The Research School FIT aims to integrate different topics in fundamental physics research and provide a more unified structure and scientific environment for PhD students working in subjects relevant to Future Information Technologies. It brings together PhD supervisors from HZB and universities in the Berlin area who approach these scientific problems from a range of different theoretical and experimental techniques. As a member of the Dahlem Research School (DRS), FIT offers a list of relevant scientific as well as soft skill courses for the students to choose from.

This school aims to perform fundamental research in subject areas of relevance to information technologies (IT). From a societal point of view this is of high importance due to the increasing proportion of total energy consumption used for IT which is predicted to reach 15-20% in Germany by 2020. Reducing energy consumption while improving the speed and capacity of communications applications is therefore a priority. The research in this school takes a long term approach, from the study of new materials, phenomena and methods in condensed matter, to developing an understanding of novel physical processes and how these can be manipulated and assess their potential for applications.

For example quantum computers require qubits that are long-lived and stable against decoherence. Such properties can arise in topological systems where competing and frustrated interactions produce high levels of entropy and where novel particles such as the monopole or skyrmion emerge in the absence of broken symmetries. These states can be protected by their topological properties from decoherence and thus have the possibility of retaining and transporting information. Unlike normal phase transitions, topological states which arise in the absence of a broken local symmetry, have only just started to be explored, nevertheless they promise a wealth of new, exciting and useful properties and deserve considerable experimental and theoretical attention.

Please note: The program website at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin is currently off-line; please contact the program coordinator in case of questions.