Bernard Bolzano Endowment Fund Prize awarded to Michal Vališka

The Bernard Bolzano Endowment Fund Prize was awarded to Michal Vališka on March 12, 2025, for his outstanding contributions in research of unconventional superconductor UTe₂. This recognition follows the publication of key findings in PNAS, Nature Communications, and other high-impact journals, which resulted from a fruitful collaboration between our department and the University of Cambridge. The award was presented by doc. Mirko Rokyta, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics.

Our colleague Daniel Staško defended PhD thesis

On Monday 27th January 2025, our PhD student Daniel Staško successfully defended his doctoral thesis, completing his study cascade at our department and faculty. His research path began in 2017 within the student faculty project and was followed by his bachelor thesis and his master work. In 2020, Daniel, together with his supervisor Milan Klicpera, delved into the study of frustrated pyrochlore oxides. This research culminated in the successful defence of his doctoral thesis "Crystallographic and electronic properties of rare-earth A2B2O7 oxides under extreme conditions".

Breaking Barriers: Magnetic Fields Enhance Superconductivity in UTe₂

Our recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), titled “Superconducting critical temperature elevated by intense magnetic fields,” explores how intense magnetic fields influence superconductivity in unconventional systems, shedding new light on the physics of superconductors.

‹ ›

The Magnetism Group studies physical phenomena originating from the behavior of electrons in matter. Throughout the group, we prepare and study a range of materials ranging from: lanthanoid and uranium-based intermetallics, magnetic-shape-memory Heusler alloys, and frustrated magnetic oxides, to van der Waal and misfit layer materials. Using both our range of preparation and crystal growth facilities, as well as our extensive suite of properties measurements instruments, we are steadily building bridges-of-understanding linking the electronic structure of this wide range of materials to the observed magnetic and electronic properties. We also investigate the tuning of these properties using both high-magnetic fields and high pressures.

## Students wanted!!

Choose one of our topics:

Topological superconductivity in unconventional superconductors.
Magnetism in unconventional superconductors.
Correlated electron systems with unconventional superconductivity.
Topological phases in correlated electron systems.
Quantum criticality in unconventional superconductors.
Non-Fermi liquids in unconventional superconductors.
Exchange interactions in unconventional superconductors.
Phase diagrams of unconventional superconductors.
Superconductivity in the presence of disorder.
Unconventional superconductivity in low dimensional systems.

Actual offer of students' theses:

Upcoming seminars

» Show past

What do we explore?

magnetism
superconductivity
quantum effects
frustrated systems
layered 2D structures including Van der Waals systems and misfit layers

How do we go about it?

Preaparation of unique samples, often as high-quality single crystals
Studies down to extremely low temperatures
The application of strong magnetic fields and external pressures
Hydrogenation as a mechanism to expand metallic lattices
Cooperation with the theoretical group for explanation of the observed effects

What do we offer?

A wide range of sample preparation and crystal growth techniques to prepare interesting new materials
The possibility to measure with a wide range of techniques, as well as under multi-extreme conditions
A young and dynamic scientific team with numerous visiting foreign nationals
Operation with specific instruments in the home laboratory and foreign infrastructures as well (sources of neutron and synchrotron radiation)