Research at PDI is carried out in interdisciplinary Core Research Areas (CReAs), in which scientists, engineers and technicians from the four departments collaborate for a certain period of time on a common scientific topic. Currently, the institute operates five Core Research Areas, which can be divided into three methodically driven called Nanofabrication, Nanoanalytics, and Nanoelectronics, and three topically driven ones called III-V Nanowires for Optoelectronics, Control of Elementary Excitations by Acoustic Fields, and Intersubband Emitters: GaAs-based Quantum-Cascade Lasers.