific conference, went to Ms. Inna Kviatkovska who came to Dr. Ramelow’s IRIS young scientists a few months ago to do research on infra-red quantum imaging. The second prize was awarded to Yuhang Zhao who is doing a doctorate in Prof. Yan Lu’s group at the HZB. Wadim Wormsbecher, a doctoral student in Prof. Plefka’s group, and Matthias Runge, a master student in Prof. List-Kratochvil’s group, each received third place.
Afterwards, the young and senior scientists as well as the guests could continue discussing their research with bagels, fruitcake, and mulled wine.

Julian Miczajka         Dr. Sven Ramelow    ©: Albert-Einstein-Institut

IRIS Adlershof’s young scientists have elected Julian Miczajka to be their representative and Dr. Sven Ramelow as their substitute representative in IRIS’s committees. The young scientists are therefore being represented in IRIS general meetings as well on IRIS’s board with rights to speak, submit applications, and vote. Julian Miczajka who is a doctoral student in Prof. Jan Plefka’s group is focusing on an exceptional class of higher spin theories in flat spaces, especially on their relationship with hidden symmetries, integrability, and duality. Dr. Sven Ramelow is the head of an independent Emmy-Noether young scientist group “Nonlinear Quantum Optics.” As their first official act, both young scientist representatives will sit in the jury of the IRIS Roots Day and evaluate the pitches of in total nine IRIS young scientists.

IRIS Adlershof  cordially congratulates Mr. Miczajka und Dr. Ramelow and loooks forward to a good cooperation.

The research center MATHEON, in which IRIS Adlershof-member Prof. Jürg Kramer is participating, celebrated its 15th anniversary on 15.11.2017 with a festival of Berlin Mathematics.
IRIS Adlershof congratulates warmly!

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Jürgen P. Rabe, Professor at the Department of Physics of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Director of IRIS Adlershof, has been appointed as new member of the Advisory Committee of the Executive Board of the Einstein Foundation Berlin. We congratulate warmly and wish him success in his new additional function.

Dr. Christian Bogner, Foto: Anne Kathrin Doerr

Christian Bogner was working as a postdoc and principal investigator of a DFG project in the group of Prof. Dirk Kreimer, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof, at the Department of Physics at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Since May 2013 Christian Bogner is a candidate for postdoctoral lecture qualification (Habilitand). He is involved in the field of elementary particle physics at the interface between mathematics and physics. His interest is in new function classes that play an role in the calculation of Feynman integrals. From January 2018, Christian Bogner will be supported by a Einstein Junior Fellowship.

We are delighted that the talented young scientist will remain in Berlin and cordially congratulate!
 

Matters of Activity: Image Space Material
A new Culture of Matter

Unifying Systems in Catalysis (UniSysCat)
Sustainability needs Catalysis Research.

Kannan Balasubramanian (left image), and Caterina Cocchi (center), both new professors at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin since the beginning of the year, and Igor M. Sokolov (right) are new members of IRIS Adlershof.

Kannan Balasubramanians research focuses on nanostructured materials, systems and devices for the development of novel analytical tools in a microscopic environment. In the focus of Catherina Cocchi's research interests is Light-matter interaction with advanced first principles methods, based on density-functional theory (DFT) and its time-dependent extension (TDDFT) as well as of many-body perturbation theory (MBPT). The main interest of Igor Sokolov's research is on statistical physics and the physical chemistry of condensed and soft matter, especially problems in which the discrete, disordered structure and fluctuations play the leading role.

IRIS Adlershof would like to congratulate all new members and is looking very much forward to a fruitful collaboration.

A team led by Prof. Thomas Elsässer, who is a meber of IRIS Adlershof, reported on the mapping of  fluctuating proton transfer motions and provides direct evidence that protons in liquid water are predominantly shared by two water molecules, applying ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy. They could identify the Zundel cation as the predominant species in liquid water. This new picture of proton dynamics is highly relevant for proton transport by the infamous von Grotthuss mechanism, and for proton translocation mechanisms in biological systems.

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The Prize for Good Teaching 2016 of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin was awraded to Professor Jürg Kramer, who is a member of  IRIS Adlershof. The prize has been awarded annually since 2009 for special achievements in teaching.-Mitglied.

We congratulate warmly!!

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At the invitation of the Senator for Urban Development, Katrin Lompscher, and in the presence of the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, and the President of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. Sabine Kunst, and the architect Prof. Hans Nickl of Nickl & Partner, this Thursday, the 13th of July, the topping ceremony of the new research building of. IRIS Adlershof was celebrated.

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The Cluster of Excellence "Image Knowlegde Gestaltung. An Interdisciplinary Laboratory", celebrated its five-year anniversary on 7 July 2017. The Interdisciplinary Laboratory brings together the humanities, the natural sciences and engineering sciences, medicine and – for the first time in basic research – design and architecture, with the objective to strengthen and enrich each discipline through interdisciplinary collaboration. IRIS Adlershof, which is actively involved with four of its members in the interdisciplinary research of the cluster, warmly congratulates.
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Distinguished Professor Rich Spontak from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering of North Carolina State University visits IRIS Adlershof from June 26th through July 27th as a guest professor of the Cluster of Excellence Image Knowledge Gestaltung within the project Experimental Systems. Professor Spontak’s focus areas in research are polymer morphology and phase stability, multifunctional and nanostructured polymers, blends and networks, and the application of microscopy techniques to polymer science and engineering.
 

The Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin reached the rank of 51-60 in the current Times Higher Education (THE) World Reputation Ranking. On a national level, this is the second place behind the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, together with the University of Heidelberg. The strategic international partner of IRIS Adlershof and Profile Partner of HU, Princeton University and the National University of Singapore are ranked number 7 and 24 (# 1 in Asia). In the physical sciences, the Humboldt-Universität has improved to 46th place in the World University Ranking, and in Germany it was ranked 4th.

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The Innovation Network for Advanced Materials (INAM) announces the Advanced Materials Competition (AdMaCom), a two week workshop from September 25 to October 06, 2017 to be held in Berlin. The AdMaCom addresses scientific driven startups with outstanding technologies and business models in the area of advanced materials and related digital services. Startups with applications ranging from lighting and displays to sensors and wearables can apply for participation until July 26, 2017.

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Yan Lu is a new member at IRIS Adlershof. She was previously associated with IRIS as an HZB junior research group leader, and in April 2017 she started a W2-S professorship for "Polymer-based Hybrid Materials" at the Universität Potsdam. Her new position is linked to the management of a working group at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH. There she is researching in the field of colloid chemistry, focusing on the synthesis and characterization of hybrid functional materials.

The School of Analytical Sciences Adlershof (SALSA) at Humboldt-Universität Berlin is announcing a call for postdoc fellowships in selected areas of Analytical Sciences. Research areas of interest include nanoanalytics, x-ray structure analysis, inorganic mass spectrometry, ambient mass spectrometry, plasmon enhanced nanospectroscopy and in situ optical spectroscopies. Candidates should apply with their own project in the research areas named above and take into account the research of the hosting groups. Please apply via email only. Detailed information on the application process and requirements, on project areas defined by the hosting groups and on the conditions of the fellowship can be found here.

On April 18, 2017 Berlin's governing mayor Michael Müller visited the Technologypark Adlershof. The visit was under the motto: "Growth Accelerator Adlershof - How to come from science to business". Among the participants was the founding chairman of IRIS Adlershof, Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe.

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On April 3^rd 2017 the Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF) opened up at the Robert Koch Forum on Wilhelmstrasse in the Berlin district Mitte. Fifty new professorships will be filled in core areas of digital infrastructure, methods, and algorithms as well as in the innovative areas of digital health, digital society, and social sciences and in digital industry and services. Altogether 38.5 million euros will flow into the project. The speaker of ECDF is Prof. Dr. Odej Kao from the Technische Universität Berlin. Johann-Christoph Freytag, professor for computer sciences at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and a member of IRIS Adlershof, is speaker for the area of digital infrastructure, methods, and algorithms.
 
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IRIS Junior Scientist Wan-Ing Lin successfully defended her dissertation Enhanced Raman Scattering of Molecular Monolayers. Her work was supervised by IRIS founding spokesman Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe and Prof. Renato Zenobi (ETH Zürich) in the
     SALSA School of Analytical Sciences Adlershof.
Congratulations!
 

IRIS Junior Scientist Manuel Gensler successfully defended his dissertation Binding forces in metallo-supramolecular coordination compounds. His work was supervised by IRIS founding spokesman Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe in the
     Integriertes Graduiertenkolleg of the CRC 765
     Self-Assembled Soft Matter Nano-Structures at Interfaces:
     New architectures, functions and applications.
Congratulations!
 

IRIS Junior Scientist Tobias Liebig successfully defended his dissertation Optomechanical properties of macromolecules on solid surfaces. His work was supervised by IRIS founding spokesman Prof. Jürgen P. Rabe in the
     International Research Training Group 1524
     Self-Assembled Soft Matter Nano-Structures at Interfaces.
Congratulations!
 

From 22.3.-25.3.2017 Wolfgang Knoll (Austrian Institute of Technology), Franz Aussenegg (Universität Graz and Erwin-Schrödinger Institute) and Emil J.W. List-Kratochvil (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Member of IRIS Adlershof) jointly organize the 7th “Nano and Photonics” meeting in the Castle of Mauterndorf, Austria.

This year’s program was put together with a topical focus on “Sensing applications based on plasmonic nanostructures “. Invited speakers include N. Halas from Rice University, E. Maillart from HORIBA Jobin-Yvon, Paris/FRA), G. Strasser from TU Wien, and many others.

The purpose of this event is to organize an international scientific meeting for those, who are interested in photonic applications of modern nanotechnology. One goal of this event is also to create an informal European wide discussion platform for state of the art work in basic research done at the various universities as well as industrial based research and development. The location, Castle Mauterndorf, provides an ideal environment to discuss the entire range of topics without any pressure of time, in particular between the morning and afternoon sessions as well as in the evening. This year again it is expected to gather 70 participants from 8 different countries.

In the last news, nanotechweb.org (IOP Publishing) features an Nano Letters article by Giovanni Ligorio, Marco Vittorio Nardi, and Norbert Koch, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof:
"Researchers in Germany have used a technique called glancing angle deposition (GLAD) to fabricate non-volatile memory devices that are smaller than 100nm². When integrated into the appropriate architectures, these devices have a memory density of more than 1 GB/cm². They could be used in high-density, high-speed and low-power memories of the future."
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Lithography-Free Miniaturization of Resistive Nonvolatile Memory Devices to the 100 nm Scale by Glancing Angle Deposition
G. Ligorio, M.V. Nardi, N. Koch
Nano Lett., Article published online
 

The paper “Ramsey Interference with Single Photons”^[1] and accompanying Viewpoint “Photon Qubit is Made of Two Colors”^[2] have been selected as one of the Highlights of the Year 2016 by APS Physics. It was co-authored by Dr. Sven Ramelow, who recently started his Emmy-Noether-Group at the Institute for Physics, Humboldt-University Berlin, and is associated with IRIS Adlershof. While there have numerous highly interesting papers in Physical Review Letters in 2016, APS Physics explains their selection, writing: “It’s no surprise that LIGO’s discovery of gravitational waves tops our list of favorite Physics stories in 2016. The other slots went to research that marked a change in perspective, demonstrated an impressive experimental feat, or simply made us think.”
Incidentally, Dr. Sven Ramelow is working on follow-up ideas and experiments of this paper, which he looks forward to soon being implemented at the HU Physics Department and at  IRIS Adlershof and yielding new intriguing results.

^[1] “Ramsey Interference with Single Photons”, Stéphane Clemmen, Alessandro Farsi, Sven Ramelow, Alexander L. Gaeta, Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 223601 (2016)
^[2] Viewpoint: Photon Qubit is Made of Two Colors, Philipp Treutlein, Physics 9, 135 (2016)

A team of German researchers led by chemists of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin has developed a new type of plastic coating, which can heal damages selectively by illumination with light. A heat-induced repair of the material occurs where the damaged area has previously been illuminated with light of a specific color.
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Christoph T. Koch (photo left), professor for structural research and electron microscopy at Humboldt-Universität's physics department and Nicola Pinna, professor for functional materials at the department of chemistry of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin are new members at IRIS Adlershof. Christop Koch's research focuses on the development of new methods in quantitative transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and their application to materials science problems. Nanostructured materials are in the focus of Nicola Pinna's research interests. Special emphasis is laid on the synthesis of novel multifunctional materials, their characterization and the study of their physical properties. IRIS Adlershof would like to congratulate both new members and is looking very much forward to a fruitful collaboration.

 

Dr. Lorenzo Bianchi, former member of the Emmy-Noether Junior Research group of Dr. Valentina Forini in the working group of Prof. Jan Plefka, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof, has been awarded the Carl-Ramsauer-Prize 2016 of the Physikalische Gesellschaft zu Berlin for his outstanding PhD thesis on perturbation theory for string sigma models. This is an active research field to which Bianchi contributed by developing new powerful techniques, allowing for substantial simplifications in perturbative computations. Using these innovative methods several new results in the strong coupling regime of the AdS/CFT correspondence have been obtained. IRIS Adlershof congratulates the laureate.

Dr Claire Glanois has been awrded an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdocs. Starting April 2017 she will join the group of Prof. Kreimer who is a meber of IRIS Adlershof, at Humboldt University. She received her PhD in mathematics in January 2016 from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris) and is currently a postdoc at the MPI Mathematics in Bonn. The number theorist concentrates on periods as they appear in computations in quantum field theory, a central topic in Prof. Kreimer's group.

 

 Within the framework of Science Week, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin is holding the Next Frontier Debate on November 10th. Prof. Dr. Birgitta Whaley (University of California, Berkeley) and the IRIS Adlershof members, Prof. Dr. Oliver Benson and Prof. Dr. Thomas Elsässer, will be speaking in a podium discussion in the Tieranatomisches Theater on state-of-the-art quantum research and different approaches and perspectives for future developments. Prof. Elsässer has also given a few insights into the research area as a whole in the interview.

The BMBF is funding the collaborative research project „Nanofilm – Photonic Nanofilms with Comprehensive Optical Functionality,” which is being coordinated by the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, with just under two million Euros for the next three years. Oliver Benson, a member of IRIS Adlershof, and Prof. Kurt Busch are taking part in the project from the HU Berlin’s side.

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Professor Karen Yeats has been awarded a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers. The fellowship provides funding for highly-qualified scientists and scholars to make extended research visits to Germany. Karen will be spending 3 months in the summer of 2017, and then 12 months in 2018-2019, at the Humboldt University of Berlin, where she will work with Professor Dirk Kreimer, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof, and his research group.

Karen  joined the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization of tne University of Waterloo as an Associate Professor August 1st 2016. She received a B.Math. in Pure Mathematics from the University of Waterloo in 2003, and was the recipient of a Governor General Silver Medal. She completed her Ph.D. in mathematics from Boston University in 2008; her thesis was on Growth Estimates for Dyson-Schwinger Equations. In 2009, she began a professorship in the Department of Mathematics at Simon Fraser University. Karen's research interests are in combinatorics and quantum field theory. The primary objectives of her research are a mathematical understanding of the Dyson-Schwinger quantum equations of motion, and of Feynman integrals. Her work draws upon the interplay between algebraic combinatorics, graph theory, algebraic geometry, and mathematical physics.

 

The Adlershofer special 46 applies to "INAM - An alliance for new materials". In the editorial founding chairman Professor Jürgen P. Rabe explains how IRIS Adlershof strengthens its cooperation to support the transition of basic research findings to final applications.
 

In the current QS World University Ranking, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin is among the best German universities and has advanced to fifth place. In the worldwide ranking list, the HU Berlin has improved itself from 126th to 121th place. The HU ranks in the top 100 in each of these subjects: computer science, mathematics, and physics.

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As their first big internationally visible activity, the Innovation Network for Advanced Materials (INAM) will hold the Advanced Materials Competition (AdMaCom), which is a six-week workshop from August 28th to October 10th, 2016, for developing innovative product concepts with international start-ups. Established (large) companies like OSRAM, LG, Ledvance, and Henkel will provide the technological infrastructure and know-how and/or sponsor money. The 15 participating Berlin and international start-ups will take advantage of this to improve their existing products and create new product concepts.

The participants will be able to draw upon the expertise of mentors from renowned international research facilities and industrial companies like LG Technology Center Europe, BASF Ventures, the London School of Economics, the Imperial College London as well as from Berlin like OSRAM, Direct Photonics Industries, Specs Nano Surface Analytics, Fab Lab Berlin, the Humboldt University’s IRIS Adlershof, Humboldt Innovation, ESMT, WISTA and Berlin Partner. Berlin should be visualized as an international high tech location not only for start-ups but also for innovative departments from large companies.

AdMaCom is being held under the patronage of the governing Mayor of Berlin.

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A team of researchers from IRIS Adlershof of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Technische Universiteit Eindhoven in the Netherlands have developed thin plastic films, which continuously move upon exposure to sunlight. These materials are able to convert the sunlight’s energy directly into motion and have great promise for the development of sun-driven active coatings and surfaces, for example self-cleaning windows. These results have been published in Nature Communications.
 
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Researchers from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, led by Professor Stefan Hecht, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof, in collaboration with the University of Strasbourg & CNRS (France) and the University of Nova Gorica (Slovenia), have shown that a carefully chosen blend of a small photoswitchable molecule and a semiconducting polymer can be used to fabricate high-performance memory devices that can be written and erased by light. Such multilevel (8-bit) optical memories have also been implemented on flexible substrates, paving the way to applications in wearable electronics, E-papers, and smart devices. These results have been published in Nature Nanotechnology.

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The Innovation Network for Advanced Materials based in Berlin opens the application period for ambitious hardware startups, which are focused on the development of innovative and marketable high-tech products! These products can be based on organic and molecular electronics,surface engineering, polymer science,compounds, battery technology, photovoltaics, hybrid materials, fibers, sensors, lighting as well as printedelectronics for all sorts of game changing applications! During a period of 6 weeks, start-ups discuss intensively their unique needs and challenges with professionals and industry experts to establish new business opportunities. Corporate teams, start-ups, researchers and internationally selected mentors work together, receive weekly trainings as well as business and technology guidance to develop innovative products and solutions. The 20 selected start-ups will receive gratis access to a co-working space, labs and materials in order to bring their product and business to the next level. Additionally, we will invite all our international start-ups to stay in sponsored apartments. Confirmed *Partners* so far: Osram, Tesla, Henkel, Embraer *Mentors*: BASF, LG, Direct Photonics, Pilotfish, Columbia University, London School of Economics, Humboldt University, Weitnauer, Embraer, Henkel, Osram, and many more.

Apply at: www.inam.berlin
 

INAM Innovation Network for Advanced Materials founded in Berlin Adlershof

Scientists and business representatives of the Science and Technology Park have come together to form a new network. The INAM Innovation Network for Advanced Materials spans the whole value chain from basic research to product design.   

Next to industrial partners such as Osram GmbH, INAM’s partners include the Integrative Research Institute for the Sciences (IRIS Adlershof), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin), the economic development company Berlin Partner, and WISTA-MANAGEMENT GMBH. Initially planned for three years, the network’s aim is to develop and implement concepts for the use of new materials and technology in electronics, optics, and photonics, which in-clude, for example, new printing technology for cheaper production pro-cesses, transparent and conductive coatings for thin-film solar cells, or new organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) for the car industry.

INAM e.V. was established following an initiative of the Science and Technology Park Berlin Adlershof, where non-university research institutions and innovative companies have created a competence centre for optical analyt-ics and materials science in the vicinity of IRIS Adlershof of HU Berlin. The INAM network does more than to connect science and business and research and development. It also consists of partners who help to make products ready for the market. They range from the Agentur Pilotfish GmbH, a specialist for product design, to Fab Lab Berlin, an open workshop for development, or Humboldt Innovation GmbH and the attorneys of Weitnauer Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaftsgesellschaft, who offer advisory services on patents and technology transfer.

“Interdisciplinary cooperation will create new applications and, lastly, finished products which will increase the competitiveness of the companies in the region,” says Peter A. Frensch, vice-president for research at Humboldt-Universität. This will be facilitated by the existing infrastructure of Berlin Adlershof, which can be used for joint research and development, and com-plemented by entrepreneurship, start-up, and accelerator programmes, joint events, and showcases at conferences and trade fairs. The INAM network has already successfully attracted a new company to the Technology Park Adlershof this year: “The Inuru GmbH start-up has an inno-vative idea: it offers companies unprecedented marketing opportunities by using flat OLEDs to bring light and animation to paper,” Jonas Pauly ex-plains, who is the designated head of INAM. The Certi Foundation from Brazil, which is specialized on high technology, is the network’s first strategic partner from overseas.
 

SALSA, the Graduate School of Analytical Sciences Adlershof at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, is announcing 20 doctoral fellowships to begin between August 1^st and November 1^st, 2016. The program offers a structured, three-year period of multidisciplinary research combined with an integrated curriculum in Analytical Sciences. Deadline ends June 8^th, 2016.

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The Deutsche Zentrum für Lehrerbildung Mathematik (DZLM), which was initiated by the Deutsche Telekom Stiftung, has been very successful as the first federal interstate contact point to go for further education in mathematics since October 2011. The German Telekom Foundation will be supporting the DZLM for another three years with 4.5 million euros by the end of 2019. The director of DZLM, Professor Jürg Kramer (a member of IRIS Adlershof) is very pleased about the further funding and associated recognition of the previous work of the DZLM, in which the Humboldt University played a large part as the coordinating university for the program.
The DZLM has been developing research-based and applied further education programs that are continually being researched and constantly improved in cooperation with the federal states and academic institutions. Kramer projects that they will be more strongly focused on long-term further education programs for teachers who in turn will educate and accompany others as multiplicators. The existing net works and cooperation will be built up with the educational administration. IRIS Adlershof congratulates the successful project applicants and, of course, its member Jürg Kramer heartily.
 

Prof. Dr. Gabriele Travaglini from Queen Mary University London receives the Friedrich-Wilhelm Bessel Prize from the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation. The prize will enable him to spend one year of research at the institute of physics and IRIS Adlershof. The award is 45.000 Euro.
 
Prof. Travaglini is a renowned theoretical physicist exploring the connection between quantum field theory and string theory. He has made substantial contributions to our understanding of scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory and gravity, which quantify the fundamental interactions of elementary particles at the microscopic scale. This core research area of high-energy theory was revolutionized in the past ten years through the development of novel so-called on-shell techniques surpassing the traditional approach due to Feynman. Travaglini has been at the forefront of these developments. During his stay in Berlin, he intends to focus on the study of and search for hidden symmetries in scattering amplitudes and form factors.
 
Professor Travaglini is hosted by Professor Jan Plefka at the Institute of Physics and IRIS Adlershof of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Thomas Elsaesser, Director at the Max-Born-Institute and Member of IRIS Adlershof, receives the Ellis R. Lippincott Award for his “seminal contributions to the understanding of the ultrafast coherent and incoherent vibrational dynamics of hydrogen bonds in liquids and biomolecules”. The prize recognizes his pioneering work elucidating molecular processes and interactions in water, hydrogen bonded dimers, nucleobase pairs, and biomolecules in an aqueous environment such as hydrated DNA and phospholipids. This research is based on methods of nonlinear infrared spectroscopy in the pico- and femtosecond time domain. IRIS Adlershof congratulates the laureate.

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After the federal and state Gemeinsame Wissenschaftskonference (GWK) (Joint Science Conference) decided in June 2013 to finance a research building for IRIS Adlershof’s project, “Hybrid systems for electronics, optoelectronics, and phototonics,” and after completion of comprehensive planning and work and a subsequent call for proposals, construction has now begun on the building site of “Zum Großen Windkanal 6.”

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IRIS Adlershof would like to congratulate Professor Stefan Fredenhagen, who is at the MPI for Gravitational Physics and currently doing a guest professorship in Professor Staudachers research group "Space-Time-Matter", for receiving an offer for a professorship in mathematical physics in the Physics Department at the University of Vienna.

 

Gravitational waves, which were predicted on the basis of Einstein’s Theory of Gravity exactly 100 years ago in the form of ripples in space and time, have been proven for the first time by a LIGO detector in the USA. IRIS Adlershof would like to especially heartily congratulate its cooperation partners in the research field of Space-Time-Matter at MPI for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), who were significantly involved in this once-in-a-century event.

The current Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) Vice President for Research, Prof. Dr. Peter A. Frensch, was re-elected on 9 February 2016, winning 34 votes. The Academic Council thereby confirmed his reappointment, and he will be one of the four President's office  executive staff who report directly to the President, Dr.-Ing. Dr. Sabine Kunst.

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Gleich zwei Überraschungen gab es anlässlich der Verleihung des Dissertationspreises Adlershof 2015 am 9. Februar 2016 auf dem Campus Adlershof. Der Preis ging erstmalig in der 14-jährigen Geschichte der Auszeichnung an zwei Preisträger: Neysha Lobo-Ploch und Jan-Ferenc Kischkat.
Nach der Preisvergabe betrat Jan-Hendrik Olbertz, Präsident der HU, als Überraschungsgast die Bühne, um Hardy R. Schmitz für seine Verdienste für die HU zu ehren. Schmitz war zum Jahreswechsel nach 14 Jahren als Geschäftsführer der Wista in den Ruhestand gegangen.

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After three years of successful cooperation between Tel Aviv University and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin IRIS Adlershof and the IRI for the Life Sciences announce a second joint call for proposals either to start or to continue the research in the field of biological and soft matter physics. Funding is available for bilateral collaborative research projects comprising researchers or research teams from the two participating universities. The main goal of the program is to support the ongoing and stimulate new collaborations between the research groups of the two universities.

Joint project proposals by scientists from TAU and HU may be submitted until January 31^st, 2016. Deadline extended: March 31^st, 2016

Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity provides a theory on space and time that has held up for over a hundred years of experimental testing. It nonetheless contradicts quantum mechanics, which describes small-scale matter and is almost as old and is heavily examined as well. Experiments that bring both theories closer together are particularly interesting for IRIS Adlershof’s intensively studied research area “Space-Time-Matter.” Some current examples are the recent tests that were successfully performed in the KALEXUS and FOKUS projects, which were developed by Adlershof’s researchers in Prof. Achim Peters’ group in the Physics Department at the Humboldt-Universität and at the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut.

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	Sabine Kunst; Foto: Mark Wagner

The Board of Trustees of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) has appointed Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. Sabine Kunst on Jan 19, 2016 as the new president. She is likely to take up her post at the start of the summer semester. Sabine Kunst is currently the Minister of Science, Research and Culture of the state of Brandenburg, and also chairs the Administrative Commission of the German Council of Science and Humanities, Germany's most important science policy advisory body, where she is also the coordinator of the federal state representatives on the Council. The internationally renowned university professor and politician has extensive experience in the fields of science and research and also in the development of academic institutions and structures.

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Professor Johann-Christoph Freytag, Ph.D., a member of IRIS Adlershof, was elected into the executive committee of the Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI) e.V. All GI members were called upon to vote so that three of the five candidates could be elected to the committee. Prof. Freytag will therefore be able to put to good use his many years of experience, including his past 6 years as the Speaker for GI’s Department of Databases and Information Systems (DBIS).

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After three years of successful cooperation between Tel Aviv University and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin IRIS Adlershof and the IRI for the Life Sciences announce a second joint call for proposals either to start or to continue the research in the field of biological and soft matter physics. Funding is available for bilateral collaborative research projects comprising researchers or research teams from the two participating universities. The main goal of the program is to support the ongoing and stimulate new collaborations between the research groups of the two universities.

Joint project proposals by scientists from TAU and HU may be submitted until January 31^st, 2016.

Am 8. Dezember fand zum vierten Mal das jährliche Wissens- und Technologietransfer-Forum „Wissenschaft trifft Wirtschaft“ der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin statt. Die Veranstaltungsreihe dient der Vernetzung zwischen Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft, fördert den Austausch untereinander und ermöglicht die Initiierung gemeinsamer Projekte.
Der stellvertretende Sprecher von IRIS Adlershof und Impulsgeber des neuen Formates der Veranstaltung, Prof. Norbert Koch, sagte: „Um gemeinsame Ansätze in der modernen Materialforschung zu finden, müssen sich die Partner kennenlernen. Dies ist das Ziel am 8. Dezember. Die Wissenschaftler/innen der HU werden ihr Expertisen-Portfolio darstellen und – noch wichtiger – die Unternehmen ihre aktuellen Fragestellungen. Genaues Zuhören, mitunter auch Zwischentöne zu erhaschen, und Aufeinanderzugehen sind hier gefragt.“

Peter Hegemann, professor for experimental biophysics at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and member of UniCat, has been granted, the Berlin Sciencs Prize (Berliner Wissenschaftspreis) 2015. Prof. Hegemann is one of the founders of the research field of optogenetics – a new and innovative method, with which a wide variety of cell types can be "switched" using light once they are equipped with a specific light receptor protein. IRIS Adlershof congratulates the laureate and is sharing his delight about this outstanding award..

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Emil List-Kratochvil, Professor for Hybrid Devices at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, is a new member at IRIS Adlershof. His position is a brigde-professorship of IRIS Adlershof and it is embedded in both the departments of physics and chemistry of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Prof. List-Kratochvil is an leading expert on organic and printed electronics. He is internationally well known for his work on organic devices, as for instance light emitting diodes and hybrid storage elements. IRIS Adlershof would like to congratulate Emil List-Kratochvil and is looking very much forward to his collaboration.


 

Klassische Theoretische Physik und Quantenmechanik ausgezeichnet gelehrt

Thomas Klose, Gewinner des Humboldt-Preis für gute Lehre 2015 Abbildung: Florian Loebbert

„Das Ziel guter Lehre ist für mich, die Studierenden zu motivieren”, sagt Thomas Klose. Dazu sei es wichtig, stets konkrete Anwendungsbeispiele für abstrakte Fragestellungen zu geben. „Lichtstreuung klingt beispielsweise erstmal nicht so spannend. Warum sich jedoch abends der Himmel rot färbt, ist schon interessanter zu wissen.“ Auch die eigene Begeisterung für ein Thema spiele eine große Rolle. „Obwohl ich das Ergebnis schon kenne, muss ich es schaffen, das Interesse meines Publikums zu wecken. Da gehört auch ein bisschen Schauspielerei dazu“, so der Wissenschaftler.

21 Dozenten haben eine Nominierung erhalten. PD Dr. Thomas Klose aus der AG Quantenfeld- und Stringtheorie von IRIS Adlershof-Mitglied Jan Plefka hat die Wahl einstimmig gewonnen. „Damit habe ich überhaupt nicht gerechnet. Das hat mich ehrlich gesagt sehr überrascht. Ich freue mich natürlich über die Auszeichnung!“ 10.000 Euro Preisgeld stehen dem Physiker nun zur Verfügung.

Im aktuellen QS World University Ranking gehört die Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin zu den besten deutschen  Hochschulen. Sie verteidigte ihren sechsten Platz im Vergleich zum Vorjahr. In der weltweiten Rangliste verbesserte sich die HU von Platz 134 auf 126. Im Bereich der Naturwissenschaften liegt die HU weltweit auf Platz 121 und in der Informatik, der Mathematik und der Physik jeweils unter den Top 100.

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Prof. Dr. Emil J. W. List-Kratochvil (TU Graz) has accepted the offer of a W3-Professorship "Hybrid Devices" at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, beginning on October 1, 2015. This professorship is located as a bridging professorship of IRIS Adlershof both at the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Chemistry.

Dr. Simone Raoux (HZB) has accepted the offer of a W3-S-Professorship "Nano Spectroscopy for Design and Optimization of energy-related Materials" at the Department of Physics of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

The professorship is linked to the position of a director of the Institute for Nanospectroscopy at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin GmbH.

 

Welche Hochschule bildet die Studenten für Ihre Bedürfnisse am besten aus? Diese Frage wurden 540 Personalern aus ganz Deutschland gestellt. In den Naturwissenschaften sehen 15,4 % die Humboldt-Universität auf Platz 1. Genau so viele nennen die LMU München. Nur die RWTH Aachen (19,6%) und die TU München (15,9%) werden noch etwas häufiger genannt.

Link zum bundesweiten Hochschulranking 2015 der Wirtschaftswoche

An international team under the direction of Stefan Hecht, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof, and Leonhard Grill from Karl-Franzens-University Graz could develop for the first time molecular chains that have unexpectedly high conductivity in spite of their flexibility. The researchers’ new approach will allow the design of flexible nanowires and therefore enable a detailed insight into the relationship between a chemical structure and its electronic and mechanistic properties. This type of conductible and flexible nanowires will be a key component for future logical circuitry in “molecular electronics” and for flexible electronic everyday objects like “wearable plastic electronics.” This study has appeared in the current issue of the Nature Communications.

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CRC 951 scientists perform cutting-edge research on hybrid systems that unite inorganic semiconductors, metal nanostructures, and conjugated organic materials, with the aim to realize and tailor novel opto-electronic functions. The achievements made during the first funding period (2011-2015) laid the foundations for the next four years of exciting HIOS-research. In the long term, the CRC aims for solid-state opto-electronic devices that exhibit superior performance compared to those based on any of the individual material classes alone. The CRC's coordinator and vice-coordinator, Norbert Koch and Oliver Benson (both members of IRIS Adlershof), are delighted with the success in obtaining continued funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), and they look forward to the joint work of 25 principal investigators from physics and chemistry of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (coordinating university), Technische Universität Berlin, Universität Potsdam, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, and Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.

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Die IRIS-Geschäftsstelle sucht zum frühestmöglichen Zeitpunkt für die Dauer von 24 Monaten eine/n studentische/n Mitarbeiter/in

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Einem von Professor Oliver Benson, Mitglied von IRIS Adlershof, geleitetem internationalen Team aus Forschern der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) und der Universität Kyoto in Japan ist es gelungen, durch Einsatz einer neuartigen strukturierten Nanofaser die Emission von einzelnen  Photonen zu verstärken. Bei dem Experiment konnte nicht nur eine außerordentlich große Anzahl an Photonen erzeugt werden, sondern es gelang auch, deren Wellenlänge genau einzustellen. Über die Faser können diese maßgeschneiderten Lichtteilchen für Anwendungen in den neuen Quantentechnologien direkt verfügbar gemacht werden. Die Forschungsergebnisse sind in der aktuellen Onlineausgabe der Open-Access-Zeitschrift „Scientific Reports“ der Nature Publishing Group erschienen.

Christian Kassung, Professor für Kulturtechniken und Wissensgeschichte im Institut für Kulturwissenschaft der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin vertritt im Sommersemester 2015 die Professur Theorie und Geschichte der Experimentalsysteme des Exzellenzclusters „Bild Wissen Gestaltung. Ein interdisziplinäres Labor" und wird dazu auch am IRIS Adlershof lehren und forschen.

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The Ambassador of the People's Republic of China, Shi Mingde, visited the Science and Technology Park Adlershof, on April 8^th, in the “Year of innovation cooperation between Germany and China”.
At IRIS Adlershof, Founding Chairman Jürgen P. Rabe informed him on the research and development at IRIS on site in Adlershof as well as on cooperations with Chinese partners such as Peking University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Shi Mingde was particular interested in the education of young scientists such as within the Berlin-wide Master Program on "Polymer Science", which has produced many, now internationally succesfull Chinese alumnae.
The dialogue with Ambassador Shi Mingde, as begun here, shall be carried on.

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IRIS Adlershof will host a three-week KOSMOS program from August 15th to September 2nd 2016 on the topic of Integrability for the Holographic Universe. The program will bring together young and experienced researchers with an interest in theoretical physics, mathematics and symbolic programming. It is organised by Prof. Matthias Staudacher, Dr. Alessandro Sfondrini and Prof. Jan Plefka, and funded by Humboldt-Universität though the KOSMOS program and by the Marie Curie Network "Gauge theory as an Integrable system" (GATIS).

SALSA, the Graduate School of Analytical Sciences Adlershof at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, is announcing 10 doctoral fellowships to begin on October 10st, 2015. The program offers a structured, three-year period of multidisciplinary research combined with an integrated curriculum in Analytical Sciences.  

Applications will be accepted upon submission via our online application tool only (www.analytical-sciences.de), which will be accessible from April 15th until May 11th, 2015. Graduate students (master’s degree or equivalent) in chemistry, biology, physics and related disciplines with an interest in Analytical Sciences as well as graduates with a background in natural sciences education are invited to apply. For further information please visit http://www.analytical-sciences.de.

The current "Times Higher Education World Reputation Ranking" ranks Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) at position 41 of the worldwide most prestigious universities. Thereby HU advanced significantly with respect to the past year, when it was ranked in the group 71-80. HU’s Physical Sciences advanced by 31 places to rank 69th.

An international team of researchers led by Stefan Hecht, member of IRIS Adlershof, and Paolo Samori from the Université de Strasbourg (France), in collaboration with scientists from Stanford University (USA) and the Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), demonstrated that high-performance optically switchable field-effect transistors can be developed by blending photochromic molecules with small organic semiconductor molecules. Such optically addressable molecular devices are considered as key elements in future logic circuits. Their study just appeared in the journal Nature Communications.

IRIS Adlershof wishes you
Happy Holidays
and a
Happy New Year 2015!
 

Nature has long inspired scientists with its seemingly unlimited ability to harness solar energy and to utilize it to drive various physiological processes. With the help of man-made molecular photoswitches, we now have the potential to outperform natural systems in many ways, with the ultimate goal of fabricating multifunctional materials that operate at different light wavelengths. An important challenge in developing light-controlled artificial molecular machines lies in attaining a detailed understanding of the photoisomerization-coupled conformational changes that occur in macromolecules and molecular assemblies. A team of chemists and physicists at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, led by David Bléger and Jürgen P. Rabe, member of IRIS Adlershof, have now used force microscopy to provide interesting insights into the behavior of individual photoresponsive molecules and to identify contraction, extension, and crawling events accompanying light-induced isomerization. In particular they have realized a system, in which single macromolecules can “work”, i.e. they were reversibly contracted and stretched on a modified graphite surface by using UV- and blue light, respectively. The paper by C.-L. Lee, T. Liebig, S. Hecht, D. Bléger, and J.P. Rabe was published in the current issue of ACS Nano (DOI: 10.1021/nn505325w), and has been highlighted with a “Perspective” by ACS & ACS Nano (DOI: 10.1021/nn506656r.

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Die Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin und die National University of Singapore (NUS) sind nun Profilpartner: Beide Universitäten werden künftig in Forschung und Lehre eng kooperieren und ihren Angehörigen vielfältige Gelegenheiten zum gemeinsamen Forschen, Lehren und Lernen geben sowie den Austausch auf Verwaltungsebene stärken. Die NUS ist eine der besten Universitäten Asiens und mit der HU durch langjährige und erfolgreiche Forschungskooperationen verbunden. Auch IRIS Adlershof hat enge Beziehungen zur NUS aufgebaut. Sichtbarstes Zeichen hierfür sind zwei gemeinsam ausgerichetete KOSMOS Summer Universities in den Jahren 2011 und 2014, sowie Internships für NUS-Studenten und der Austausch von Masterstudenten, Doktoranden und Postdocs.

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The General Assembly of acatech – the National Academy of Science and Engineering has asked Jürg Kramer, who is a professor for the Department of Mathematics at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and a member of IRIS Adlershof, to join their ranks. Herr Kramer’s research is concerned with arithmetic geometry and the theory of automorphic forms, as well as mathematic didactics. Furthermore, he is heavily involved with popularizing mathematics. He is the president of the German Mathematical Society, a member of Academia Europaea, speaker of the Berlin Mathematical School, the international research training group “Moduli and Automorphic Forms,” as well as the director of the German Center for Mathematics Teacher Education(DZLM). With his appointment as an acatech member, Herr Kramer will be able to draw upon his considerable expertise as a political and social advisor and help acatech’s thematic networks evaluate recommendations. IRIS Adlershof would like to congratulate Herr Kramer and wishes him much success in his future work.

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