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JOŽEF STEFAN INSTITUTE
Department of Complex Matter
Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Phone: +386 1 477 33 88
Phone: +386 1 477 32 20
Email: complex.matter@ijs.si

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Dynamics of Quantum matter

We explore non-equilibrium many-body dynamics in quantum systems that experience symmetry-breaking, topological, or jamming transitions. These systems encompass superconductors, charge-density wave, and magnetic materials.

Dynamics of Quantum matter

Experimental Soft Matter Physics

The research is conducted within the “Light and Matter” research program. The interaction of light with matter is one of the most important fields of physics and optical processes are indispensable in many branches of modern industry.

Experimental Soft Matter Physics

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Are you searching for an exciting and innovative topic for your seminar, summer work, or perhaps for a Masters or Diploma research? Check available topics an start your research journey with us.

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News

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14th Nonequilibrium Quantum Workshop

December 14 - 18, 2025, Krvavec, Slovenia
The Department of Complex Matter and the Department of Theoretical Physics at the Jožef Stefan Institute will host the 14th Nonequilibrium Quantum Workshop (NQW) from December 14–18, 2025, at Krvavec, ...
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Home / Articles

Articles

Dynamics of proximity-induced magnetism at cobalt/molecular interfaces
Jaka Strohsack, Andrei V. Shumilin, Hui Zhao, Gregor Jecl, Viktor V. Kabaonv, Mattia Benini, Rajib K. Rakshit, Valentin A. Dediu, Matthew D. Rogers, Servet Ozdemir, Oscar Cespedes, Umut Parlak, Mirko Cinchetti, Tomaž Mertelj
Science Advances, 1 Aug 2025, Vol 11, Issue 31 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adw2243

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adw2243

 

Collapse of the standard ferromagnetic domain structure in hybrid Co/Molecule bilayers
Mattia Benini, Andrei Shumilin, Viktor Kabanov, Rajib Kumar Rakshit, Antarjami Sahoo, Anita Halder, Andrea Droghetti, Francesco Cugini, Massimo Solzi, Diego Bisero, Patrizio Graziosi, Alberto Riminucci, Ilaria Bergenti, Manju Singh, Luca Gnoli, Samuele Sanna, Mirko Cinchetti, Tomaz Mertelj, Stefano Sanvito & Valentin Alek Dediu
Nature Communications, 1 July 2025,  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61068-7

 

 

Room-Temperature Multiferroic Liquids: Ferroelectric and Ferromagnetic Order in a Hybrid Nanoparticle–Liquid Crystal System
Hajnalka Nádasi, Peter Medle Rupnik, Melvin Küster, Alexander Jarosik, Rachel Tuffin, Matthias Bremer, Melanie Klasen-Memmer, Darja Lisjak, Nerea Sebastián, Alenka Mertelj, Frank Ludwig, Alexey Eremin

Advanced Materials (2025) DOI: 10.1002/adma.202508406 COBISS: 244049923

Heliconical smectic phases with transversal polar order
Mohamed Alaasar, Marko Prehm, Maria-Gabriela Tamba, Nerea Sebastian, Alexey Eremin, Yuri P. Panarin, Jagdish K. Vij and Carsten Tschierske

J. Mat. Chem. C (2025), 13, 12513-12532 DOI: 10.1039/D5TC01109D COBISS: 241110019

Polarity mapping in liquid crystals using laser-induced heating
Peter Andolšek, Nerea Sebastian, Calum J. Gibb, Jordan Hobbs, Richard J. Mandle, Alenka Mertelj & Natan Osterman

Liquid Crystals (2025), DOI: 10.1080/02678292.2025.2524438 COBISS:  243236099

Calorimetric and optical investigation of the nematic, splay-nematic, and ferroelectric nematic phases of RM734 liquid crystal
Marta Lavrič, Nerea Sebastián, Calum J Gibb, Richard J Mandle, Alenka Mertelj, Nikola Novak & George Cordoyiannis

Liquid Crystals (2025), DOI: 10.1080/02678292.2025.2481076 COBISS: 229822979

Quasi-continuous single-mode tuning of a circularly polarized microcavity laser via the reflection phase
Donghao Yang, Yu Wang, Lotfi Saadaoui, Faheem Hassan, Xinzheng Zhang, Ziyang Qiu, Jingbin Shao, Yiming Zhang, Yigang Li, Irena Drevensek-Olenik, and Jingjun Xu

Optics Express (2025), 33 (5), 12176-12184. DOI: 10.1364/OE.555026 COBISS:  228470275

Optically induced holographic gratings in a ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal activated by an electric field
Faheem Hassan, Yiming Zhang, Ziyang Qiu, Lotfi Saadaoui, Hongyi Chen, Donghao Yang, Yu Wang, Irena Drevensek-Olenik, Yigang Li, Xinzheng Zhang, and Jingjun Xu

Optics Letters (2025), 50 (12), 4038-4041. DOI: 10.1364/OL.564279 COBISS.SI-ID  239157763

Efficient decoration of graphene oxide with a narrow size distribution of noble metal nanoparticles: Green reduction and integration into a thermoelastic composite
D. Vella, D. Vengust, P. Umek, A. Rezaei, M. Jezeršek, A. Mrzel

Synthetic Metals ( 2025): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.synthmet.2025.117894

 

 

 

Stirring the false vacuum via interacting quantized bubbles on a 5,564-qubit quantum annealer
Jaka Vodeb, Jean-Yves Desaules, Andrew Hallam, Andrea Rava, Gregor Humar, Dennis Willsch, Fengping Jin, Madita Willsch, Kristel Michielsen & Zlatko Papić

Nature Physics (2025), https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-024-02765-w

 

 

First-order quantum breakdown of superconductivity in an amorphous superconductor
Thibault Charpentier, David Perconte, Sébastien Léger, Kazi Rafsanjani Amin, Florent Blondelle, Frédéric Gay, Olivier Buisson, Lev Ioffe, Anton Khvalyuk, Igor Poboiko, Mikhail Feigel’man, Nicolas Roch & Benjamin Sacépé

Nature Physics (2025), www.nature.com/articles/s41567-024-02713-8

 

Antiferroelectric Order in Nematic Liquids: Flexoelectricity Versus Electrostatics
Peter Medle Rupnik, Ema Hanžel, Matija Lovšin, Natan Osterman, Calum Jordan Gibb, Richard J. Mandle, Nerea Sebastián, Alenka Mertelj

Advanced Science (2025), 2414818, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cplu.202400480, COBISS:

Facile Synthesis Route for Bulk Production of Complex Fullerene-Like MoS2 Nanostructures With Enhanced Tribological Properties
Aljaž Drnovšek, Damjan Vengust, Patrik Šumandl, Domen Korbar, Aleš Mrzel, Mojca Vilfan

ChemPlusChem (2024), e202400480, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cplu.202400480, COBISS: 214232835

Steepness-fragility insights from the temperature derivative analysis of dielectric data of a highly nonsymmetric liquid crystal dimer
Josep Salud, Nerea Sebastián, María R. de la Fuente, S. Diez-Berart, and David O. López

Phys. Rev. E (2024) 110, 024702, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.110.024702

Spontaneous symmetry breaking in polar fluids
Calum J. Gibb, Jordan Hobbs, Diana I. Nikolova, Thomas Raistrick, Stuart R. Berrow, Alenka Mertelj, Natan Osterman, Nerea Sebastián, Helen F. Gleeson & Richard. J. Mandle

Nature Communications (2024), 15, 5845, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50230-2,

Patterning of 2D second harmonic generation active arrays in ferroelectric nematic fluids
Matija Lovšin, Andrej Petelin, Brecht Berteloot, Natan Osterman, Satoshi Aya, Mingjun Huang, Irena Drevenšek-Olenik, Richard J. Mandle, Kristiaan Neyts, Alenka Mertelj, Nerea Sebastian

Giant (2024), DOI: 10.1016/j.giant.2024.100315, COBISS.SI-ID 201164803

Tunable entangled photon-pair generation in a liquid crystal
Vitaliy Sultanov, Aljaž Kavčič, Emmanouil Kokkinakis, Nerea Sebastián, Maria V. Chekhova & Matjaž Humar

Nature (2024), DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07543-5, COBISS.SI-ID: 10.1038/s41586-024-07543-5.

A molecular perspective on the emergence of long-range polar order from an isotropic fluid
Aitor Erkoreka, Nerea Sebastián, Alenka Mertelj, Josu Martinez-Perdiguero

Journal of Molecular Liquids, vol. 407, 125188 (2024), DOI: 10.1016/j.molliq.2024.125188

Viscous Mechano-Electric Response of Ferroelectric Nematic Liquid
Peter Medle Rupnik, Luka Cmok, Nerea Sebastian and Alenka Mertelj,

Advanced Functional Materials, (2024), 2402554. DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202402554, COBISS.SI-ID:  196804611

Distinctive features of pretransitional behaviour between nematic phases as revealed by DDM
Nerea Sebastián, Luka Cmok, Andrej Petelin, Richard J. Mandle, A. Mertelj

Liquid Crystals, 1–17. (2024) DOI: 10.1080/02678292.2024.2322611 , COBISS.SI-ID: 187903491.

Correlations of scattering properties in human skin with person’s age assessed using a non-invasive technique
Neža Golmajer Zima, Nina Verdel, and Boris Majaron

Biomedical Optics Express (2024), vol. 15, iss. 6, 3817–30, DOI: 10.1364/BOE.523183, COBISS.SI-ID 196204803

A high-efficiency programmable modulator for extreme ultraviolet light with nanometre feature size based on an electronic phase transition
Igor Vaskivskyi, Anze Mraz, Rok Venturini, Gregor Jecl, Yevhenii Vaskivskyi, Riccardo Mincigrucci, Laura Foglia, Dario De Angelis, Jacopo-Stefano Pelli-Cresi, Ettore Paltanin, Danny Fainozzi, Filippo Bencivenga, Claudio Masciovecchio & Dragan Mihailovic

Nature Photonics (2024), DOI: 10.1038/s41566-024-01389-z, COBISS.SI-ID: 186100483

Manipulation of fractionalized charge in the metastable topologically entangled state of a doped Wigner crystal
Anže Mraz, Michele Diego, Andrej Kranjec, Jaka Vodeb, Peter Karpov, Yaroslav Gerasimenko, Jan Ravnik, Yevhenii Vaskivskyi, Rok Venturini, Viktor V. Kabanov, Benjamin Lipovšek, Marko Topič, Igor Vaskivskyi, Dragan Mihailović

Nature communications, vol. 14, article no. 8214 (2023), DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43800-3, COBISS.SI-ID: 179193091

Unconventional photoinduced charge density wave dynamics in 2H-NbSe[sub]2
Rok Venturini, Ankita Sarkar, Petra Šutar, Zvonko Jagličić, Igor Vaskivskyi, Evgeny A. Goreshnik, Dragan Mihailović, Tomaž Mertelj

Physical review. B., vol. 108, iss. 23, [article no.] 235160 (2023), DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.108.235160, COBISS.SI-ID: 178631939