The Quantum Door Mystery: Electrons That Can’t Find the Exit

New perspectives for the targeted design and use of layered materials in technology and research

22-Oct-2025 - What happens when electrons leave a solid material? This seemingly simple phenomenon has, until now, eluded accurate theoretical description. Now, researchers have found the missing piece of the puzzle. Imagine a frog sitting inside a box. The box has a large opening at a certain height. Can the ...

Hope for revolutionary high-temperature superconductor lives on

Calculations by TU Wien (Vienna) show: Newly discovered material LK-99 indeed has properties that could be advantageous for superconductivity

11-Aug-2023 - LK-99 is the name of the material that is being hotly debated around the world these days: A Korean research group published results at the end of July 2023 suggesting that it could be a superconductor even at room temperature and normal atmospheric pressure. Superconductors known to date retain ...

High-tech lubricant forms by itself when needed

Precisely where friction is high, lubricants are created that ensure lower friction: At the Vienna University of Technology, this was achieved with special 2D materials

20-Jun-2023 - Our bodies have a few things in common with machines: We have moving joints, friction and wear occur, so you need suitable lubricants. The body produces them naturally all by itself - something similar is now possible with machines. By choosing suitable materials, it is possible to achieve that ...

The quantum refrigerator

Computer simulations show how quantum fields could be used to break low-temperature records

30-Jul-2021 - At first glance, heat and cold don't have much to do with quantum physics. A single atom is neither hot nor cold. Temperature can only be defined for objects that consist of many particles. But at TU Wien, in collaboration with Freie Universität Berlin, Nanyang Technological University in ...

Magnetic effect without a magnet

Surprise in solid-state physics: The Hall effect, which normally requires magnetic fields, can also be generated in a completely different way – with extreme strength

23-Feb-2021 - Electric current is deflected by a magnetic field – in conducting materials this leads to the so-called Hall effect. This effect is often used to measure magnetic fields. A surprising discovery has now been made at TU Wien, in collaboration with scientists from the Paul Scherrer Institute ...

Single atoms as catalysts

03-Sep-2019 - Incorporating individual metal atoms into a surface in the right way allows their chemical behavior to be adapted. This makes new, better catalysts possible. They make our cars more environmentally friendly and they are indispensable for the chemical industry: catalysts make certain chemical ...

Quantum Tricks to Unveil the Secrets of Topological Materials

02-Jan-2019 - "Topological materials" are very interesting for technology, but difficult to study. TU Wien (Vienna) and the University of Science and Technology in China are presenting new approaches. Electrons are not just little spheres, bouncing through a material like a rubber ball. The laws of quantum ...

Superradiance: Quantum Effect Detected in Tiny Diamonds

05-Sep-2018 - Under certain conditions, an atom can cause other atoms to emit a flash of light. At TU Wien (Vienna), this quantum effect has now been measured. The effect has been predicted theoretically decades ago - but it is very hard to provide experimental evidence for it: "Superradiance" is the ...

An atom full of atoms

Exotic state of matter

26-Feb-2018 - What is inside an atom, between the nucleus and the electron? Usually there is nothing, but why could there not be other particles too? If the electron orbits the nucleus at a great distance, there is plenty of space in between for other atoms. A "giant atom" can be created, filled with ordinary ...

Quantum Recurrence: Everything Goes Back to the Way it was

26-Feb-2018 - At some point, complex systems return almost exactly to their initial state. For the first time, this recurrence theorem has now been demonstrated with complex quantum many-body systems at TU Wien (Vienna). It is one of the most astonishing results of physics: when a complex system is left alone, ...