Overview

The global drive toward quantum technologies and advanced electronic nanodevices is fueling fundamental research into electronic materials with enhanced and tunable functionalities. Many of today’s breakthroughs arise from our growing ability to control the electron’s spin—an intrinsically quantum-mechanical property that underpins magnetism, superconductivity, spintronics, and potential qubit implementations for quantum computing. Achieving electrical control of spin, which is essential for compatibility with conventional electronics, relies on relativistic spin–orbit coupling. This interaction is a central theme in modern condensed-matter physics, giving rise to novel topological phases and unconventional transport phenomena.

Beyond spin, additional internal degrees of freedom are gaining prominence. Pseudospin, linked to atomic orbitals on lattice sites, and valley degrees of freedom, associated with special points in momentum space, can now be selectively manipulated. Together, these capabilities enable electronic phenomena that closely resemble effects known from relativistic physics.

CRC 1277 explores such emergent relativistic effects in condensed matter through a tightly integrated collaboration between theory and experiment. By investigating carefully designed material platforms, the CRC aims to uncover new physical phenomena that both deepen our fundamental understanding of relativistic effects in solids and open pathways toward novel electronic functionalities. Key material systems include graphene, topological insulators, and transition metal dichalcogenides.

Recent research achievements demonstrate the breadth and impact of this approach. These include driving electrons in topological insulators with strong electric fields while tracking their momentum dynamics, combining ultrafast laser pulses with nanoscale spatial resolution to reveal how spin–orbit coupling shapes defect states in two-dimensional materials, and uncovering the superconducting diode effect in Josephson junctions, where supercurrent flows preferentially in one direction.

Building on these advances, CRC 1277 pursues a research program that increasingly bridges fundamental physics and functionality, in line with its guiding theme “From Fundamental Aspects to Electronic Functionality.” A particular focus lies on electronic phenomena enabled by spin–orbit coupling. Current research directions include spin–orbit torque in ferro- and antiferromagnets as a foundation for next-generation memory technologies, spin-based relativistic effects in Josephson-junction arrays and superconducting diodes, and the coupling between spin and supercurrents in quantum dots, with perspectives for applications in quantum computing.

Through these efforts, CRC 1277 continues to advance the understanding of relativistic quantum phenomena in solids while contributing key concepts for future electronic and quantum technologies.