The German Research Foundation (DFG) is establishing 14 new priority programmes for 2020. 50 initiatives applied for the six-year funding. At the Technische Universität Dresden, two programme coordinators were awarded the contract for new research priorities. Both Thomas Heine, Professor of Theoretical Chemistry, and Ronald Tetzlaff, Professor of Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering, have convinced the DFG of their topics. Starting in 2020, scientists throughout Germany will be able to submit proposals to participate in the research. The aim of the interdisciplinary priority programmes is to investigate the scientific foundations of particularly current or emerging research areas.

Priority programme "2D Materials – Physics of van der Waals [Hetero]Structures (2DMP)” (Coordinator: Thomas Heine, Professor of Theoretical Chemistry)

2D materials are a relatively young class of materials with great potential. The best known 2D crystal is graphene, which was long considered a "miracle material" after its first presentation in 2004. For their fundamental experiments with graphene, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov from the University of Manchester were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010.

As coordinator of the new DFG priority programme "2D Materials – Physics of van der Waals [Hetero]Structures (2DMP)", Prof. Thomas Heine is thus following in great footsteps. While there are already a number of applications for graphene, e.g. as a component of smartphone displays or for printable electronics, the two-dimensional van der Waals structures have hardly been researched to date.

2D crystals are atomically thin compounds. They are structurally flexible and often have very unusual properties. If different 2D crystals are stacked on top of each other, they are referred to as heterostructures. The interactions between the crystal layers are called van der Waals forces. These are comparatively weak, but have a spectacular effect on the material, for example turning semiconducting individual layers into a metal.

The aim of the DFG priority programme is to understand the effects of van der Waals forces on material properties and to discover new physical phenomena. Potential areas of application can already be identified today, for example in sensor technology or quantum optics.

The research focus is mainly supported by physicists, while coordinator Professor Thomas Heine also expects important contributions from chemistry (material procurement), as well as from electronics and electrical engineering (electronic components).

"Theorists and experimenters will work closely together in this programme. Only in this way can we discover new phenomena and understand the effects. As a theoretical chemist, I am interested in predicting phenomena. It is an incredibly exciting task for me to coordinate the research of about 30 working groups from Germany and thus establish a brand new field internationally," he explains.

The coordination team under Heine's leadership includes Prof. Janina Maultzsch (FAU Erlangen), Prof. Jaroslav Fabian (University of Regensburg), Prof. Christoph Stampfer (RWTH Aachen) and Prof. Ursula Wurstbauer (University of Münster).

Media inquiries:
Prof. Dr. Thomas Heine
Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry
Chair of Theoretical Chemistry
phone: +49 (0) 351 463-37637