Fyzikální ústav Akademie věd ČR

Professor Jan Fischer celebrated his 80th anniversary on April 26th, 2012. He works at the Institute of Physics since 1954 and was for many years head of the Department of High Energy Physics (now Division of Elementary Particle Physics). During the period of 1985-91 he was the head editor of the Czech. Journal of Physics B.

One of the basic features of any material is its ability to conduct an electrical current. Although the electrical conductivity varies with temperature, for most materials the division between metals and insulators is given by their chemical composition and crystallographic structure. There are, however, compounds which can be converted from a metal to an insulator and vice versa by a small variation of external parameters such as pressure or temperature.