Archive 2024

Lecture title: Internal and External Control of Excitons in Colloidal Quantum Dots

Presented by: Dr. Jennifer A. Hollingsworth

Time and place: The lecture will take place on Friday, October 21st, 2024, at 10:00 am, in the large conference room of the Comenius University Science Park.

Abstract. Colloidal quantum dots (cQDs) synthesized in simple laboratory flasks are finding real-world applications in demanding technologies from displays and lighting to photovoltaics and photodetectors. In the future, cQDs may be the basis for single-photon devices in quantum networks. Beyond quantum-size control, we pursue an expanded “structural toolbox” to synthetically engineer new quantum emitters with targeted photophysical properties, including non-blinking behavior, biexciton enhancement, dual-color emission.  Taking advantage of their solution-phase processibility, we prepare cavity- or antenna-coupled cQD hybrid materials using, e.g., deterministic, direct-write nanointegration.  The former—precision synthesis—affords internal control over excitonic properties, while the latter—hybrid materials fabrication—affords external control via local environmental effects.

About the speaker. Dr. Jennifer A. Hollingsworth is a Laboratory Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). She is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the American Physical Society (Materials Physics) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Chemistry), and serves as an elected Councilor for the ACS Division of Colloid & Surface Chemistry. She holds a BA in Chemistry from Grinnell College and a PhD degree in Inorganic Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis. She joined LANL as a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow in 1999, becoming a staff scientist in 2001. In 2013, she was awarded the LANL Fellows’ Prize for Research for her discovery of non-blinking “giant” quantum dots. She serves as Thrust Leader for Nanophotonics & Optical Nanomaterials in the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT), a US-DOE Nanoscale Science Research Center and User Facility. Her research interests include discovery, rational design, and development of novel colloidal quantum emitters, unique synthesis and assembly techniques (e.g., automated synthesis, microfluidics-enabled nanowire growth, and scanning-probed-enabled direct write nanointegration), and nanomaterials applications, such as bioimaging, solid-state lighting and single-photon quantum light sources. In these areas, she has ~125 publications, >17,000 citations, and an h-index of 54.

You can find more in the invitation here:  [.pdf]

The news portal of Comenius University published a press release about the LAM laboratory:

For more info click here: link 

The Research and Development Agency (RDA) has approved funding for the research project APVV-23-0202 on Ternary Chalcogenide Perovskites for Photovoltaics and APVV-23-0300 on Charging and Charge Transfer in Quantum Confined Nanocrystals. Congratulations!

The Faculty of Natural Sciences organized the student conference to encourage undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD students to present their work on April 25, 2024. The program featured two main sessions: a presentation and a poster session. An estimated 150 participants from various departments showcased their research. Three students participated from LAM: Sameer Kumar Tiwari presented on “Preparation of BaZrS₃ Thin Films at Moderate Temperature and its Mechanism.” Ivana Božeková discussed her research “Using Gold Nanocrystals to Inhibit Bacterial Growth as a Possible Alternative to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance.” This work contributes to advancing our understanding of nanomaterials in biomedical applications. Ehsan Rezaie Ahari presented a Photoluminescence study of BaZrS₃ Perovskite nanocrystals at a single nanocrystal level showing a phenomenon of photoluminescence intermittence, blinking. For more info click here https://fns.uniba.sk/svk

PhD students Ivana Božeková, Sameer K. Tiwari were awarded UK student research grants and PhD student Daniil Zinoviev was awarded an excellent UK student grant for 2024.

Congratulations to Ivana, Sameer, Daniil!

Ing. Peter Lešták joined LAM team as a new research administrator. Welcome to LAM, Peter!

On 20.03.2024, members of the LAM team participated in an event organized by NextStep Science. This event focuses on creating contacts between those interested in career opportunities in the natural sciences, people from the field of science and the private sector. Members of the LAM team introduced the visitors to the scientific focus, work in the laboratory, and the possibilities of future use of nanomaterials and new materials that are being developed at LAM.

https://nextstepscience.org/

On 08.03.2024 Dr. Sýkora gave a lecture for dozens of participants of the Chemistry Olympiad from all over Slovakia. High school students learned about quantum dots and the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In addition, they had the opportunity to learn more about research at LAM in the form of an interesting excursion in the laboratory.

An interview with the Director of the laboratory, Dr. Milan Sýkora, under the title “Research from Los Alamos brought to Bratislava”, was published in journal „Naša Univerzita“ (Our University). You can read the entire interview in Slovak on page 16 of the magazine by clicking on „Ročník 70, 2. číslo, letný semester 2024)” here: https://uniba.sk/nu/.

We have filed an international invention disclosure, based on our discovery of a new type of quantum confined nanoparticles with NIR photoluminescence that are suitable for use as contrast agents in bioimaging applications.

On January 29, 2024 LAM PhD student MSc. Namrata Jaykhedkar successfully defended her dissertation “Theoretical Modelling of Thermodynamic and Electronic Properties of Crystalline Solids” in front of a full conference room at the Science Park of Comenius University, thus fulfilling the final requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Congratulations! May this doctorate be the beginning of a very successful professional career!

Review article “Chemical aspects of halide perovskite nanocrystals”, by Dr. M. Roy and Dr. M. Sykora, in collaboration with prof. M. Aslam, IIT Bombay, has been accepted for publication in the March issue of Topics in Current Chemistry. Congratulations!

Lecture title: Fascinating insights into the Nobel Prizes: Origin, Laureates and Ceremonies

Presented by: Mgr. Martin Venhart, PhD., Institute of Physics SAS

Time and place: The lecture will take place on Friday, January 26th, 2024, at 10:00 am, in the large conference room of the Comenius University Science Park.

Abstract. The Nobel Prizes for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology and Medicine, Literature and Peace have been awarded since 1901. In 1969, the Swedish Reichsbank Prize for Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was added, which is often referred to as the Nobel Prize for Economics. As part of the lecture, we will look at how these awards actually came about, how the laureates are selected, we will present interesting cases of awardees and we will not avoid controversies either. Finally, we’ll talk about the ceremony itself, including some of Queen Silvia and Crown Princess Victoria’s evening gowns.

About the speaker. Martin Venhart is an experimental nuclear physicist. He earned his PhD. degree in 2008 at Comenius University. Then he went to Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium, where he spent two years as post-doctoral researcher. Since 2010 he works at Institute of Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, where he led Department of Nuclear Physics. His experimental focus is on the nuclear structure of isotopes with odd mass number. He has been pursuing his experimental research program at CERN-ISOLDE facility, Cyclotron laboratory of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland and at iThemba Labs at Cape Town, South Africa. He is actively collaborating with University of Liverpool, University of Warsaw and Australian National University. He is the author or co-author of approximately 80 original articles in internationally refereed journals. He chairs a successful series of international conferences on nuclear structure ISTROS, held biannually in Slovakia. In 2021, Martin Venhart has been elected for position of the First Vice-president of Slovak Academy of Sciences. He is a member of several scientific councils, boards of supervisors and boards of trustees. He represented Slovak Republic in ISOLDE Collaboration Commitee at CERN and presently represents the Institute of Physics in NUPECC, Expert Committee of the European Science Foundation.

On January 12, 2024, LAM Director, Dr. Sykora delivered an invited public lecture, promoting the LAM research and more broadly the recent advances in the development and application of nanomaterials, in the Garden Reading Room of the Juraj Fándly Library in Trnava. The recording of the lecture can be found here.

The article “Type-II CdSe/ZnO Core-Shell Nanorods: Nanoheterostructures with a Tunable Dual Emission in Visible and Near-Infrared Spectral Ranges” authored by LAM researchers Dr. Anamul Haque, Mgr. Filip Zechel, Dr. Mrinmoy Roy and Dr. Milan Sýkora in collaboration with Dr. V. Vretenar from the Center for Nano-Diagnostics STU, has been accepted for publication in the prestigious journal Advanced Functional Materials, Congratulations!