Professor Andrea Cavalleri has been awarded the European Physical Society’s Europhysics Prize 2024 for his pioneering studies of photo-induced emergent phases of quantum materials. The EPS Europhysics Prize is one Europe’s most prestigious prizes in the field of condensed matter physics and is awarded every one or two years in recognition of recent work by one or more individuals for scientific excellence in condensed matter physics.
Professor Cavalleri’s group has set new frontiers in material research and he has pioneered a whole new class of experiments in which light is used to generate phases of matter that do not occur spontaneously. His achievements include demonstrating light induced high Tc superconductivity in K3C60 and of an ultrafast Meissner effect in cuprates; demonstrating that nonlinear phononic excitations can be used to manipulate ferroic properties of solids; and demonstrating a photo-induced anomalous Hall effect in graphene.
As well as being Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford, Professor Cavalleri is a director at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Germany.
‘I was delighted to receive this award, and I would like to thank the Physics department for enabling me to run after my rainbows on two sides of the channel,’ comments Professor Cavalleri. ‘I can say that working with colleagues in Oxford Physics has been key to this work, which required developing instrumentation in Germany and collaborating locally on the physics. My position at the interface between Atomics and Laser Physics and Condensed Matter Physics has also been ideal for me. Many of the ideas that have led to this award were conceived at Clarendon tea and some of my very best collaborators were Oxford students and postdocs, first as part of an ERC Synergy with Dieter Jaksch and more recently with the Max Planck-Oxford Graduate Training Program, with Paolo Radaelli.’
Professor Ian Shipsey, Head of Department at Oxford’s Department of Physics comments: ‘Enormous congratulations to Andrea. He is indeed a pioneer in his field and this recognition is richly deserved. With his joint affiliation, he is a great example of what can be achieved when two institutions work together – well done!’