News from FZU

The Max Planck Society has announced funding of the second Czech-German Dioscuri Centre at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (FZU). Its future director, Barbora Špačková, will focus on the development of new technologies providing new insights into the biological nano-universe. The centre has received five-year support of up to CZK 35 million and will start to operate in the summer 2024.

FZU has just launched the first call of Physics for Future (P4F) MSCA COFUND Action designed for a new generation of physicists, allowing them to execute their own bottom-up research projects. P4F also offers an opportunity for an integrated blend of advanced scientific, transferable, and soft skill training. 

Scientists from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and Palacký University Olomouc, have once again successfully uncovered the mysteries of the world of molecules and atoms. They have experimentally confirmed the correctness of a decades-old theory that assumed a non-uniform distribution of electron density in aromatic molecules. This phenomenon significantly affects the physicochemical properties of molecules and their interactions. This research expands the possibilities for designing new nanomaterials and is the theme of a paper that has just been published in Nature Communications.

Development of thermoelectric (TE) materials is important, for energy saving via waste heat power generation [1], and IoT power sources [2]. For high TE performance, we must find ways to overcome the traditional tradeoffs between the properties, namely, between Seebeck coefficient S and electrical conductivity s, and between the electrical and thermal conductivity k [3].

Professor Chien-Cheng Kuo and a group of 14 talented students from the National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan recently embarked on an unforgettable journey to the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Their mission was to delve into the world of cutting-edge research and gain invaluable real-world insights.

The HiLASE Centre (FZU) cordially invites you to the scientific-technical symposium ROBUSTA | Robust Laser Automation.

New application area of the HiLASE Centre!

We are happy to announce the winner of the HiLASE Laser Induced Damage Threshold Challenge organised by the HiLASE Centre in cooperation with the Evident company. This year, we have tested laser windows equipped with anti-reflective coatings on both sides. Of all the anonymised samples tested at the HiLASE Centre ISO certified LIDT laboratory, the AR window with a value of 0,6 J/cm2 performed the best. We were proud to hand over the award to the representative of EKSMA Optics on Wednesday 28 June at the Laser Technologies workshop of the Czech Optical Cluster at the Laser World of Photonics, Munich.

We are proud to announce that the team of the HiLASE Centre has just published a paper entitled “Faraday isolator for 100J/10Hz pulsed laser” in the Optics Letters journal. In the article, the authors Ondřej Slezák, David Vojna, Jan Pilař, Martin Divoký, Ondřej Denk, Martin Hanuš, Petr Navrátil, Martin Smrž, Antonio Lucianetti and Tomáš Mocek report on the first-ever demonstration of the optical isolation of a kilowatt average power large aperture high energy pulsed laser! The story behind this article is as follows.

In the quest for a sustainable and decarbonized future, renewable energy sources have emerged as the key pillars of modern energy systems. Solar photovoltaic offers a vision of a world powered by 100% renewable electricity, where access to electricity is universal. It plays a vital role in meeting various energy demands, from communication and transportation to heating and synthetic fuels. Marko Topič's lecture covered several topics related to solar cells and photovoltaics.

Dear colleagues, we would like to invite you to the seminar of Division of Elementary Particle Physics of Institute of Physics, presented by Dr. Radek Žlebčík. For more info, please see invitation.

Our friend and colleague, Miloš Lokajíček, PhD, CSc., long-standing staff member of the Division of Elementary Particle Physics at the Institute of Physics of the CAS, passed away at the age of 70 on Wednesday, June 14th. Miloš was involved in almost all the key experiments in which we participated and contributed significantly to them, especially in the field of acquisition and processing of experimental data.