Prof. Dr. Dmitri Efetov - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prizewinner 2024
Experimental Solid State Physics, LMU Munich
Dmitri Efetov receives the Leibniz Prize 2024 for his pioneering work on the production of large-area homogeneous “magically” entangled graphene, i.e. thin layers of single carbon atoms. When two such graphene layers are mutually rotated, a so-called moiré pattern is created with periodic potential and a newly formed energy-level band structure. At an angle of exactly 1.1 degrees – which has earned the entangled graphene layers the nickname “magic” – new physical phenomena such as superconducting, magnetic and insulating states occur. Based on this work, Efetov has been able to gain fundamental new insights into various quantum effects. Graphene is primarily a model system that can be used to investigate complex effects and will enable them to be understood in the future. These include high-temperature superconductivity: unlike the copper cables currently used, materials made of entangled graphene can conduct electricity without any resistance, so in future they could replace conventional high-voltage cables.
After studying physics at ETH Zurich up until 2007, Dmitri Efetov obtained his doctorate at Columbia University (USA) in 2014. During his subsequent three-year postdoc phase at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he was able to realise the first ever graphene-based single-photon detector. He then spent five years as an assistant professor at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona, where he and his group became the third research team in the world to demonstrate superconductivity in magic-angle graphene. He has been a W3 Professor of Experimental Physics at LMU Munich since 2021. Efetov has received numerous distinctions and was also awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2020.