Extension building for research into novel materials

Multidisciplinary research fields

The Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics has a supercomputer, a clean room and extensive experimental and theoretical research programs to focus on the exploration of novel materials with useful functionalities.

This Institute was the first of the Max Planck Institutes in the new federal states and was founded in Halle in 1992. It built on the work of the Institute for Solid State Physics and Electron Microscopy of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR.

It is located on the Weinberg Campus of the University of Halle-Wittenberg in the immediate vicinity of other research facilities and a start-up center and currently comprises three experimental departments and one theoretical department.

Research is carried out here in complementary, multidisciplinary research fields such as solid-state physics, materials science, information technology, photonics and neurophysics. The research results are intended to provide the information necessary to create new and improved functional or structural materials and to be used in, for example, sensor technology, optoelectronics and microelectronics. Another goal is the development of new inherent, cognitive components for more energy-efficient data processing. The development of novel computer concepts with cognitive capabilities comparable to those of the human brain and the development of new principles of magnetic data storage round off the research areas.

The Institute currently has three main buildings: A, B and C. Buildings A and C date from the 1960s and 1970s and were last renovated in 1998. The campus was gradually redesigned to accommodate the existing and newly created departments as needed. The extension on the open spaces in the north-east of the site and the area of ​​the adjacent building A, which is to be demolished, forms the core of the measures.

The expansion includes office and laboratory spaces (65.2% NUF 1-6) to supplement the needs of the four departments, the new central scientific facilities and to compensate for the general office space deficit. Moreover, additional clean room space will be built for two departments (12.2% NUF 1-6). The land was leased to the MPG by the state of Saxony-Anhalt through a leasehold agreement with a term until 2099.