IWEPNM 2026

Feb 28, 2026, 5:00 PM → Mar 6, 2026, 10:00 AM Europe/Berlin

The 38th International Winterschool on Electronic Properties of Novel Materials (IWEPNM) will take place from February 28 until March 06, 2026 in Kirchberg/Tirol, Austria.

Join us in the heart of the Alps for a high-level, Gordon-style research conference covering the latest physics and chemistry of carbon nanostructures, 2D and organic materials, and topological systems. IWEPNM brings together leading researchers and early-career scientists in a single-track program designed for collaborations and deep scientific exchange.

Morning and evening invited talks highlight most recent cutting-edge results, while afternoons offer flexible mini symposia for informal meetings and time to explore the mountains. IWEPNM is known for its evening poster sessions featuring contributions from all career stages as much as its tradition of streaming talks into the hotel bar, with the all-too-familiar call: “Are there questions from the bar?”

Invited Speakers

J.-H. Ahn (KR)	L. Banszerus (AT)	M. Ben Shalom (IL)
S. Berciaud (FR)	K. Bolotin (DE)	H. Bretscher (DE)
M. Crommie (US)	S. Csonka (HU)	C. Dean (US)
G. Düsberg (DE)	M. Drndic (US)	B. Esser (DE)
I. Grigorieva (UK)	A. Guandalini (IT)	M. Hentschel (DE)
S. Hofmann (UK)	T. Ihn (CH)	L. Ju (US)
Y. Kato (JP)	J. Kono (US)	J.-S. Lauret (FR)
N. Leisgang (DE)	X. Li (US)	X. Marie (FR)
N. Marzari (CH)	F. Mauri (IT)	K. Mustonen (AU)
F. Niroui (US)	J.-M. Park (US)	Y. Ronen (IL)
R. Ribeiro-Palau (FR)	A. Rubio (DE)	B. Schuler (CH)
A. Seiler (CH)	J. Shan (DE)	J. Shiomi (JP)
F. Wang (US)	M. von Delius (DE)	F. von Oppen (DE)
H. Yoo (KR)	J. Zhu (US)

Attendance is limited to 180 participants. All applicants have been informed about their participation. We look forward to seeing you soon!

The Kirchberg Winterschool is organized by the groups of

Stephanie Reich (Freie Universität Berlin, DE),
Sebastian Heeg (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, DE),
Janina Maultzsch (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, DE),
Andreas Hirsch (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, DE), and
Christoph Stampfer (RWTH Aachen University, DE)

Scope

The scope of the winterschool covers experimental and theoretical work in the following fields:

• materials science of graphene, nanographene, and carbon nanotubes
• novel two-dimensional (2D) materials
• optics, electronics, growth, and selection of carbon nanotubes and graphene
• theory of novel materials
• applications of novel materials, including 2D materials for quantum technologies 
• nanostructure spintronics
• topological materials
• plasmonic nanostructures
• single-molecule experiments

Program committee

E. Andrei (US)	S. Ilani (IL)	K. S. Novoselov (SG)
A. Bachtold (ES)	A. Jorio (BR)	E. Obraztsova (RU)
C. Backes (DE)	R. Krupke (DE)	Th. Pichler (AT)
H. M. Cheng (CN)	H. Kuzmany (AT)	M. Prato (IT)
J. Fink (DE)	Y. H. Lee (KR)	S. Reich (DE)
O. Frank (CZ)	Y. Li (CN)	P. Rudolf (NL)
M. Glazov (RU)	F. Libisch (AT)	C. Stampfer (DE)
R. Gorbachev (UK)	X. Ling (US)	M. Strano (US)
I. Grigorieva (UK)	A. Loiseau (FR)	K. Suenaga (JP)
S. Haigh (UK)	A. Luican-Mayer (US)	A. Swan (US)
S. Heeg (DE)	S. Maruyama (JP)	C. Voisin (FR)
T. Heine (DE)	J. Maultzsch (DE)	J. Zaumseil (DE)
T. F. Heinz (US)	F. Mauri (IT)	A. Zettl (US)
A. Hirsch (DE)

 

IWEPNM2026-Abstractbook.pdf

Sun, March 1

1 Bandwidth-tuned Mott transition and superconductivity in twisted WSe2

Moiré materials built on transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductors have emerged as a programmable Hubbard model system. A natural question then arises: can such a system yield high-temperature superconductivity? In this talk, I will discuss the emergence of effectively high-temperature superconductivity near Mott transitions in twisted WSe2 with intermediate interaction strength. Remarkably, the emergent doping-temperature phase diagram resembles that in copper oxide superconductors. I will also discuss the evolution of the phase diagram as a function of gate-tuned displacement field that modifies the electronic band structure. The results could provide a new angle for understanding the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity in strongly correlated materials.

10:00 AM Coffee Break

2 Revealing an unconventional superconducting state in layered PdBi$_2$

I will present our recent results on the layered superconductor β-PdBi$_2$, where tunneling spectroscopy under in-plane magnetic fields reveals a transition from conventional s-wave pairing to a nodal p-wave superconducting state. This sharp transition, marked by a discontinuous change in the tunneling spectra, occurs at a well-defined threshold field and originates from spin polarization and spin–momentum locking induced by locally broken inversion symmetry, which renders p-wave pairing energetically favorable at high fields. Remarkably, signatures of this transition also appear in magnetization, indicating the formation of a novel domain structure consisting of coexisting p-wave superconducting and normal regions. These findings offer a new experimental window into how spin textures, symmetry breaking, and strong spin–orbit coupling can stabilize unconventional superconductivity and generate emergent magnetic responses in layered materials.

3 Chiral Superconductivity and Fractional Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in Graphene

Fractional quantum Hall effect and superconductivity are two famous examples of emergent quantum phenomena driven by electron topology and correlations. They usually happen in very different materials and experimental settings. In this talk, I will discuss how they can be unified in one crystalline material, known as rhombohedral graphene. More than being hosted by the same materials, the settings challenge the conventional understandings of these phenomena: the fractional quantum Hall effect happens at zero magnetic field, while the superconductor behaves as a spin and orbital magnet. I will also discuss the implications of these phenomena in the context of non-Abelian quasiparticles and topological quantum computation.

4 Experimental evidence for nodal superconducting gap in moiré graphene

Understanding the nature of superconductivity in magic-angle graphene remains one of the central challenges in moiré quantum matter. A major difficulty lies in disentangling the multiple energy scales emerging from strong electron correlations, particularly the superconducting gap itself. In this talk, I will present simultaneous tunneling spectroscopy and transport measurements on magic-angle twisted trilayer graphene. This combined approach reveals two coexisting V-shaped tunneling gaps with distinct energy scales: a low-energy superconducting gap that vanishes at the critical temperature and magnetic field, and a higher-energy pseudogap that persists beyond. The superconducting spectra exhibit linear gap-filling with temperature and field and display the Volovik effect- signatures of a nodal pairing symmetry. I will also discuss the latest data on the spontaneous symmetry breaking in the superconducting state. These results point to an unconventional superconducting state and establish an experimental platform for multidimensional studies of tunable correlated systems.

12:00 PM Mini workshops

5:00 PM Dinner at Hotel Sonnalp

5 Raman fingerprint of high-temperature superconductivity in compressed hydrides

The discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in hydrogen-rich compounds under extreme pressures has prompted great excitement, intense research, but also debate over the past decade. In this study, we acquired unprecedented high-quality Raman spectra of hexagonal LaH10 at approximately 145 GPa and low temperatures, in conjunction with electrical transport measurements. Upon cooling, we observe a drop of resistivity and simultaneous remarkable variations of phonon frequencies and linewidths. These effects are interpreted and perfectly reproduced by the Migdal–Eliashberg theory, providing a definitive proof of phonon-mediated superconductivity and enabling a quantitative determination of the superconducting energy gap. Our results establish Raman spectroscopy as a robust, contact-free probe with micrometric resolution for studying high temperature superconductivity, opening a powerful route to its discovery and characterization. We acknowledge financial support from the European Union ERC-SYN MORE-TEM no. 951215 (F.M., L.B., P.B. and G.M.).

Speaker: Francesco Mauri (Università di Roma, la Sapienza)

6 Design and application of conjugated nanohoops displaying antiaromaticity, chirality or redox activity

With their bent π-system and radially oriented p-orbitals, conjugated nanohoops are intriguing compounds, both from the synthetic point of view as well as for electronics applications. In this talk I will present on the design and synthesis of conjugated nanohoops incorporating antiaromatic panels, of chiral and redox-active nanohoops as well as on their optoelectronic properties, supramolecular host-guest studies and application for energy storage in batteries.

7 Nanographenes as single quantum emitters

Nanographenes synthesized by bottom-up chemistry are tunable emitters with promises in optoelectronic and quantum technologies. Recent investigations have classified them as stable and bright single-photon sources [1-4]. The next step towards using nanographenes as quantum emitters is to reach a lifetime-limited linewidth. Inspired by pioneering works on small organic molecules [6], we designed a new guest-host system to decouple the nanographene from its local environment [7]. In addition, we also test hBN as a substrate for Nanographenes. This presentation will showcase our recent results on the low-temperature spectroscopy of new nanographenes [5], either embedded in a novel molecular crystal host [7] or deposited on hBN [8].

References
[1] Levy-Falk, Hugo, et al. physica status solidi (b) (2023).
[2] S. Zhao et al, Nature Communications, 9, 3470 (2018)
[3] T. Liu et al, Nanoscale, 14, 3826 – 3833 (2022)
[4] T. Liu et al, Journal of Chemical Physics 156, 104302 (2022)
[5] D. Medina-Lopez et al, Nature Communications 14, 4728 (2023)
[6] WP. Ambrose et al J. Chem. Phys. 95 (10), 7150–7163 (1991)
[7] Huynh Thanh Trung et al, in preparation
[8] S. Sarkar et al, in preparation

Poster I

Tue, March 3

Tuesday morning 1

Tuesday morning 2

Tuesday Posters

Wed, March 4

Wednesday posters

Thu, March 5

Thursday posters