Research.
Scanning
Thermal microscopy
We perform local thermometry and local thermal gating on 2 D materials with sub 100nm-lateral resolution using SThM. We want to discover the influence of structural defects, magnetic domain structure or local band-structure variations on the thermoelectric efficiency.
Molecular(Thermo)
electrics
We developed device architectures that allow us to measure the electronic and thermoelectric properties of single molecules simultaneously. We use this to reveal how strong correlations, high-spin ground states or molecular vibrations influence thermoelectric response. We thus try to validate theories about what factors impact most crucially the thermoelectric properties, and indicate the synthetic directions to influence the heat to energy conversion in single molecules.
2D-QuanTum
Materials
We employ (Twisted) 2D materials to engineer designer topological phases or new magnetic structures. To this end we investigate thin films (and heterostructures) of topological materials like topological insulators, Weyl semimetals or Dirac semimetals and 2-dimensional magnets. The goal is to exploit the unique properties of these low-dimensional quantum materials to enable electronic devices with novel functionalities, like next generation spin-caloritronic energy harvesters, electronic components for neuromorphic computing or ultra-fast memory devices.