News
The AMULET (Advanced MUltiscaLe materials for key Enabling Technologies) project succeeded in the competition of 66 projects submitted to the Top Research call in the OP JAK programme (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, CR). The call is aimed at supporting research with the potential for excellent results applicable in practice.
The theoretical department and the department of nanostructures of KFKL participate in the the project Quantum materials for applications in sustainable technologies (QM4ST). The project was awarded from the Programme Johannes Amos Comenius co-financed by the EU, the main researcher is the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen.
Dávid Hovančík a Ph.D. student at the Department of Condensed matter physics is the leading author of the paper Robust intralayer antiferromagnetism and tricriticality in the van der Waals compound VBr3 selected as Editors' choice in PRB. This study is the result of a large collaboration between experimentalists and theoreticians from the Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Physical Institute of the Czech Academy of Science, Hochfeld-Magnetlabor Dresden, and MGML.
Due to their infinite variability, molecular-based transistors offer an exciting alternative to the silicon technology. In collaboration with a lab in India, our theorists have described the workings of a molecular junction that is almost transparent for the electronic current. We congratulate Štěpán Marek, our Ph.D. student, for his first publication!
The discovery of LK-99, a gray-black compound with the potential to exhibit room-temperature superconductivity, captured the imagination of the scientific community and beyond. LK-99 has ignited a fervent pursuit to understand and validate its unique properties. This article traces the journey of our department as we embarked on a mission to replicate and comprehend the elusive behavior of LK-99. From its origins in a Korean research team's efforts to its controversial claims and replication attempts, we delve into the scientific intrigue surrounding LK-99 and its implications for the world of materials science.
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.
In the week May 29 - June 2 we organized in Uherské Hradiště traditional conference Struktura, Struktura 2023 with a rich program and tutorials. Main program was devoted to the presentations of groups and laboratories in the Czech and Slovak Republics dealing with crystallography and X-ray, neutron and electron structure analysis.
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.
In contrast to silicon-based transistors, single-molecule junctions can be gated by simple mechanical means: by either stretching or pulling the electrodes. The detailed impact of gating on the conductance has to be evaluated by using quantum theory. Our team has paired with an experimental lab to understand what is going on when you stretch a single molecule.
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.
