News from magnetic group
On 15/6-18/6, we organized the 14th annual conference Prague Colloquium on f-Electron Systems (PCFES). The participants comprised colleagues interested in the physics of lanthanides and actinides, from many countries around the world, from Canada and Argentina to Japan. Among the diverse topics, the unconventional superconductivity of the compound UTe2, discovered in 2019, and the properties of other uranium tellurides dominated. The extreme resistance to magnetic field and the existence of several separate superconducting phases promises to shed new light on the very principles of superconductivity.
Ross Colman as a head of the Group of magnetism organizes regularly a Garden party. An informal meeting at the Tuchotice yard took place this year for the third time already and promisingly creates a tradition of meetings the members of our group in a friendly and relaxing atmosphere.
A new review paper dealing with interaction of actinides with hydrogen and physical properties of actinide hydrides has been published in a high-impact journal Reports on Progress in Physics. Interaction of actinide metals with hydrogen is important for energy or military applications, as small amounts of H can lead to breaking of "devices". The affinity to hydride formation has also its practical side. Uranium metal is used for storing and releasing tritium at nuclear fusion devices. Our interest is mainly understanding of hydrides of actinide metals and intermetallic compounds as solid-state systems combining the lightest and heaviest elements of Periodic Table. The review covering historical development of the field since 1940's but including latest own research results brings a framework understanding of changes of electronic structure, lattice, and spectroscopic properties due to embedding H atoms to lattice interstitials, yielding a volume expansion and charge transfer between parent metal and H atoms. It brings answers to questions as why the U and Pu hydrides become ferromagnetic. A special section is devoted to high temperature superconductivity of polyhydrides.
Our group used a unique capability of the X-ray magnetic circular dichroism technique to determine the magnetic orbital moment component of Vanadium ions in the layered van der Waals system. We have revealed an exceptionally sizable orbital moment of Vanadium ion resolving the long debate on this issue.
We have organized Czech-Bavarian Mini-school on Large Scale Facilities and Open Data for the second time. The 15 students enjoyed magnetism, crystal growth, beer, collaborations, card games, and unicorns!
The results of Petr Král, Ph.D. student at the Department of Condensed Matter Physics, obtained within the MGML infrastructure were presented at the International Conference on Solid Compounds of Transition Elements 2022 held in Bordeaux, France. Petr was awarded a Best Poster prize for the communication entitled “Pressure effect on R2Cu2In intermetallics”.
