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Physicist Nicolas Ubrig from the Centre of Excellence POLIMA at the Mads Clausen Institute has received 18.8 million DKK from the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

The grant means that POLIMA can finance PhD and postdoc positions and advanced equipment. With the grant, Nicolas Ubrig now has seven years to explore a new quantum continent, where the old rules for electronics are being rewritten. The goal is to control magnetism in only a few-atom-thick materials.

"I am naturally proud and happy about the large grant, but although it's a personal grant, I see it as something for the whole of POLIMA and the institute. Research is a team sport. I'm pleased to be able to contribute to our shared research environment," says Nicolas Ubrig.

Ubrig’s research group works with 2D materials—ultra-thin crystals that consist only of individual atomic layers, where electric fields, light and interfaces between layers can shape the material’s behaviour. To put this in perspective: A human's hair is approximately 100,000 times thicker than the material he works with.

The goal is to be able to switch on, switch off and transform magnetic states by turning a knob, something that is currently not possible with matter that we know.

This opens up so-called spintronics, where information can be moved without electrical currents—and thus with a markedly lower energy footprint.

Ordinary electronics move information by pushing electrons around. This creates resistance and heat.

Spintronics instead uses electrons' spin – a small magnetic direction that can be "up" or "down". If you can read and change the direction without moving the electron, you can store and process data with less energy loss.

"Spintronics is like electronics, but we use electrons' spin – in principle, without using power to move charges," explains Ubrig.

You can compare it to sending messages by getting people to nod or shake their heads, instead of sending messengers running about the town. And when electrons remain stationary, they consume no power especially if we can realize this with light.

At a time when technology's energy consumption is growing explosively, spintronics could be part of the solution. If we can build computers that run almost without power, we can have more powerful technology without further burdening the planet.

"At some point, one can imagine that we use the technology for calculation with very low energy costs, but maybe we are not even able yet to imagine what type of devices or technology we would be able create," says Ubrig.

However, there won't be a finished gadget tomorrow, the day after or in a year, for that matter - and that's the point. This is fundamental research in its purest form - research where one doesn't know what one will find.

"We're really at the exploratory stage, 20 years ago physicist didn’t believe that the materials we are studying could even possibly exist" emphasises Ubrig. 

"We ask: Is the physical effect even there? Are we allowed to think about the device?"

He compares his work to the great explorers: "The task of a researcher is to find new questions," he says.

"If we've answered all the questions, it becomes rather dull," laughs Ubrig.

If the physics plays along, the results could become the foundation for energy-efficient calculations - from storage units to special quantum simulators that can solve problems classical computers cannot handle: There exist physical systems that are so complex that even the most powerful computers cannot calculate what will happen in them.

"Instead of trying to solve equations, one builds them. One can use our materials to simulate the systems one cannot calculate physically, and then measure the result," explains Ubrig.

The grant runs from 1st January 2026 to 31st December 2032 and will finance PhD and postdoc positions and advanced equipment, including a cryogen-free vector magnet and optical detectors.

POLIMA and SDU co-finance parts of the effort—a signal that the project is strategically important for the university and the field.

The team combines three precision tools:

• Quantum transport (measures how electrons move in nanostructures)

• Magneto-optical spectroscopy (sees magnetism with light)

• Quantum optics (couples light and matter in the quantum regime)

They build bespoke devices with atom-thin layers stacked like LEGO, so the interface between materials becomes a control handle for magnetism.

Another track is "twisted" moiré structures, where two layers are rotated slightly in relation to each other. This creates a repeated pattern—a sort of nano-net—where electrons can be locked in place and begin to interact in new ways.

Here, exotic magnetic phases can arise that today are only glimpsed in theory.