Research
Correlated materials show some of the most intriguing phenomena in physics such as exotic magnetism, non-Fermi liquid behavior, or superconductivity with high-transition temperatures. These fascinating and practically useful effects all stem from the fact that the electrons strongly interact with each other via the Coulomb interaction: the state of one electron crucially depends on the state of all the others. Strong correlations are present in a whole range of materials from transition metal oxides and intermetallic compounds such as heavy fermions, cuprate superconductors and iron pnictides and chalcogenides to oxide heterostructures such as LaAlO3/SrTiO3. In these materials, the competition of interactions between charge, spin, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom results in rich equilibrium phase diagrams, and the exploration away from equilibrium has just started.
My group investigates non-equilibrium dynamics of strongly correlated quantum materials and the effects of competing interactions and emergent order on the electronic properties of solids. Our research is often guided by experimental results and strives to understand the impact of strong interactions on the properties of quantum materials with the ultimate goal of contributing to the development of new functional materials.