SASP Erwin Schrödinger Gold Medal goes to Karl-Heinz Ernst

Abstract

This year's prestigious Erwin Schrödinger Gold Medal was awarded to Professor Karl-Heinz Ernst for his pioneering contributions to fundamental and applied aspects of surface science, stereochemistry, chirality and nanomaterials. The medal was awarded in February at the XXIV Symposium on Atomic, Cluster and Surface Physics (SASP) in Andalo, Italy.

Light-triggered chemistry in a single molecule

Abstract

Controlling the chemical structure of matter at the atomic level with light seemed impossible until now. Now, scientists have developed a technique to control photochemical reactions at the level of individual molecules. An international team of researchers, including Tomáš Neuman from the Institute of Physics at CAS, has published a method for controlling molecular dynamics in Nature Nanotechnology. This breakthrough could open a new chapter in photochemistry research.

Nature Chemistry: Unique Butterfly-shaped Magnetic Graphene Nanoparticle

Abstract

An international team of scientists, led by Czech physicists, has successfully developed a unique magnetic nanographene for the first time. They combined two concepts of magnetism and were the first to detect their magnetic signal using advanced scanning electron microscopy and quantum mechanical calculations. Graphene nanoparticles have the potential to be used for information storage and processing in quantum computing.

Czech scientists continue to push the boundaries of imaging techniques and reveal the mysterious world of molecules

Abstract

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.

Remembering Vladimír Cháb

Abstract

There are pieces of news that are hard to believe. This applies also to the one about the decease of Vláďa Cháb, who was known for his immeasurable vitality and sporting spirit. Unfortunately, his great scientific and sporting heart stopped on the night of March 5, 2023, at the age of 76. When I heard about a month ago that he was not in good health, I did not pay much attention to the news. I believed that there was no illness or obstacle that Vláďa’s spirit could not handle. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

Sigma-hole observation and a new laser micromachining method have dominated the Werner von Siemens Awards

Abstract

One of the winners of the 24th annual Werner von Siemens Awards is the promising researcher Bruno de la Torre from the Institute of Physics and the Palacky University in Olomouc. The Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences is also home to the first place winner in the best dissertation category Petr Hauschwitz and the second place winner Ivana Víšová.

Czech physicists have been able to "move" a quasi-particle soliton

Abstract

Scientists from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in collaboration with their Korean colleagues successfully demonstrated an experiment to create and destroy solitons with non-integer charge. They achieved this by using electrical pulses from the tip of a scanning microscope. The new procedure is an important step in the development of quantum computers based on solitons. The result was published in the Nature Nanotechnology journal.

Czech scientists become first to observe an inhomogeneous electron charge distribution on an atom

Abstract

Until now, observing subatomic structures was beyond the resolution capabilities of direct imaging methods, and this seemed unlikely to change. Czech scientists, however, have presented a method with which they became the first in the world to observe an inhomogeneous electron charge distribution around a halogen atom, thus confirming the existence of a phenomenon that had been theoretically predicted but never directly observed.