• •  Prof. Krystyna Jabłońska - Conference „Energy, Materials Nanotechnology”, May 4 - 7, 2016, Dubrovnik, Croatia


The EMN Meetings grew out of a small workshop series that began in 2008 in Orlando, Florida. Over the next three years, six additional successful workshops were organized on various focus topics in materials science. In 2012 the first Conference with a broader theme of Energy, Materials and Nanotechnology was held. The last events from these series was organized at Phuket, Thailand in 2015.  To continue success of this meeting the EMN Meeting in 2016 was organized in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The main aim of the conference was to be a unique platform for leading scientists, researchers, scholars and engineers from academia, R&D laboratories and industry around the world to exchange, share and learn the most recent advancement on various aspects related to nanotechnology, and energy-related materials and technologies.
The meeting was few days of intense collaboration enhanced by the several social occasions to enjoy the company of fellow researchers in the field. During the dedicated to the “Polymers from Renewable Resources” session chaired by Prof. Igor Zutic from Buffalo University, USA, Prof. Jablonska has presented the invited talk “Characterisation and application of iron-chitosan complexes” which was well received. In her talk the unique methods to find the location and atomic order around the Fe ions as well as the chemical bond was presented. The participation of Krystyna Jablonska in the „Energy, Materials Nanotechnology” meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia promoted the EAgLE at this international forum and showed the scientific achievements of IF PAN.




  • •  Prof. Roman Puźniak - 5th International Conference on Superconductivity and Magnetism, April 23 - May 1, 2016, Fethiye, Turkey

The conference was organized in a form of many parallel sessions on the diverse subjects, all related to superconductivity and magnetism in various materials; there were of about 700 participants from around the world. On fourth day of the conference, in a session entitled “Bulk Superconductors”, Prof. Puźniak presented a talk “Anisotropy and phase separation in bulk high-Tc superconductors”. In the talk he described recent research on this subject, conducted at the Institute of Physics PAS. Earlier on the same day Prof. Puźniak was a chair of a first part of the session. During the remaining days he was able to participate in various other sessions; in particular, he discussed a result of scientific collaboration between: Solid State Physics Laboratory, ETH Zurich, CH-8093, Switzerland, Physik-Institut der Universitat Zurich, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland, Institute of Condensed Matter Physics EPF Lausanne, Switzerland, Institute of Low Temperature and Structure Research, PAS, PL-50-950 Wroclaw, Poland, Institute of Physics, PAS, PL-02-668 Warsaw, Poland, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, USA. Prof. Puźniak met many scientists from all over the world working in the area of superconductivity, and he could discuss various aspects of his experimental results. Several of these meetings most likely will result in a future collaboration with foreign research groups.




  • •  Dr. hab. Ewa Jędryka and Dr. hab. Marek Wójcik - Advances in Magnetics (AIM 2016), March 13 -1 7, 2016, Bormio, Italy

AIM’2016 was a conference organized by the Italy section of IEEE society. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a professional association aiming at the educational and technical advancement of electrical and electronic engineering, telecommunications, computer engineering and allied disciplines. The conference provided a forum for presentation and discussion of the most recent advancements in all the fields of Magnetics: theory, numerical modeling, experiments and applications. The event was open to experts and scientists with different backgrounds (engineers, physicists, mathematicians, material scientists, chemists, biologists, etc) to present, discuss, exchange ideas, methods and results. The main topics of AIM’2016 were: Fundamental properties, Modeling and numerical computation, Motors, generators, transformers and other power devices, Electromagnetic compatibility, Magnetic levitation and propulsion, Sensors, Measurements techniques and instrumentation, Materials, Nondestructive evaluation, Magnetic recording, Micro- and nano-structures, Spin electronics, Bio- and chemical magnetism. The 3-day event included invited and contributed talks, organized in different sessions, as well as different thematic Symposia, each coordinated by an appointed chair.

Dr hab. Jędryka has deliver oral presentation of the paper “Electron Doping and Atomic Short-Range Order in quaternary
Co2Mn1-xFexSi Heusler Alloys Probed by  59Co NMR
”.
Dr hab. Wójcik has oral presentation entitled: “NMR as a Probe of Hole Trapping Defects in Epitaxial Thin Films of LSMO”.

The Conference opened the possibility to discuss the most recent development in the field of magnetism and make contacts which may lead to the joint proposals in Horizon 2020.




  • •  Prof. Marek Godlewski - XXI Ural International Winter School on the Physics of Semiconductors, February 15 - 20, 2016, Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation

During the conference Prof. Godlewski presented plenary talk entitled: “Photovoltaics – new concepts”. He was also co-worker of two invited talks, in which further scientific achievements of the Institute of Physics Polish Academy of Sciences were promoted in the field of solar cells and nanotechnology. Prof. Godlewski was also member of the International Program Committee of this conference. The Conference gave good opportunity to promote research done in the Institute of Physics Polish Academy of Sciences and to search for new possible scientific partners.




  • •  Dr. hab. Marek Wójcik - 13th Joint Magnetism Magnetic Materials and Intermag 2016 Conference, January 11 - 15 2016, San Diego, USA

The 13th Joint MMM- Intermag Conference has been sponsored jointly by AIP Publishing and Magnetics Society of the IEEE in cooperation with the American Physical Society. The conference gathers members of the international scientific and engineering communities interested in recent development in fundamental and applied magnetism. In terms of the number of presentations 2016 year conference was one of the largest Joint Conference in its history, with over 1850 oral and poster presentations. This has been also a very special year for the Conference, as the 60th Anniversary of the Magnetism and Magnetic Materials Conference (MMM) has been celebrated.

The Conference was preceded by Special Conference Sessions:(a) “Latest Fabrication Technologies for Magnetic Devices and Magnets” with four speakers, (b) “Magnetic Technologies for the Future” with three speakers. The Plenary Session consisted of the talk: “Magnetic Solutions for Diagnostics and Therapeutics” delivered by Prof. Ali Hajimiri (California Institute of Technology) and included also awards and recognitions: Professor Josep Fontcuberta from ICMAB Barcelona, the twining partner of the Institute of Physics in frames of the TASK WP2.12 of the EAgLE project, has been nominated for very prestigious position - the IEEE Magnetics Society 2016 Distinguished Lectures position.

During the Conference a broad scope of basic and applied magnetism has been represented but it should be stressed that the sessions devoted to research in field of Heusler compounds as well as electrical control of magnetic materials have been abundantly represented. Oral presentation titled: “Overlayer-induced reconstruction of Mn orbitals in manganite thin films studied by 55Mn NMR” reporting the joint results obtained in collaboration with Prof. Joseph Fontcuberta group from ICMAB, Barcelona have been delivered by Dr. Wójcik during a session devoted to “Ultrathin Films and Surfaces Effects”. The subject of the presentation concerns the problem of deterioration of magnetic and conducting properties of optimally doped manganite La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 (LSMO) being in contact with another oxide of perovskite structure. In this project 55Mn NMR experiment was used as a probe of charge distribution and of Mn spin state in LSMO ultra-thin films and the obtained results have been outlined in the abstract included to this report. The presentation has been well-received by the audience and several questions has been put forward. The results are being prepared for a publication as a joint paper with the ICMAB group.




  • •  Prof. Leszek Sirko - Symposium "Quantum Chaos, Billiards, RMT and more", Cuernavaca, Mexico, August 29 - September 6, 2015

The symposium "Quantum Chaos, Billiards, RMT and more" was organized in honor of Hans-Jürgen Stöckmann on his 70th birthday. Prof. Hans-Jürgen Stöckmann is a world class specialist in the field of nonlinear low dimensional systems. The symposium took place at the "Centro Internacional de Ciencias" (CiC) in Cuernavaca, Mexico. The investigation of properties of low dimensional systems is extremely important because it sets the bases for further development of nanotechnologies and advanced materials. The invited lectures and talks were delivered by the speakers and participants from the world leading academia institutions from Europe, Mexico and USA (e.g., Harvard University) on a variety of topics:

• Industrial nanotechnology and advanced materials supporting European re-industrialisation
•  Trends and innovation demands on nanotechnology and advanced materials
• Infrastructures and framework conditions for rapid deployment of nanotechnologies and advanced materials Winning the competition: success stories and lessons learned
• Nanotechnology in industrial applications
• Advances in enabling nanotechnologies, nanomaterials and nanomanufacturing
• Collaborations and policies for accelerating innovation and uptake of nanotechnology based solutions.

Prof. Sirko gave a lecture entitled: “The enhancement factor in a transient region between regular and chaotic dynamics”.

The conference offered numerous opportunities to get latest updates from the nanotechnologies and advanced materials community, see cutting-edge technologies and meet the representatives of innovative companies, research groups, academic institutions and key stakeholders of numerous European technology clusters and platforms.




  • •  Dr. Adam J. Zakrzewski - 13 Conference on Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics (ICNAAM 2015) Rhodes (Greece), September 23 - 29, 2015

The aim of this conference was to bring together leading scientists of the international numerical and applied mathematics community and to attract original research papers of a very high quality. The topics covered many areas of numerical analysis, computational and industrial mathematics. The lectures were given either during highly specialized sessions focused on particular problems or during general session focused on more general topics. Many interesting presentations reported on recent progress in heat transfer and fluid flow in porous media, gas and fluid dynamics, optimization algorithms for discrete problems, mathematical models and numerical methods in life sciences, application of finite element methods and finite difference schemes for solving various technical problems (like biological nerve conduction, diffusion-reaction equations or time dependent Joule heating equation), methods of nonlinear mathematical physics or even more “exotic” subjects like implementations and tools of computer languages. During the general session Dr. Adam J. Zakrzewski gave a lecture entitled: “Multiple precision arithmetic in scientific calculations”. During this lecture highly precise methods for solving one dimensional Schrödinger equation with an arbitrary potential were discussed.




  • •  Prof. Elżbieta Guziewicz - 17th International Conference on II-VI Compounds and Related Materials, September 13 - 18, 2015, Paris, France

The 17th International Conference on II-VI Compounds continues a successful series of biennial conferences which started in Durham (UK) in 1983. Recent conferences were held in Niagara Falls, USA, 2003; Warsaw, Poland, 2005; Jeju, Korea, 2007, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2009, Mayan, Mexico, 2011 and Nagahama, Japan, 2013. In 2015, the II-VI Conference was held in Paris starting from September 13th to 18th. It was organized by the Institut des NanoScience and the Groupe d'Etude de la Matière Condensée.

The Conference covered all the aspects of basic and applied research, unique physical and material properties of II-VI compounds, related materials and nanostructures. A particular attention has been given to new trends and pioneering directions, as well as to new materials and devices. The topics covered novel synthesis techniques, new physical properties and innovative device development. Oral presentation of prof. Guziewicz entitled "Hydrogen contamination in ZnO films grown at low temperature" addressed the problem of hydrogen contamination and related n-type doping of zinc oxide. In the summary of the conference this topic (ZnO doping & devices and material engineering) have been listed among the topics of growing interests of the scientific community. In addition, vendors exhibited the latest equipment available for material growth and characterisation.

The II-VI conference provided an international forum for scientists, students and industry representatives, for reporting new developments in basic and applied research on II-VI and related compounds such as oxides, tellurides, selenides and other II-VI semiconductors, providing many opportunities for discussions between attendees and vendors during coffee breaks and poster presentations and meet the representatives of research groups and academic institutions all over the world.




  • •  Dr. Marek Fołtyn - ESONN 2015 Summer School, August 26 - September 12, 2015, Grenoble, France

The main aim of this three-weeks course was getting familiar with nanotechnology state-of-the-art, participate in practicals on magnetic properties measurements, transistor fabrication and characterization (MOSFET and Nanowires FET), GaN devices fabrication and Atomic Force Microscopy defects and magnetic domain imaging. Given lectures were focused on transport properties measurement techniques (mesoscopic transport, single electronics, molecular electronics), spintronics and fabrication of nano-materials.

Practicals were one-day laboratories on subject selected by the participant before the course. Two of them were focused on magnetic properties characterization by SQUID magnetometry, Kerr-microscopy, Ferromagnetic resonance, Magnetoresistance measurements in Van der Pauw configuration and others. Next two practicals concerned MOSFET technology (transistors modelling with ATLAS and ATHENA software as well as MOSFET characterization). The other practicals were focused on AFM and STM selected materials characterization. The final one was about Magnetic Tunnel Junctions, which under applied DC voltage emits microwave signals.

During the School dr. Fołtyn presented poster „Manipulation of carrier concentration in GaN:Si-based metal-oxide-semiconductor structures” and discussed recent results in this field obtained at the Institute Of Physics.

The ESONN 2015 Summer School gave dr. Fołtyn opportunities to be introduced with many useful experimental techniques which are being used or might be implemented in laboratories at the Institute of Physics.




  • •  Prof. Krystyna Jabłońska - 16th International Conference on X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS16), August 23 - 28, 2015, Karlsruhe, Germany


The participation of Prof. Jablonska in this most important for the XAFS community event allowed to promote the EAgLE project at this international forum and show the scientific achievements of IF PAN. The 16th International Conference on X-ray Absorption Fine Structure was organized in the International Year of Light and Light based technologies. This event was the most important meeting for the community exploiting the x-ray absorption in their research.
The series of XAFS conferences are dedicated to information exchange and discussion on current research using X-ray Absorption Fine Structure spectroscopy and related methods. The utilization of various x-ray techniques in material characterisation is becoming increasing important in science and technology development leading to innovation and commercialization efforts for industry and was highlighted in special Industrial Symposium which took place on 27 August with 10 oral presentations. On the Monday 24 of August Prof. Jablonska was chairing the session “Nano-analysis and application“ where 5 oral presentations were given by young scientists. Her keynote invited lecture “Structural and magnetic properties of nanoclusters formed in III-V semiconductors” was given on Wednesday 26 of August in the session “Nanotechnology and Magnetism”. Additionally she presented poster “Estimation of the catalytic centre in double metal cyanide catalysts by XAS” at the Poster Session I, on Monday 24 of August. All together at the conference more than 550 contributions (235 oral and 324 posters) were presented. The Polish community was represented by scientists from several scientific institutions (see photo). The proceedings from the conference will be published in Journal of Physics: Conference Series at the beginning of 2016. Prof. Jablonska has submitted two publications with the EAgLE project acknowledgments to the conference proceedings. These two articles are addresses strictly to the community involved in exploiting XAFS technique and will increase the recognition of IF PAN in this community. Moreover, she was participated in the meeting of the “Commission International Union of Crystallography on XAFS” where the preparation of the Tables for Crystallography, Volume I, first edition devoted to XAFS technique, was discussed and she was invited to write the chapter devoted to Semiconductors. All of these considerably increase the visibility of IF PAN at the international forum.




  • •  Dr. Iraida Demchenko - XAFS 16 conference, August 23 - 28, 2015, Karlsruhe, Germany


I had an opportunity to participate in the XAFS 16 Conference which was organized by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in close collaboration with Helmholtz-Institutes DESY (Hamburg) and HZB (Berlin) which are operating the German synchrotron radiation facilities. The conference was dedicated to information exchange and discussion on current research using X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS) spectroscopy and related methods. It was a forum for the presentation of new scientific results and underlying theoretical approaches as well as technological developments in XAFS via plenary lectures, invited and contributed talks, and posters – augmented by a commercial exhibition. I was able to present there two poster presentations entitled: "Preliminary results of XPS measurements of ultrathin niobium layers buried in silicon matrix" and "Thermally activated decomposition of (Ga,Mn)As thin layers at medium temperature post growth annealing". The above mentioned conference gave me an excellent opportunity to establish or renew contacts with colleagues in the field.




  • •  Prof. Dr. hab. Tomasz Dietl, Prof. Dr. hab. Andrzej Wiśniewski - 20th International Conference on Magnetism (ICM 2015), July 5 - 10, 2015, Barcelona, Spain

The Conference, organized under the auspices of the Commission of Magnetism of IUPAP, is the largest international event in the field of magnetism. The Conference is organized triennial in turn in Europe, America and Asia. Usually, there are more than 1 500 participats. The ICM 2015 was attended by more than 2 000 participates. During the Conference 5 plenary lectures and 12 semiplenary lectures were delivered. More than 100 lectures were delivered during specialized sessions and more than 1 000 posters were shown.

Prof. Dietl gave a semiplenary lecture entitled: “Ferromagnetism in Semiconductors and the Role of Localization”. The lecture summarized present level of knowledge as well as expected trends in the field. The lecture gave also a possibility to present and promote achievements of the Institute of Physics in studies of ferromagnetism in semiconductors in front of the best world specialists. Part of the recent results were obtained thanks to financial support of the Eagle project. On the other hand, the Conference offered many opportunities to get latest updates from the field of magnetism and advanced materials community. Especially interesting it was to learn about a role of relativistic effects in the process of switching direction of the magnetization by electric current, electric field and thermal excitation.

Prof. Wisniewski has presented a poster entitled: “Pressure effect on ferromagnetism and exchange bias in phase-separated (Bi,Ca)Mn1-xRuxO3 manganites”. The poster summarized recent studies of maganites exhibiting exchange bias effect due to intrinsic phase separation characterizing these materials. During the presentation several researchers conducting studies in the same field discussed details of measurements and interpretation of obtained results.




  • •  Dr hab. Ewa Jędryka - EuroNanoForum Conference 2015 (ENF 2015), June 9 - 13, 2015, Riga, Latvia


The seventh EuroNanoForum, held during the Latvian Presidency of the European Council, was focused on showcasing the strength of integrating nanotechnologies and advanced materials with other key enabling technologies within the EU's Programme Horizon 2020. ENF 2015 widely covered the areas of nanotechnologies and advanced materials in its' sessions and plenary talks which included speakers and participants form both, academia and industry on a variety of topics:

• Industrial nanotechnology and advanced materials supporting European
   re-industrialisation
• Trends and innovation demands on nanotechnology and advanced materials
• Infrastructures and framework conditions for rapid deployment
   of nanotechnologies and advanced materials Winning the competition:
   success stories and lessons learned
• Nanotechnology in industrial applications
• Advances in enabling nanotechnologies, nanomaterials and nanomanufacturing
• Collaborations and policies for accelerating innovation and uptake
   of nanotechnology based solutions
During the Conference dr hab. Jędryka has presented a poster: „New Nanotechnology Centre for Innovative Materials (EAgLE)”.
The conference offered numerous opportunities to get latest updates from the nanotechnologies and advanced materials community, see cutting-edge technologies and meet the representatives of innovative companies, research groups, academic institutions and key stakeholders of numerous European technology clusters and platforms.




  • •  Dr hab. Marek Wójcik - EuroNanoForum Conference 2015 (ENF 2015), June 9 -13, 2015, Riga, Latvia


The seventh EuroNanoForum, held during the Latvian Presidency of the European Council, was focused on showcasing the strength of integrating nanotechnologies and advanced materials with other key enabling technologies within the EU's Programme Horizon 2020. ENF 2015 widely covered the areas of nanotechnologies and advanced materials in its' sessions and plenary talks which included speakers and participants form both, academia and industry on a variety of topics:
• Industrial nanotechnology and advanced materials supporting European
   re-industrialisation
• Trends and innovation demands on nanotechnology and advanced materials
• Infrastructures and framework conditions for rapid deployment
   of nanotechnologies and advanced materials Winning the competition:
   success stories and lessons learned
• Nanotechnology in industrial applications
• Advances in enabling nanotechnologies, nanomaterials and nanomanufacturing
• Collaborations and policies for accelerating innovation and uptake
   of nanotechnology based solutions
During the Conference dr hab. Wójcik has presented a poster: „55Mn NMR characterization of magnetic oxides thin films” by M. Wójcik , E. Jedryka , G. Radaelli , D. Gutiérrez, F. Sánchez and J. Fontcuberta (ICMAB)
The conference offered numerous opportunities to get latest updates from the nanotechnologies and advanced materials community, see cutting-edge technologies and meet the representatives of innovative companies, research groups, academic institutions and key stakeholders of numerous European technology clusters and platforms.




  • •  Mgr. Rafał Pietruszka - E-MRS 2015 Spring Meeting, May 10 - 15, 2015, Lille, France

I participated in the conference “E-MRS Spring Meeting - 2015”, which was held in Lille (France) from 11th May till 15th May 2014. The theme of the conference was to discuss problems and results related to solid state physics. During the conference held in parallel symposia devoted to specific issues and problems. There was more than 3000 participants from around the world.
On the second day in a session C entitled “Advanced inorganic materials and structures for photovoltaics”, I presented a poster „Improving solar cells efficiency based on ZnO/Si heterojunctions by a conduction band engineering”.
On the fourth day in a session A entitled “Materials, mechanisms and devices in nano energy”, I presented a poster „High efficiency PV structures based on zinc oxide nanorods”.

In the talk I described recent research on this subject, conducted at the Institute of Physics PAS.
During the conference, I was able to participate in various other sessions focused on solar energy.




  • •  Prof. Roman Puźniak - EMN Phuket Meeting - Energy Materials Nanotechnology, May 4 - 7, 2015, Phuket, Thailand

The aim of the visit in Phuket, Thailand was promotion of the EAgLE project at the EMN Phuket Meeting - Energy Materials Nanotechnology - May 4-7, 2015 Phuket, Thailand. Professor Roman Puźniak presented the work co-authored by Dr. V. Markovich (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel), Dr. I. Fita and Prof. A. Wisniewski (Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland) entitled “Particle Size Effect on Charge Ordering and Exchange Bias in (Sm,Ca,Sr)MnO3”. His presentation initiated discussion on the role of EAgLe project in straightening international cooperation between various scientific institutions. The 2015 EMN Phuket Meeting was a unique platform for leading scientists, researchers, scholars and engineers from academia, R&D laboratories and industry around the world to exchange, share and learn the most recent advancement on various aspects related to nanotechnology, and energy-related materials and technologies.




  • •  Dr hab. Sławomir Kret - EMM meeting on optoelectronics, Energy Materials and Nanotechnology, April 21 - 28, 2015, Beijing, China


The EMN meeting began in 2008 in Orlando, Florida. Since then five workshops were organized under the theme of Energy, Materials and Nanotechnology. The EMN Conference series have grown and have had continued success in 2009 (St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands), 2010 (Santorini, Greece), 2011 (Las Vegas, Nevada), 2012 (Orlando, Florida) and 2013 (Houston, Texas). The Seventh EMN Meeting which was held in Beijing assembled more than 200 participants from China, European counters, US, Canada, Russia and Japan from academia and industry.
The main topics of meeting were devoted to the optoelectronic devices, analysed from point view of structural design and technology optimization, but also to developments of photonic materials systems and characterization method. Also many presentations were devoted to physical basics of light generation in quantum heterostructures as well as light emission optimization by optical systems.

The delegate presented an invited lecture entitled ”Hydrogen effect on the grow of Indium rich nitride layers in MOVPE- detailed TEM study” by .S. Kret, R. Czernecki, E. Grzanka , F. Ivaldi, P. Dłuzewski, P. Ruterana, M. Leszczynski. During presentation, the recent achievements in the field of advanced transmission electron microscopy analysis of nitride heterostructures were presented. The QW interface chemistry was analyzed in a quantitative way with the use of the most advanced EDS detectors and STEM image analysis in probe corrected TEMs. It was showing how hydrogen, applied during MOVPE grow process, impact interfaces InAlN/AlGaN chemistry at atomic level.

LEDs session” participants expressed their willingness to establish collaboration and prepare common project at European level which will be devoted to the photonic devices on the base of GaN material system in the frame of Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions. Coordination of such initiative will be made by P. Ruterana (chair of the session) from France.




  • •  Dr. Ryszard Sobierajski - “SPIE Optics + Optoelectronics” conference, April 14 - 17, 2015, Prague, Czech

SPIE Optics + Optoelectronics is a meeting that highlights the technologies that drive Europe’s largest optoelectronic infrastructure projects, such as HiPER, HiLASE, ELI Beamlines, plus conferences and workshops on laser acceleration, Free Electron Lasers, X-ray and EUV optics, nonlinear optics, and more. In 2015 program was focused on recent advances in petawatt photonics, high-power and high-repetition rate systems, diode-pumped laser systems, and FELs, along with the latest research in optical sensing, holography, x-ray optics, metamaterials, and nonlinear and quantum optics. One of the conferences - ”Damage to VUV, EUV, and X-ray Optics” – was dedicated to the radiation hardness of the short wavelength (in the spectral range from VUV to X-rays) optical elements. A special attention was focused on the interaction of the short wavelength free electron lasers radiation with solids. It was the fifth conference on this topic organized within SPIE Optics + Optoelectronics. On April 16th I presented an invited lecture entitled “Electronic energy transport in c-Si irradiated with X-ray beam under grazing incidence angles”. The presentation was dedicated to the studies of the energy transport influence on phase transitions induced in solid silicon under irradiation with intense ultrashort pulses from X-ray Free Electron Lasers. It was prepared in a collaboration with researchers from Eu-XFEL – twinning partner of the EAgLE project.




  • •  Prof. Wojciech Paszkowicz - 1st World Congress on Smart Materials (WCSM-1), March 21 - 26, 2015, Busan, South Korea


The 1st World Congress on Smart Materials (WCSM-1) is the first one of series of meeting organized annually under this name (the next one will be held in Singapore in 2016). The 1st WCSM was held at the Busan Conference and Exhibition Centre in Busan, South Korea. It attracted almost 300 participants, seven among them were affiliated in Poland. The conference programme included 10 thematic fields, each of them was built from several sessions. In total, 33 sessions were organized, most of them – in parallel. The subjects covered a broad spectrum of materials, methods and technologies, including sensors, piezoelectic materials, graphene, coatings, nanocrystals, polymers and biomaterials, etc...
The delegate presented ain invited lecture entitled “Genetic Algorithms: A Smart Search and Optimization Method Applicable in Materials Science”, on 24th March. The review presented the principles of genetic algorithms as anoptimization and global search numerical method, as well as examples of its application. During the presentation, the goals of EAgLE project, such as the establishment of research and development capacity in materials engineering and improvement of the integration into the European Research Area were presented to the audience.




  • •  Prof. Zbigniew R. Żytkiewicz - 18th European Molecular Beam Epitaxy Workshop, Canzei, Włochy, March 15 – 18, 2015


The European Molecular Beam Epitaxy Workshop is organized every second year and provides an invaluable opportunity for the presentation of latest results, for an open discussion on molecular beam epitaxy of novel materials, nanostructures, and devices, new trends on MBE growth, and innovative technologies. The 18th edition followed the latest successful workshops held in Zakopane, Poland (2009), L’Alped’Huez, France (2011) and Levi, Finland (2013).

Main scientific topics of the workshop were:
1) Epitaxy of III-N materials (GaN, InN, AlN); 2) Semiconductor Quantum Wires and 3D growth; 3) Novel III-V heterostructures including dilute nitrides and bismides; 4) Epitaxy of oxides; 5) Epitaxy of ferromagnetic and spintronic materials; 6) Nanostructures, site-controlled epitaxy, and droplet epitaxy; 7) Epitaxy of novel materials (Topological Insulators, Graphene and other 2D layered materials); 8) Epitaxy of organic materials; 9) Characterization of epitaxial materials; 10) Epitaxy of heterostructures for applications in photovoltaics, electronics, and optoelectronics; 11) MBE production technology.

The Workshop gathered more than 100 participants from all European countries as well as from the US, Canada, Russia and Japan.

During the workshop I presented our work “On an impact of the Si-N interlayer on properties of GaN nanowires grown catalyst-free by PAMBE on Si” by Z.R. Zytkiewicz, M. Sobanska, K. Klosek, A. Wierzbicka, and J. Borysiuk showing our recent achievements in the field of molecular beam epitaxial growth and physical studies of GaN nanowires. I also co-authored one poster presentations by my PhD student presenting results of our research on the mechanism of catalyst-free nucleation of GaN nanowires.




  • •  Prof. Marta Cieplak - 2015 March Meeting of the American Physical Society, March 2 - 6, 2015, San Antonio, USA

I participated in the conference 2015 March Meeting of the American Physical Society, March 2-6, held in San Antonio, USA. The conference was organized in a form of many parallel sessions on the diverse topics in physics: condensed matter, materials, biological and computational physics, education, etc., and many interdisciplinary subjects. Many sessions have been devoted to superconductivity, magnetism, topological insulators, nanomaterials and devices, fluids, polymer and other topics; there was more than 10000 participants from around the world.

On third day of the conference, in a session entitled “Superconductivity: Miscellaneous Experiments”, I presented a talk „Hall coefficient of ultrathin niobium in Si/Nb/Si trilayers”. In the talk I described research on this subject, conducted at the Institute of Physics PAS. Another talk which I co-authored has been presented by my graduate student, Valery Bezusyy, on another recent research conducted at our Institute, “The Ni and Co substitutions in iron chalcogenide single crystals”. Both talks has attracted considerable attention, and has been followed by discussion with fellow conference attendees. I also participated in many other sessions at the conference, including sessions on iron-based superconductors and on superconductor-insulator transitions.

There have been also excellent examples of the nice popular presentations of science for general public, such as, for example, session “Physics for Everyone”, with presentations by David Weitz from Harvard (“Physics of Food”), or Volker Rose of Argonne Lab (“Picasso at the Nanoscale: The Art of Using Cutting-Edge Science to Understand Cultural Heritage”); these talks attracted wide attention.




  • •  Prof. Zbigniew R. Żytkiewicz - 3rd International Conference
    “Nanotechnologies” NANO – 2014, October 18 – 25, 2014,
    Tbilisi, Georgia


The Conference “Nanotechnologies” NANO 2014 was the third one in a series of meetings organized by the Georgian Technical University in Tbilisi. It was focused on the methods used to synthetize nanomaterials, techniques applied for studying their structure, chemical and physical properties, as well as on practical applications of nanostructures. The Conference gathered more than 150 participants from many European countries as well as from the US, Canada, Russia and Japan.

During the second day of the conference devoted to semiconductor nanostructures I presented an invited talk “Spontaneous nucleation and catalyst-free growth of GaN nanowires by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy” showing our recent achievements in the field of molecular beam epitaxial growth and physical studies of GaN nanowires. Later on the same day I was invited to chair the second part of the session. I was also co-author of two additional oral and one poster presentations by my PhD students. They presented results of their research on the mechanism of catalyst-free nucleation of GaN nanowires and on application of such nanostructures in photovoltaic devices and in gas sensors.




  • •  Prof. Krystyna Jabłońska - 23rd Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography, 5–13 August 2014, Montreal Quebec, Canada


The 23rd Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography was organized in the International Year of Crystallography. This event was the most important meeting for the community of crystallographers in 2014. Therefore, we chose the meeting for the promotion of the EAgLE project main goal, namely the straitening of the collaboration between science and industry. Utilization of various x-ray techniques in material characterisation is becoming increasing important in science and technology development leading to innovation and commercialization efforts for industry and was highlighted in the microsymposium (MS-38) entitled “X-ray Techniques for Innovation in Industry” organized jointly by me and Jeffrey Cutler from Canadian Light Source.
The program of the symposium was composed from six lectures (Photo) and poster presentations. Topics ranged from life science to material science and included how industry engagement is being facilitated by dedicated industry support programs at various lightsources. As a MS organizer I was allowed to present only poster and I have presented poster “Complementary XRD and XAS Studies of Double Metal Cyanides catalysts” dedicated to studies of the catalyst produced in the small company MEXEO. The microsymposium MS38 was attended by more than 85 scientists and was one of the best attended at the Congress that indicate the importance of the collaboration between science and industry. Altogether, over 2000 scientists attended 104 microsymposia, 37 keynote and 5 plenary lectures and 1788 posters were presented at the two poster sessions. Moreover, at the General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography, I was chosen the secretary of the Commission on XAFS for the next three years. The commission is chaired by Christopher Thomas Chantler, the editor of Radiation Physics and Chemistry.




  • •  Prof. Lech Baczewski - 22nd International Conference on Composite
       and Nano-Engineering, (ICCE-22), 12–20 July 2014, Malta


The 22nd International Conference on Composite and Nano-Engineering, (ICCE-22) was held in Malta from 13 till 19 of July 2014. The ICCE conference is attracting the attention of numerous chemists, physicists and scientists from diverse fields in effort to promote interdisciplinary research on nano-composites. Of particular the concern is the challenge for materials scientists to understand the wide diversity of length scales ranging from nano to micro and to question the validity of the theories or models which are known to be valid only in certain length scales. The ICCE is among the first composite materials conferences which take a leading vital role to bridge the gap between nano-chemistry and nano-engineering. The conference was organized in many parallel sessions on the diverse subjects related to nanoscience and engineering.

On the second day of ICCE-22 conference during the sessions Novel Magnetic Materials I presented an invited talk entitled:
Exchange interactions in molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown magnetic nanostructures”.




  • •  Prof. Wojciech Paszkowicz - 14th European Powder Diffraction
       Conference (EPDIC), 14–18 June, 2014, Aarhus University, Denmark


The European Powder Diffraction Conferences (EPDICs) are organized biannually. The 14th EPDIC was held at the Aarhus University in Denmark. It attracted about 300 participants, seven among them came from Poland. The conference programme included 7 plenary lectures, 12 thematic microsymposia, each composed of 6 lectures, 2 poster sessions and several workshops. The plenary lectures covered the following subjects: microstrain reflection broadening, new bio-inspired materials, solving molecular structures, studies of lithium batteries, achievements of neutron diffraction, non-stoichiometry in oxides and in-operando studies of functional materials.

The delegate has organized, together with prof. Claudia Weidenthaler, a microsymposium MS8 on in-operando diffraction studies. Moreover, he presented a poster on gallium nitride thermal expansion, which was displayed during the session on 16th June. The poster entitled “Lattice Parameters and Thermal Expansion of Polycrystalline GaN: An X-ray Diffraction Study in a Broad Temperature Range”, authored by: W. Paszkowicz, R. Minikayev, P. Piszora, M. Knapp, C. Baehtz, and S. Podsiadlo, presented results of experimental investigations performed at DESY/Hasylab in Hamburg. It included the logo of EAgLE (European Action Towards a Leading Center for Innovative Materials) project. During the presentation, the goals of EAgLE project, such as the establishment of research and development capacity in materials engineering and improvement of the integration into the European Research Area were explained to the interested participants.




  • •  Prof. Andrzej Wiśniewski - International Conference on Electronic
       Materials, 8–15 June, 2014, Taipei, Taiwan


The ICEM is organized by the International Union of Materials Research Societies. The ICEM is biennially held. The former two conferences were in Yokohama (2012) and Seoul (2010). These conferences are aimed to provide an opportunity for scientists and engineers around the world to exchange their recent achievements and new ideas. The conference was organized in a form of six parallel groups devoted to various topics related to electronic materials. There were totally 1 035 papers from 26 countries and more than 1000 participants from around the world.

In a frame of the Group-F “Oxide Materials for Advanced Electronics”, during the Symposium F4: Oxide Nanocomposites, Nanowires, Nanoparticles and Bulks, I presented an invited talk “Size Effects on the Magnetic Properties of (La,Ca)MnO3 and (Sm,Ca)MnO3 nanoparticles”. In the talk I described recent research results obtained at the Institute of Physics PAS. Earlier on the same day I was a chair of a mornings session.

During the remaining days I participated in various other oral and poster sessions.




  • •  Dr. Bartłomiej Witkowski - EMRS Spring Meeting 2014 Conference
       (European Materials Research Society), 25–30 May, Lille, France


The conference EMRS Spring Meeting 2014 attracted about 3000 participants. It was focused on the various spheres of nanotechnology and many aspects of material science. It was taken a lot of discussion and reflection on the current advancement of technology and the direction of further development. During the conference, I had an oral presentation titled “High-quality nanorods obtained by the ultra fast hydro-thermal method for solar cells & photoresistors applications”.

In addition to presenting the above work and discussion of the results contained therein, conference also allowed for the exchange of experiences, views and ideas with scientists from around the world, which will translate into increasing of our results.




  • •  Prof. Marta Cieplak - 4th International Conference
       on Superconductivity and Magnetism,
       April 26 - May 3 2014, Antalya, Turkey


I participated in the conference “4th International Conference on Superconductivity and Magnetism” (ICSM 2014), which was held in Antalya (Turkey) from 27th April till 2nd May 2014. The conference was organized in a form of many parallel session on the diverse subjects, all related to superconductivity and magnetism in various materials; there was more than 1000 participants from around the world.
On third day of the conference, in a session entitled “Coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism II”, I presented a talk „Influence of magnetic domain landscape on the flux dynamics in superconductor/ferromagnet bilayers”.
In the talk I described recent research on this subject, conducted at the Institute of Physics PAS.
In the afternoon of the same day I was a chair of a second part of this session.
During the remaining days I was able to participate in various other sessions; in particular, two of my graduate students presented contributed talks on subjects of their research conducted at the Institute, on iron-based superconductors, and on superconductor-insulator transition.




  • •  Prof. Roman Puźniak - 4th International Conference
       on Superconductivity and Magnetism,
       April 26 - May 3 2014, Antalya, Turkey


The conference was organized in a form of many parallel sessions on the diverse subjects, all related to superconductivity and magnetism in various materials; there were more than 1000 participants from around the world.On fourth day of the conference, in a session entitled “Bulk Superconductors”, I presented a talk “Anisotropy of Superconducting State Properties in High-Tc Superconductors: Cuprates, MgB2, and Pnictides”. In the talk I described recent research on this subject, conducted at the Institute of Physics PAS.
Later on the same day I was a chair of a second part of this session.
During the remaining days I was able to participate in various other sessions; in particular, I was co-author of oral presentation “LnFeAsO Single Crystals: Growth, Substitutions, Structural and Superconducting Properties”, being a result of scientific collaboration between:
1 Solid State Physics Laboratory, ETH Zurich, CH-8093, Switzerland
2 Physik-Institut der Universitat Zurich, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
3 Institute of Condensed Matter Physics EPF Lausanne, Switzerland
4 Institute of Low Temperature and Structure Research,
   PAS, PL-50-950 Wroclaw, Poland
5 Institute of Physics, PAS, PL-02-668 Warsaw, POLAND
6 National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, USA.




  • •  Prof. Leszek Sirko and Prof. Ewa Jędryka - Conference Industrial
       Technologies 2014, April 08 - 12 2014, Athens, Greece



The Conference Industrial Technologies 2014 was the third one in a series of bi-annual conferences organized jointly by a number of European organisations, such as FORTH/ICE‐HT, Spinverse Ltd, CNR-ITIA, ATHENA RIC, etc. . It was held in Athens, during the Greek Presidency of the European Union. The event was supported by the European Commission Directorate for Research and Innovation and has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme. It was a big conference with over 1300 participants from more than 60 countries around the world. Over 170 high-level speakers gave talks at the plenaries, sessions and workshops during the conference. Various organisations involved in nanotechnology, biotechnology, advanced materials and production technologies held their stands at the coinciding IndustryTech exhibition with more than 80 exhibitors.

The main topics addressed during Industrial Technologies 2014 were:
•  European and global developments in the high-tech arena
•  Re-industrialisation and regional development in Europe
•  Technological and entrepreneurial opportunities especially for the Balkan
    and Mediterranean states
•  New opportunities in Horizon 2020 in the field of enabling technologies
•  Cutting-edge research, latest innovations and rising companies

Four plenary sessions were held and were devoted to the following topics:
1: Re-industrialisation and smart growth through research and innovation
     in Europe
2: New technologies impacting everyday life
3: Improving Europe’s competitiveness through regional development
4: Horizon 2020, NMP and Regional Funds Research Strategies

The aims of the EAgLE project were explained in many bilateral talks
with the prospective partners as well as by the poster presentation.




  • •  Dr. Iraida Demchenko - AXAA 2014 Conference, February 9-14 2014,
       Perth, Australia



I had an opportunity to participate the AXAA 2014 Conference which was hosted by the Australian X-Ray Analytical Association. It was held at the Pan Pacific from Sunday 9 to Thursday 14 February 2014. I was able to present there the oral presentation entitled "Complementary Studies Of The Structural Properties Of Highly Disordered Materials By X-ray Spectroscopy And Diffraction", reference 0095. The conference attracted delegates from all Australian States, plus international delegates from across Europe, the USA, Canada, South Africa and the Asia Pacific region. The 2014 AXAA Conference had maintained its traditional emphasis on laboratory of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF), but with coverage of results and developments at major radiation facilities as well. The conference program covered advances in both industrial and fundamental research, particularly those achieved through new developments in techniques.

The conference provided very good and most recent opportunities to: (i) learn about new developments in XRF, XRD, as well as other complementary analysis methods (including large-scale facility synchrotron and neutron methods and academic research); (ii) to present and discuss our results; (iii) to meet people engaged in similar projects; (iv) to knowledge sharing, and networking; and (v) to initiate new collaborations. Thanks to this conference I had the opportunity of personal discussions with the key personalities working in the field of mentioned above techniques. All above apparently added value for potential increase of research in the IP PAS.




  • •  Prof. Roman Puźniak - International conference on ELECTRON
       CORRELATION IN NANOSTRUCTURES, October 3-6 2013,
       Yalta (Crimea), Ukraine



The International conference on ELECTRON CORRELATION IN NANOSTRUCTURES, October 3rd - 6th 2013 partially overlapped with NATO ADVANCED RESEARCH WORKSHOP “Nanotechnology in the security systems (NSS-2013)” September 29th - October 3rd 2013, YALTA , UKRAINE co-directories by Prof. Janez Bonca (J. Stefan Institute, Ljublyana, Slovenia) and by Prof. Sergei Kruchinin (Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics, Ukraine), both of them being the co-directors of the Conference. It provided very good opportunity to promote EAgLE project at the Workshop as well at the Conference. Several well recognized scientists from various countries, including Nobel Laureate Prof. A. Geim (Univ. Manchester, UK), actively participated in the work of INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE of the Conference, selecting best papers for the presentation at the Conference. Professor Roman Puźniak presented the work co-authored by Dr. V. Markovich (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel), Dr. I. Fita (Donetsk Institute for Physics & Technology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine), and Prof. A. Wiśniewski (Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland) entitled “Size-dependent exchange bias in manganite nanoparticles”. His presentation initiated long discussion on the role of EAgLE project in straightening international cooperation between various scientific institutions within European Community and the way to find best solution to make European science more competitive.




  • •  Prof. Krystyna Jabłońska - 3rdAnnual Word Congress of NanoScience
       Technology, September 26th - 28th, 2013, China



The 3rd Annual World Congress of Nano-S&T was hosted by Information Research Center of International Talent, State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, and it was operated by BIT World Congress Inc., in the very modern venue of Xi’an Qujiang International Conference Center. The conference was divided into 7 tracks. The program highlighted some recent breakthrough achievements in the field of nanotechnology which is a main interest of the EAgLE project. During the conference there was plenty opportunities to share information and the best practices from current research to commercial implementation of new technologies. At the same time, through social activities during the conference it was possible to keep contact with participants of 5 other conferences which were part of the 3rd Annual BIT World Congress; they attracted over 1000 participants. I had very stimulating discussions with the participants of Low Carbon Earth Summit, 2nd Annual International Symposium of Clean Coal Technology and 3rd New Energy Forum. Many problems focused on new sources of energy waiting for new solutions. On Saturday 28 I delivered a lecture at the session dedicated to Charactersation and Analysis of Nanomaterials (photo). After the lecture I discussed with participants various details concerning the synchrotron related methods of nanomaterial characterisation. During the free time there was an opportunity to become acquainted with the cultural heritage of the Xian, the ancient capital of China. Detailed information about the Conference is available at http://www.bitconferences.com/Nano2013




  • •  prof. Wojciech Paszkowicz - European Crystallographic Meeting
      (ECM-28, Warwick), August 25th - 29th, 2013


The European Crystallographic Meetings are organized twice in each three years period. The ECM 28 was held at the Warwick University campus near Coventry. It attracted more than 700 participants, among them 28 came from Poland. Two posters entitled:
1. "Structure refinement of SmVO4 at pressures ranging to 10 GPa",
     by W. Paszkowicz, W. Łasocha, W. Nitek, P. Piszora, Y. Cerenius, S. Carlson,
     B. Bojanowski, and H. Dabkowska

2. "Experimental and theoretical equation of state of DyVO4 polymorphs",
     by W. Paszkowicz, O. Ermakova, J. López-Solano, A. Mujica, A. Muñoz,
     R. Minikayev, C. Lathe, S. Gierlotka, I. Nikolaenko, and H. Dabkowska

were displayed from 26th August to 29th August. They included the logo of EAgLE (European Action Towards a Leading Center for Innovative Materials) project. The delegate presented them to the interested conference participants during poster sessions (26th August, 18:30 – 19:30, 27th August, 17:30 – 18:30, 28th August 2013, 17:30 – 18:30) and breaks between the lectures. During the presentations, he goals of EAgLE project, such as the establishment of research and development capacity in materials engineering and improvement of the integration into the European Research Area were explained to the interested participants.