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Threading dislocations are among the most stubborn obstacles to integrating III-V semiconductors on silicon. Filter layers help, but a long-standing puzzle has been why thermal annealing reshapes their internal defect network without actually reducing dislocation density. In this scientific highlight, we present work by researchers at PDI and IES Montpellier who filmed individual dislocations in real time inside an electron microscope and identified the growth conditions under which filtering works best.

The Paul-Drude-Institut für Festkörperelektronik (PDI) in Berlin is opening applications for its Artist-in-Residency Program, offering Berlin-based artists a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in cutting-edge materials science research. The call is open until May 30, 2026.

A new study led by PDI's Van Dong Pham opens new pathways for engineering 2D metals at the nanoscale. The work has been published in Physical Review Materials and selected as an Editors' Suggestion, a distinction awarded to a small fraction of published papers that the editors consider particularly significant and of broad interest to the community.

We are delighted to welcome two distinguished scientists to the PDI Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), while also taking this opportunity to express our heartfelt gratitude to four long-serving members who are stepping down after years of invaluable guidance.

Researchers at PDI have demonstrated a way to control the condensation of hybrid light-matter particles in semiconductor microcavities. By using coherent acoustic waves to dynamically reshape the system’s energy landscape, the team steered a macroscopic quantum state into its lowest energy configuration. The results, published in Nature Photonics, open new routes for engineering nonequilibrium quantum states and developing ultrafast, tunable photonic technologies.

PDI researchers are strongly represented at this year’s Spring Meeting of the Condensed Matter Section of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (DPG), taking place 8–13 March at Technische Universität Dresden. Scientists from PDI contributed to 32 presentations, highlighting the institute’s broad research activities in condensed matter physics.

Researchers at PDI, together with collaborators from Leibniz-Institut für Kristallzüchtung (IKZ) and Swansea University, recently published a comprehensive study of the lattice dynamics of rutile germanium dioxide (r-GeO₂) in Advanced Electronic Materials. The work provides an unambiguous experimental and theoretical description of the material’s vibrational properties, an essential step toward its use in next-generation electronic devices.

Today, on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we recognize both the achievements of women in physics and the structural challenges that continue to shape career pathways in our field.

A PDI-led international research team has achieved the first comprehensive experimental characterization of phonon modes in single-domain κ-Ga₂O₃, a promising ultra-wide-bandgap semiconductor for next-generation electronic and optoelectronic devices. The results have been published in Advanced Electronic Materials.

Controlling the fundamental properties of light, such as its angular momentum and helicity, usually relies on static optical elements or complex photonic structures. Two recent studies from the CReA Control of Elementary Excitations by Acoustic Fields demonstrate an alternative approach: using engineered gigahertz acoustic fields to dynamically manipulate optical degrees of freedom in solid-state platforms.