Adsorption of functional molecular structures on nanostructured metal oxide surfaces, thin films grown on a metal substrate, or nanocrystalline assemblies are pivotal for accessing novel functional materials for a wide range of applications, including photovoltaic, sensing, or catalysis.

“Molecular landscaping” is the vision of the multidisciplinary research unit “Functional Molecular Structures on Complex Oxide Surfaces” (funCOS).  Its aim is to understand the adsorption of functional molecular structures on the basis of a surface science approach and, to this end, explore site selective adsorption and formation of molecular assemblies.

The theory area in the funCOS research unit pursues theoretical modeling of these topics based on density-functional theory, ab initio molecular dynamic simulations, and additional high-level electronic structure methods and complements the experimental funCOS projects. Challenges for the theory area lie in the development of atomic-scale models in close collaboration with experiment and their rationalization in terms of a structure-property relationship.

The Collaborative Research Centre-Transregio “Quantum Cooperativity of Light and Matter “ aims to characterize and control cooperativity at the quantum level. In TRR306 the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz, and University of the Saarland along with team from DESY, Hamburg, TU Kaiserslautern, and JKU Linz have joined forces to accomplish a great goal.

Color centers in semiconductors such as silicon carbide (SiC) enable the implementation of solid-state quantum bits and single photon light sources. Exploring coherent coupling among individual color centers in a single device and the achievement of cooperative effects such as spin-spin coupling and superradiance is still challenging. Not only technological complexity has to be controlled, but also competing physical mechanisms have to be unraveled.

In our subproject B3, we investigate promising color centers in SiC as parts of a novel, versatile and monolithic quantum technology platform. We aim for coherent coupling of two, or eventually more centers via optical and/or mechanical resonators.

To reach the final ambitious goal of a monolithic quantum technology platform, the complementary competences of our group and our partners in nanotechnology and SiC physics, as well as photophysics of defects in experiment and theory will be combined.