About the Institute
The Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) was established in 1925 and has been a mainstay of physics in Hamburg ever since (see “History of the Institute” for more information). The IAP was renamed the Institute for Nanostructure and Solid State Physics (INF) in the summer of 2014, reflecting the new research focus on nanosciences and nanobiophysics as well as the new nanosciences degree program, whose first cohort consisted of 100 students.
Location of the institute
The INF currently comprises 9 active research groups, which are based at 2 sites in Hamburg. The main site is at the DESY campus in Bahrenfeld, in the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL), in the Center for Hybrid Nanostructures (CHyN), and (from summer 2020) the Hamburg Advanced Research Center for Bio-Organic Chemistry (HARBOR). The research group led by Prof. Dr. Roland Wiesendanger is still based at the institute’s original site on Jungiusstraße.
Research areas
The INF has been very successful in the field of solid state research on the nanoscale since the 1990s—as demonstrated by its work within the 2 collaborative research centers (CRC) based at the INF (formerly the IAP), CRC 508 “Quantum Materials—Lateral and Hybrid Structures” and CRC 668 “Magnetism from the Single Atom to the Nanostructure.” The INF also led the research training group RTG 1286 “Functional Metal-Semiconductor Hybrid Systems” (project lead; former Merkt research group) and the Priority Program 1386 “Nanostructured Thermoelectric Materials” (former research group of Prof. Dr. Nielsch) to great success.
The INF is currently involved in 2 CRCs funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG): CRC 986 “Made-to-Measure Multiscale Material Systems—M³” (Dr. Zierold / research groups of Professors Blick and Stierle) at Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) and CRC 925 “Light Induced Dynamics and Control of Correlated Quantum Systems” (research groups of Professors Huse and Wiesendanger).
The INF research groups of Professors Blick, Huse, Koziej, Parak, Pearson (coordinator of Area C), and Wiesendanger are involved in the cluster of excellence Advanced Imaging of Matter, which continues the fruitful work of The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging (CUI).
Together with partners from DESY and the chemistry departments at Universität Hamburg and TUHH, the research group of Prof. Dr. Huse at the INF is involved in the research group Control of the Special Properties of Water in Nanopores, which is funded by the Hamburg state research funding program.
The European Research Council also supports a number of groups at the INF: Advanced Grant—ADMIRE (2018, research group of Prof. Dr. Wiesendanger), Consolidator Grant—LINCHPIN (2018, research group of Prof. Dr. Koziej), Starting Grant—FLUINEMS (2017, Dr. Fernandez / research group of Prof. Dr. Blick).
Further research projects are funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (research group of Professors Huse, Hansen, Koziej, Blick, Rübhausen, and Pearson), the Joachim Herz Foundation (research group of Prof. Dr. Blick), and the EU’s Horizon 2020 FET Open program—OXiNEMS (Dr. Schwarz / research group of Prof. Dr. Wiesendanger).