Claudia Felser Awarded the 2023 EPS Europhysics Prize for Pioneering Scientific Work

Overview

Professor Claudia Felser, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden and Principal Investigator of the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat, has been honored with the 2023 EPS Europhysics Prize. She shares this esteemed recognition with Professor B. Andrei Bernevig from Princeton University, USA. The European Physical Society presented this award to celebrate their “seminal contributions to the classification, prediction, and discovery of novel topological quantum materials.”

Thousands of new topological compounds

Topology is currently one of the hottest topics in solid-state physics. The emphasis lies on materials characterized by their topology, which influences properties such as magnetism and electrical conductivity. Topology refers to a branch of mathematics that deals with universal properties of shapes. Bernevig and Felser are globally recognized as luminaries in this domain and have been collaborating for more than seven years. They developed foundational design principles for topological materials that have led to the prediction of thousands of new topological compounds, including the experimental realization of many of them. Through their research, Bernevig and Felser have demonstrated that topology is an overarching concept and also shown how compounds can be classified – much like the periodic table classifies individual elements.

Fruitful cooperation

The scientific duo worked together closely. Bernevig and his team spearheaded theoretical predictions. Then, together with Felser, they designed potential materials using analytical methods and sophisticated theoretical density-functional techniques. This allowed Felser and her team to grow high-quality single-crystalline materials and gauge their physical properties. Using the design rules developed by Bernevig and Felser, previously unknown quantum materials classes were discovered in insulators and semimetals. Among them are materials exhibiting the quantum spin Hall effect, new Weyl semimetals, and materials with unconventional surface properties. Many of these materials are responsive to external factors like magnetic fields, mechanical stress, pressure or light, and hold promise for futuristic high-tech applications. Research into such materials lays the foundations for advancements in quantum computing, superconductivity, and groundbreaking sensor technologies.

Last but not least, the unique collaboration between Bernevig and Felser led to the discovery that roughly 30 percent of the nearly 200,000 documented inorganic compounds exhibit topological signatures within their electronic wave functions – a significant revelation considering the ubiquitous nature of many of these materials.

Prestigious award

Felser is one of the 25 founding members of the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat – Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter. A solid-state chemist working at the intersection of chemistry and physics, Felser is a highly cited researcher on a global scale. She is an international pioneer in the design and discovery of new inorganic compounds, especially Heusler compounds and other topological quantum materials.

Felser and Bernevig were presented with the €10,000 EPS Europhysics Prize on September 6, 2023, during the 30th General Conference of the EPS Condensed Matter Division held in Milan. Presented every one or two years since 1975 and now in its 40th cycle, this accolade is among Europe’s premier awards celebrating scientific excellence in condensed matter physics. The duo’s contributions had previously been acknowledged with other notable awards, such as the 2019 APS James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials.