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Fyzikální Ústav AV ČR, v. v. i. (FZU; in English: Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences) is a public research institute, oriented on the fundamental and applied research in physics. The founder of the institute is The Czech Academy of Sciences.

The present research programme of the Institute comprises five branches of physics: particle physics, the physics of condensed matter, solid state physics, optics and plasma physics. It also corresponds to the way how the institute is divided into major research divisions.

More about the research activities ...

The 9th Max Perutz prize awarded to Václav Petříček

Tuesday, 30.08.2016, Michal Dušek

The 9th Max Perutz prize has been awarded to Václav Petříček from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences during the opening ceremony of the 30th European Crystallographic Meeting on August 28th, 2016 in Basel (Switzerland). Václav Petříček is recognized for his contribution to practical application of the theory of aperiodic structures in his computing system JANA. The Max Perutz prize is awarded every first and second year, followed by the triennial Ewald prize of the International Union of Crystallography.

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Scientists from the Czech Academy of Sciences explore the nature of the localized deformation

Thursday, 04.08.2016, Pavel Sedmák, Petr Šittner

A team of researchers from the Institute of Physics and Institute of Thermomechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) recently published a study in the Science journal, which for the first time explained the mesomechanics of localized deformation in tensioned wire. Unlike other materials which deform homogenously, when NiTi wire is being stretched inelastic deformation proceeds via propagation of macroscopic transformation fronts separating transformed and untransformed regions.

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A new method of mapping electrostatic field molecules with submolecular resolution

Friday, 27.05.2016

Scientists from the Institute of Physics together with colleagues from Utrecht University developed a new method to image the electrostatic field of molecules at the atomic level. The work, which was published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications [1], advances our current possibilities to image individual molecules on a solid surface using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM).

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New Concept for Digital Data Storage

Monday, 18.01.2016, Tomáš Jungwirth, Vít Novák

International research team demonstrates electrical switching of an antiferromagnet Ferromagnets and antiferromagnets are the two common forms of magnetically ordered materials. Traditionally we thought that magnetism can be easily controlled and utilized only in ferromagnets. Researchers from the Czech Republic, United Kingdom, and Germany change this perception by demonstrating electrical switching of magnetization in an antiferromagnetic microchip.

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Prestigious Czech prize „Česká hlava“ awarded to Vítězslav Jarý

Monday, 07.12.2015

Vítězslav Jarý, Ph.D., the postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, was awarded the prize “Česká hlava” (literal translation “Czech Head”). In particular, Vítězslav Jarý obtained the price of ČEZ group for the excellent PhD thesis in technical sciences.

Recently there has been increasing demand for new materials which can be used for detection of invisible ionizing radiation (X-ray, gamma ray), for example in industry (searching for leakage in materials, looking for new natural resources), medicine (CT, PET scanners), security (security checks at the airport gates), physics (LHC particle accelerator in CERN).

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