Strong electron-electron interactions are the source of intriguing phenomena such as novel types of superconductivity next to a Mott transition, multiferroicity or quantum-critical behavior. We will argue that solids, made up of molecular building blocks, are suitable model systems to study correlated electrons under well-controlled conditions. We discuss the Mott metal-insulator transition, a paradigm of strong electron-electron correlations, and the question to what extent the ionic lattice is involved in this transition. We also demonstrate that a T = 0 quantum phase transition can be used for realizing a highly effi cient magnetic cooling.
Michael Lang is Professor for Experimental Physics at the Physics Institute, Goethe-University Frankfurt (M) and spokesperson of the collaborative research centre SFB/TR49 “Condensed Matter systems with Variable Many-Body Interactions” Frankfurt, Kaiserslautern, Mainz. He studied physics at the TU Darmstadt where he received his PhD in 1991. After a postdoctoral stay at the Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Japan, and a habilitation at the TU Darmstadt in 1996, he worked as a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden.
Moderation: Tomoyuki Yamamoto