2D Materials – Physics of
van der Waals [hetero]structures

Scientific Overview

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are crystals with a thickness of only one or very few atoms. After the discovery of graphene, the most prominent representative of this class of materials, many other 2D crystals have been identified, often with intriguing properties that have no counterparts in three-dimensional solids.

Furthermore, stacking 2D crystals in a well-defined manner can result in new states of matter, even if the individual layers are only weakly bound by van der Waals (vdW) interaction. The most striking example, published in 2018, is the transformation of bilayer graphene into a superconductor if the layers are twisted by a “magic angle” of about 1.1 degree. Such a delicate structure manipulation has become possible thanks to the massive research efforts in graphene-related materials, and opens the door to the investigation of phase transitions imposed by the so-called proximity effect, for example between Mott insulator and unconventional superconducting state, to a 2D ferromagnetic phase, or semiconductor-metal transitions. In addition, vdW heterostructures offer rich optical and optoelectronic properties, such as interlayer excitons and trions. The combination of 2D crystals with different properties, e.g. a 2D superconductor and a 2D topological insulator, may open the door to exotic physical phenomena such as Majorana fermions. The goal of the Priority Programme is to bundle the research efforts and expertise in the German scientific community to address the many open fundamental questions of stacked 2D materials.

Steering Committee

• Prof. Dr. Jaroslav Fabian, University of Regensburg, Theoretical Physics
• Prof. Dr. Janina Maultzsch, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Solid-state Physics
• Prof. Dr. Christoph Stampfer, RWTH Aachen, Solid-state Physics
• Prof. Dr. Ursula Wurstbauer, University of Münster, Solid-state Physics
• Prof. Dr. Thomas Heine (coordinator), TU Dresden, Theoretical Chemistry
• Student representative: Bent van Wingerden, Mikolaj Metelski (deputy)

Contact

SPP office email: dfg-spp2244 (at) tu-dresden.de

SPP mailing list: subscribe here

News

• Funding decision Start-Up Funding (2nd funding period) | published 2025-07-12
• Call for Proposals: Start-Up Funding (2nd funding period) | published 2025-02-12 by 2dmp_spp2244
• Job advertisement: PhD student and Postdoc positions on the topic of 2D materials at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena | published 2025-01-10 by tdmp
• PhD position: Epitaxial growth and nanoscale engineering of 2D easy-plane magnets | published 2024-10-22 by Florian Arnold
• New student representative elected | published 2024-09-03
• more...