Felix Trier leads the activities on oxide spintronics. During his career, he has made several major discoveries relating to the electronic conduction at confined oxide heterointerfaces. His contributions can be grouped in three different areas:

Demonstration of the quantum Hall effect: His main achievement was the first experimental demonstration of the quantum Hall effect in a SrTiO3-based heterointerface. This discovery was important as it provided experimental proof of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the interface.

Highest electron mobility 2DEGs: he moreover played a key role in the development of 3 of the highest electron mobility 2DEGs ever reported in SrTiO3 with second or third authorships in the associated publications that to-date together have accumulated more than 400 citations. The earliest of these publications impressively still represents the standing world record for electron mobility and holds the Web of Science distinction 'Highly Cited Paper' placing it in the top 1% of its field.

Spin/charge interconversion in SrTiO3-based heterointerfaces: His postdoc research on spin/charge interconversion has led to 4 shared first-author publications in e.g. These authorships represent the majority of the bibliographic record on spin/charge interconversion in SrTiO3-based heterointerfaces and therefore underlines the significance of his contribution to this emerging field.