GRK 1621:  Itinerant Magnetism and Superconductivity in Intermetallic Compounds

• Subject Area: Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: from 2011 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 129760637

The discovery of the iron pnictides as a new class of high-temperature superconductors early 2008 has triggered a huge worldwide increase of the research activities to improve the understanding of the scope, mechanism and applications of high-temperature superconductivity in general. After the cuprates, these materials show superconductivity at the highest temperatures. Moreover, they constitute the most varied class of unconventional high-temperature superconductors based on intermetallic compounds with complex Fermi surfaces. The study of these systems has raised a number of new fundamental questions regarding metals with multi-band Fermi surfaces. Amoung them are the relevance of local orbital degrees of freedom and Coulomb interactions for the paramagnetic metallic state and for the superconducting and magnetically ordered states. In this research training group, these questions will be examined in an interdisciplinary, cross-linked project. Besides intermetallic compounds, also selected transition-metal oxides will be studied for comparison. The contributing institutions at the Dresden research campus are internationally leading in this research field. A broad spectrum of experimental methods ranging from single-crystal growth and thinfilm preparation over modern methods for structure determination to charge-, orbital, and spin-sensitive spectroscopy methods will be employed. Theoretical studies and modelling will include electronic-structure calculations as well as many-body methods to examine the stability and competition of magnetic and superconducting ground states and to study transport phenomena in these systems. The focused topic of the Research Training Group is reflected by a strong interconnectedness of the individual thesis topics. This fact calls for and promotes an interdisciplinary cooperation of the students from chemistry and physics. By means of several week-long practical tutorial training units in the complementary disciplines, all students will develop a comprehensive overview over the concepts and methods of modern materials science which goes far beyond their own PhD research topic.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität Dresden
• Participating Institution: Leibniz-Institut für Festkörper- und Werkstoffforschung Dresden (IFW) e.V.; Max-Planck-Institut für Chemische Physik fester Stoffe; Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Hans-Henning Klauss
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Bernd Büchner; Professor Dr. Sebastian Diehl; Professor Dr. Thomas Doert; Professor Dr. Dmytro Inosov; Professorin Dr. Anna Isaeva; Professor Dr. Clemens Laubschat; Professor Dr. Andrew Mackenzie; Professor Dr. Roderich Moessner; Professor Dr. Michael Ruck; Dr. Rajib Sarkar; Professor Dr. Carsten Timm; Professor Dr. Liu Hao Tjeng; Dr. Denis Vjalikh; Professor Dr. Matthias Vojta; Professor Dr. Joachim Wosnitza; Dr. Sabine Wurmehl