ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

Constructing designer materials where the atomic geometry, interactions, magnetism and other relevant parameters can be precisely controlled is becoming reality. I will reach this aim by positioning every atom with the tip of a scanning probe microscope, or by using molecular self-assembly to reach the desired structures. I will realize and engineer several novel quantum materials hosting exotic electronic phases: 2D topological insulators in metal-organic frameworks (MOF) and 2D topological superconductors in hybrid molecule-superconductor structures. These classes of materials have not yet been experimentally realized but could enable novel spintronic and quantum computing devices. In addition, we will realize a tuneable platform for quantum simulation in solid-state artificial lattices, which could open a whole new area in this field. I will employ a broad experimental approach to reach the above targets by utilizing molecular self-assembly and scanning probe microscopy -based atom/molecule manipulation. The systems are characterized using low-temperature atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). My group is one of the leading groups in these topics globally. We have initial results on the topics discussed in this proposal and are thus in a unique position to make ground-breaking contributions in realizing designer quantum materials. The artificial designer materials we study are characterized by the engineered electronic response with atomically precise geometries, lattice symmetries and controlled interactions. Such ingredients can result in ultimately controllable materials that have large, robust and quick responses to small stimuli with applications in nanoelectronics, flexible electronics, high-selectivity and high-sensitivity sensors, and optoelectronic components. Longer term, the biggest impact is expected through a profound change in the way we view materials and what can be achieved through designer materials approach.

2 374 922 €

Start date: 2018-09-01, End date: 2023-08-31

The “new Arctic” is attracting global attention for a variety of reasons, including geopolitics, militarisation, resource extraction, wilderness tourism, and calls for environmental protection in the face of rapid climate change. Many of these activities necessitate the construction or upgrading of transport infrastructures in this relatively remote, inaccessible and scarcely-populated part of the world. While these large-scale infrastructures are mostly sponsored by outside interests, they can have profound impacts on local residents. We propose to focus on how residents of the Arctic, both indigenous and non-indigenous, engage with these infrastructures, and to examine the intended and unintended consequences these projects have on their lives. Our challenge is to understand whether existing and planned transport infrastructures will support permanent human habitation and sustainable communities in the Arctic, or whether they will strengthen a trend of substituting permanent residents with “temporaries” like shift workers, tourists and military personnel. In addressing this challenge, we adopt a relational affordance perspective, which will document the material and non-material entanglements of local residents and transport infrastructures in three distinct arctic regions. Our approach combines ethnographic fieldwork with mapping exercises and archival research. Our project team of anthropologists and geographers will use quantitative population data to upscale to the regional level, and regional patterns will be contrasted and compared to reach conclusions on the panarctic level. We will use interactive scenarios to collect input and to develop decision options. Our overarching research question – What is the role of transport infrastructures in sustaining arctic communities? – is of urgent relevance on both theoretical and practical levels, and by addressing it we will contribute locally informed results to critical conversations about arctic futures.

2 499 998 €

Start date: 2021-01-01, End date: 2025-12-31

Non-invasive monitoring of deep-tissue developmental, metabolic and pathogenic processes will advance modern biology. Imaging of live mammals using fluorescent probes is more feasible within the near-infrared (NIR) transparency window (NIRW: 650-900 nm) where hemoglobin and melanin absorbance significantly decreases, and water absorbance is still low. The most red-shifted fluorescent proteins (FPs) of the GFP-like family exhibit fluorescence outside of the NIRW and suffer from low brightness and modest photostability. Natural bacterial phytochrome photoreceptors (BphPs) utilize low molecular weight biliverdin as a chromophore and provide many advantages over other chromophore binding proteins. First, unlike the chromophores of non-bacterial phytochromes, biliverdin is ubiquitous in mammals. This makes BphP applications in mammalian cells, tissues and mammals as easy as conventional GFP-like FPs, without supplying chromophore through an external solution. Second, BphPs exhibit NIR absorbance and fluorescence, which are red-shifted relative to that of any other phytochromes, and lie within the NIRW. This makes BphPs spectrally complementary to GFP-like FPs and available optogenetic tools. Third, independent domain architecture and conformational changes upon biliverdin photoisomerization make BphPs attractive templates to design various photoactivatable probes. Based on the analysis of the photochemistry and structural changes of BphPs we plan to develop three new types of the BphP-based probes. These include bright and spectrally resolvable permanently fluorescent NIRFPs, NIRFPs photoswitchable either irreversibly or repeatedly with non-phototoxic NIR light, and NIR reporters and biosensors. The resulting NIR probes will extend fluorescence imaging methods to deep-tissue in vivo macroscopy including multicolor cell and tissue labeling, cell photoactivation and tracking, detection of enzymatic activities and protein interactions in mammalian tissues and whole animals.

2 496 946 €

Start date: 2014-05-01, End date: 2019-04-30

Matter at the absolute zero in temperature may reach a highly exotic state: Where two distinctly different ground states are separated by a second order phase transition the system is far from being frozen; it is undecided in which state to be and therefore undergoes strong collective quantum fluctuations. Quantum criticality describes these fluctuations and their extension to finite temperature. Quantum critical behaviour has been reported in systems as distinct as high-temperature superconductors, metamagnets, multilayer $^3$He films, or heavy fermion compounds. The latter have emerged as prototypical systems in the past few years. A major puzzle represents the recent discovery of a new energy scale in one such system, that vanishes at the quantum critical point and is in addition to the second-order phase transition scale. Completely new theoretical approaches are called for to describe this situation. In this project we want to explore the nature of this new low-lying energy scale by approaches that go significantly beyond the state-of-the-art: apply multiple extreme conditions in temperature, magnetic field, and pressure, use ultra low temperatures in a nuclear demagnetization cryostat, and perform ultra-low energy spectroscopy, to study carefully selected known and newly discovered heavy fermion compounds. Samples of outstanding quality will be prepared and characterized within the project and, in some cases, be obtained from extrenal collaborators. New approaches in the theoretical description of quantum criticality will accompany the experimental investigations. The results are likely to drastically advance not only the fields of heavy fermion systems and quantum criticality but also the current understanding of phase transitions in general which is of great importance far beyond the borders of condensed matter physics.

2 100 043 €

Start date: 2009-06-01, End date: 2015-05-31