Research

The Institute E21 at the Physik-Department of Technische Universität München (TUM) covers a wide and rather complete spectrum of scientific activities ranging from solid physics to materials research and applied physics. Presently, most efforts concentrate on the investigation of magnetic and superconducting properties of strongly correlated electron systems under extreme conditions and the investigation of materials properties using non-destructive nuclear techniques.

For sample preparation, E21 operates various laboratories at the Physik-Department for crystal growth and materials characterization to study bulk properties under extreme conditions. In addition, E21 runs four beam lines at the FRM II to investigate the samples with microscopic probes such as neutrons and positrons. In combination with neutron imaging and resonance techniques like SR and -NMR, bulk samples and thin films are investigated over an extremely wide range of length and time scales thus allowing detailed comparisons with theoretical predictions. Strong efforts are undertaken to adapt the neutron und bulk techniques for the investigation of small samples under extreme conditions.

The positron beam line NEPOMUC and the imaging beam line ANTARES at FRM II are mostly used for non-destructive testing in materials science. The large scattering cross section of neutrons with hydrogen allows technically important applications such as the investigation of glued composits, the lubrication of bearings, and even the visualization of biological samples. Both, positrons and neutrons provide a means to non-destructively characterize the microstructure and search for cracks in alloys.

Research at our institute is made possible through the generous financial support of DFG (FOR 960: Quantum phase transitons, TRR80: transregional network, etc.) BMBF, and many other sources like BaCaTeC, DAAD, and NMI3.