Based on a recommendation of the Wissenschaftsrat, the institute was newly founded on January 1, 1992, and headed by Klaus Ploog until 2006, followed by Henning Riechert until the end of 2019.

Current topics also include the growth and characterization of nanowires, surface acoustic waves for the control of elementary excitations (photons, electrons, spins), phase-change materials and quantum cascade lasers.

The PDI cooperates closely with university and non-university institutions and is involved in many third-party funded projects.

Two application laboratories for electron tomography and time-resolved cathodoluminescence spectroscopy are located at the PDI, making these characterization techniques accessible to external users.

Since July 2021, the current director is Roman Engel-Herbert, who also holds an S professorship at the Department of Physics at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.