Faculty of Physics

Sukurta: 28 June 2019

ff9 Saulėtekio, LT-10222 Vilnius
Tel. 236 6001
E-mail:
http://www.ff.vu.lt

Dean – Prof. Dr. Juozas Šulskus

 

 

STAFF

76 teachers (incl. 68 holding research degree), 157 research fellows (incl. 129 holding research degree), 61 doctoral students.

DEPARTMENTS OF THE FACULTY

Experimental Nuclear and Particle Physics Centre (sui generis Department)
Institute of Chemical Physics
Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnology
Laser Research Centre
Institute of Applied Electrodynamics and Telecommunications
Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy

RESEARCH AREAS

Analysis of Atoms, Subatomic Particles or their Ensembles, Complex Systems Electromagnetic Radiation and Cosmic Objects
Development, Characterization, and Interdisciplinary Application of Advanced Electronic and Optoelectronic Devices
Investigation of Novel Organic and Inorganic Functional Materials and Structures
Laser Physics and Technology
Solid State Physics and Technology
Spectrometric Characterization of Materials and Electronic/Molecular Processes

DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS MAINTAINED IN 2018

T. Andrijauskas. Articial magnetic field for ultracold atoms in optical lattices.
I. Buchovec. Inactivation of food pathogens by photoactivated chlorophyllin: mechanism of action, optimization and possible applications.
A. Černiauskas. Chemical and kinematical properties of Galactic Globular cluster 47 Tucanae.
K. Ikamas. Broadband THz detectors with field effect transistors: modelling and application for systems with pulsed and continuous wave sources.
D. Jablonskas. Research of nonlinear dielectric susceptibility in some PMN-based materials.
I. Kranauskaitė. Size and synergy effects on electrical properties of composites with nanocarbon inclusions.
G. Kreiza. Highly fluorescent organic nanoparticles, films and crystals for sensing and lasing applications.
D. Meškauskaitė. Spectroscopy of defects in wide band-gap semiconductors and heavily irradiated Si.
A. Petrulis. Colour rendition engineering and psychophysical assessment of the multicolour solid-state lighting.
A. Plyushch. Dielectric properties of composites with carbon nanoparticles.
Š. Svirskas. Lattice dynamics and electromechanical response in disordered perovskites.
M. Šimėnas. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy of hybrid metal-formate frameworks.
S. Tamošaitytė. Linear and non-linear vibrational microspectroscopy-based chemical imaging of pathologic central nervous system tissue.
J. Vengelis. Characterization of photonic crystal fiber dispersion and investigation of supercontinuum generation.

MAIN CONFERENCES ORGANIZED IN 2018

QuEBS: Workshop on Quantum Effects in Biological Systems

Lithuanian-Belarusian seminar Advanced Materials and Ceramics

Humboldt Kolleg: Controlling Quantum Matter: from Ultracold Atoms to Solids

COST CA CA16117 Action Chemical Elements as Tracers of the Evolution of the Cosmos  WG3 “Astronomical observations and interpretation” Workshop

International summer school Space Missions: Ground-based Observations and Science Communication

BEST PRESENTATIONS MADE AT CONFERENCES ABROAD

A. Piskarskas. Benefiting from a small country: the potential of laser research and laser industry in Lithuania. Nothern Optics & Photonics 2018, Lund, Sweden, 12–14 September.

V. Sablinskas, M. Velicka, M. Pucetaite, V. Urboniene, J. Ceponkus, R. Bandzeviciute, F. Jankevicius, G. Steiner. In situ detection of cancerous kidney tissue by means of fiber ATR FTIR spectroscopy. SPIE Photonics West 2018, San Francisco, USA, 27 January–1 February.

R. Tomašiūnas, I. Reklaitis, L. Krencius, P. Vitta, S. Karpov, H. J. Lugauer, M. Strassburg. Differential charge carrier lifetime investigated in a blue InGaN LED at operational conditions. 20th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks, ICTON '18, July 1–5, Bucharest, Romania.

G. Tamulaitis, S. Nargelas, A. Vaitkevicius, V. Gulbinas, M. Korjik, D. Kozlov, V. Mechinsky, A. Gola, A. Mazzi, E. Auffray Hillemanns, M. Lucchini, C. G. Tully, Engineering of Ce-doped scintillation materials for high-energy physics experiments. IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, Sydney, Australia, 10–17 Nevember.

Sirutkaitis, V., Bagočius, K., Sirutavičius, M., Butkus, S., Vengelis, J., Pipinytė, I., Jarutis, V. Changes of the nonlinear absorption in crystals under irradiation with trains of high-repetition rate femtosecond pulses. SPIE Laser Damage: Laser-induced Damage in Optical Materials 2018: 50th anniversary conference, Boulder, Colorado, United States, 23–26 September.

MAIN SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2018

Oscillating polarization is induced by femtosecond laser-pulse driving of aluminium-doped zinc-oxide thin films, creating a medium with features that oscillate in time. Using an optically pumped, 500 nm thick film of epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) material based on Al-doped zinc oxide, an incident probe beam is both negatively refracted and time reversed through a reflected phase-conjugated beam. As a result of the high nonlinearity and the refractive index that is close to zero, the ENZ film leads to time reversed beams (simultaneous negative refraction and phase conjugation) with near-unit efficiency and greater-than-unit internal conversion efficiency. The ENZ platform therefore presents the time-reversal features required, e.g., for efficient subwavelength imaging, all-optical isolators and fundamental quantum field theory studies. S. Vezzoli, V. Bruno, C. DeVault, T. Roger, V. M. Shalaev, A. Boltasseva, M. Ferrera, M. Clerici, A. Dubietis, D. Faccio. 2018. Optical time reversal from time-dependent Epsilon-Near-Zero media. Physical Review Letters 120, 043902, editor’s suggestion.

A first extensive study of the influence of convection on the spectra and photometric colour indices of stars across the HR diagram, using for this purpose 3D hydrodynamical model atmospheres was performed. Based on these results, we produced a first grid of 3D–1D colour corrections. The 3D–1D differences in colour indices are small but they may nevertheless lead to errors of up to 200 K in the determined effective temperatures and up to 0.5 dex in gravities. Kučinskas, A., Klevas, J., Ludwig, H.-G., Bonifacio, P., Steffen, M., Caffau, E. 2018. Using the CIFIST grid of CO5BOLD 3D model atmospheres to study the effects of stellar granulation on photometric colours. II. The role of convection across the H-R diagram. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 613, A24; Bonifacio, P., Caffau, E., Ludwig, H.-G., Steffen, M., Castelli, F., Gallagher, A. J., Kučinskas, A., Prakapavičius, D., Cayrel, R., Freytag, B., Plez, B., Homeier, D. 2018. Using the CIFIST grid of CO5BOLD 3D model atmospheres to study the effects of stellar granulation on photometric colours. I. Grids of 3D corrections in the UBVRI, 2MASS, HIPPARCOS, Gaia, and SDSS systems. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 611, A68.

Inexpensive and stable hole-transporting aniline-based enamine materials, obtained via a one-step synthesis procedure, have been developed and tested for large-area perovskite solar cells. The materials are characterized by a good charge transport, delivering close to the record performance of the solar cells and significantly improving the durability of the perovskite solar cells. D. Vaitukaityte, Z.Wang, T. Malinauskas, A. Magomedov, G. Bubniene, V. Jankauskas, V. Getautis, H. J. Snaith. 2018. Efficient and stable perovskite solar cells using low-cost aniline-based enamine hole-transporting materials. Advanced Materials, vol.30(45), https//doi.org/10.1002/adma.201803735.

 

INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS

3 Saulėtekio, LT-10257 Vilnius
Tel. 223 4596
E-mail:

Director – Prof. Dr. Valdas Šablinskas

Division of Theory of Molecules and Modelling
Division of Molecular Spectroscopy
Division of Solid State Electronics

DIVISION OF THEORY OF MOLECULES AND MODELLING

9 Saulėtekio, LT-10222 Vilnius
Tel. 236 6281
E-mail:

Head – Prof. Dr. Darius Abramavičius

STAFF

Professors: Prof. Dr. D. Abramavičius, Prof. Habil. Dr. L. Valkūnas (part-time), Prof. Dr. J. Šulskus.
Associate professors: Dr. J. Bučinskas, Dr. K. Glemža, Dr. M. Mačernis, Dr. O. Rancova, Dr. J. Chmeliov.
Lecturers: Dr. S. Toliautas, Dr. V. Butkus, Dr. A. Gelžinis.
Doctoral students: V. Dūdėnas, A. Stepšys. 

RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

Modelling of Dynamic Processes in Molecular Compounds. PI: Prof. Leonas Valkūnas
Physics of Open Quantum Systems. PI: Prof. Darius Abramavičius
Quantum Chemistry. PI: Prof. Juozas Šulskus

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Characterization of the electric and magnetic responses of materials of natural and artificial origin
Development of quantum relaxation theory and application to molecular systems
Development of theory of molecular excitations (excitons, polarons, vibrons) and application to molecular systems
Development of the computational approaches of nonlinear spectroscopy of molecular complexes
Theoretical studies of temperature dependences of the fluorescence kinetics of photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes from plants at different level of aggregation
Modelling of single molecular spectroscopy data of molecular systems

RESEARCH PROJECTS CARRIED OUT IN 2018

Project Supported by University Budget

Modelling of Processes in Photoactive Organic Materials and Nanosystems. Prof. L. Valkūnas. 2011–2018.

Excited states of molecular complexes are Frenkel excitons – collective excitations which cover several molecular entities. Dynamics and properties of such quantum states have been reviewed in a book chapter. Excitation dynamics and fluorescence decay kinetics in photosynthetic molecular aggregates LHCII was analysed by a traditional set of kinetic equations to describe the experimental nonexponential decay kinetics. Mathematically accurate theoretical approaches have been developed for absorption and fluorescence spectra of molecular aggregates based on “reaction coordinate” approach. Such systems often demonstrate strong coupling between electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom. The idea of the present approach is that one selected specific coordinate is determined as the essential one and it is being incorporated explicitly in the modelling protocol, what leads to very accurate spectra. The approach has been published.
Time dependent variational approaches have been developed to characterize excitation dynamics in molecular systems that experience relaxation of the phonon bath in electronic excited states. This leads to a formation of polaron states. The variational approaches allow incorporating such states explicitly in the modeling and allow revealing the exciton-polaron transition times. We have also discovered that the relaxation process dumps the excitation energy into the phonon modes raising their effective temperature to a high degree. We established a theoretical approach how to evaluate the time dependent temperature of the bath. This has been reviewed in a “perspective” article.
Quantum chemistry approaches have been applied to study photodissociation of 2-, 3-, and 4-hydroxyacetophenon. Several dissociation channels have been observed in experiments. Quantum chemistry analysis of the potential energy surface of electronic excited states allowed determining the properties of the photodissociation processes.
The Raman ν1 band corresponding to the polarization of various length carotenoid (Car) and polyene molecules was theoretically analysed using the density functional theory (DFT) approach. The polarization and other properties of Car and polyene monomers were estimated by using global scalar properties. The results demonstrate a linear dependence between the frequency of the so-called ν1 Raman band corresponding to the C=C stretching modes, and the global hardness (and global softness) for all molecules of different conjugation lengths. The different length carotenoids have linear correlation between the Raman ν1 band and S0-S2 absorption. The possible distortions in carotenoids due to dimer effects may change the correlation what can be modelled by using DFT methods. According results there wasn’t one particular functional which could be suitable for the all 4 different type calculations. In the paper we classified DFT functionals which are the best for the geometry optimization, monomer Raman spectra, monomer exited states and H-dimer excited state splitting calculations.

Main publications:

Valkunas, L., Chmeliov, J., van Amerongen, H. 2018. The exciton concept. In: Light Harvesting in Photosynthesis, Foundations of Biochemistry and Biophysics, eds. R. Croce, R. van Grondelle, H. van Amerongen, I. van Stokkum, Boca Raton, CRC Press, part 12-1, p. 249–268.

Gelzinis, A., Braver, Y., Chmeliov, J., Valkunas, L. 2018. Decay- and evolution-associated spectra of time-resolved fluorescence of LHCII aggregates. Lith. J. Phys., vol. 58, p. 295–306.

Abramavicius, D., Chorošajev, V., Valkunas, L. 2018. Tracing feed-back driven exciton dynamics in molecular aggregates. Tracing feed-back driven exciton dynamics in molecular aggregates. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., vol. 20, p. 21225–21240.

National Research Projects

Research Council of Lithuania. Dynamics of Photoinduced Processes in Proteins and Model Systems (No: MIP-080/2015). Prof. L. Valkūnas. 2015–2018.

Physical origin of so-called nonphotochemical quenching mechanism taking place in photosystem II of green plants has been studied. High-resolution time-resolved fluorescence measurements of thylakoid membranes as well as single molecule spectroscopy measurements of LHCII complexes extracted from wild type plants are their mutants containing different composition of carotenoid molecules were analysed. Blinking fluorescence obtained from single molecule spectroscopy data are related to the quenching ability of carotenoids. Our results show that the required level of photoprotection in vivo can be achieved by a very subtle change in the number of LHCIIs switched to the quenched state.
We introduce specific sites responsible for red fluorescence as well as for quenching of the excitations. This quenching is rather independent of the particular species of carotenoids and excitation ‘site’ energy. The defining parameter is the resonant coupling between the pigment co-factors.

Main publications:

Gelzinis, A., Chmeliov, J., Ruban, A. V., Valkunas, L. 2018. Can red-emitting state be responsible for fluorescence quneching in LHCII aggregates? Photosynth. Res., vol. 135 p. 275–284.

Llansola-Portoles, M. J., Redeckas, K., Streckaitė, S., Ilioaia, C., Pascal, A. A., Telfer, A., Vengris, M., Valkunas, L., Robert, B. 2018.Lycopene crystalloids exhibit singlet fission in tomatoes. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., vol. 20, p. 8640–8646.

Farooq, S., Chmeliov, J., Wientjes, E., Koehorst, R., Bader, A., Valkunas, L., Trinkunas, G., van Amerongen, H. 2018. Dynamic feedback of the photosystem II reaction centre on photoprotection in plants. Nature Plants, vol. 4, p. 225–231.

Research Council of Lithuania. Development of Simulation Approaches for Coherent Time-Resolved Spectroscopy of Photoactive Molecular Systems (MIP-090/2015). Prof. D. Abramavičius. 2015–2018.

Mathematical description of spectroscopy of molecular systems is tightly related with the mathematical modelling of intramolecular and intermolecular relaxation processes, what has been performed in this project. In low temperature applications, nonlinear hole-burning experiments have been described by using a universal third order response function theory. Variational approach has been updated by suggesting squeezed vibrational wavepackets that are important for nonlinear interactions. Together with colleagues from university of Copenhagen, the nonlinear interaction model was studied by using Morse molecular potentials. Computational approaches have been put together into a computer package.

Main publications:

Rancova, O., Jankowiak, R., Abramavicius, D. 2018. Role of Bath fluctuations in the double-excitation manifold in shaping the 2DES of bacterial reaction centers at low temperature. J. Phys. Chem. B, vol. 122(4), p. 1348–1366.

Anda, A., Abramavicius, D., Hansen, T. 2018. Two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy of anharmonic molecular potentials. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., vol. 20, p. 1642–1652.

MAIN R&D&I (RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION) PARTNERS

Centre of Physical Sciences and Technology (Lithuania)
University of California, Berkeley, and University of California, Irvine (USA)
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA)
Queen Mary University, London (UK)
Institute of Physics of Charles University (Czech Republic)
Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia (Latvia)
Riga Technical University (Latvia)
Free University of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Free University of Brussels (Belgium)
Lund University (Sweden)
Nuclear Research Centre, Saclay (France)
State key laboratory of supramolecular structure and materials, Jilin University (China)
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (China)
University of Antwerp (Belgium)
University of Würzburg (Germany)
Vienna Technical University (Austria)
Institut de Biologie et de Technologie de Saclay, University Paris Sud, Gif sur Yvette (France)
N. Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (Ukraine)

OTHER SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES

Prof. D. Abramavicius

  • participation in a public scientific workshop “Erdvėlaivis Žemė 2018” for public schools.

Prof. L. Valkūnas

  • member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences;
  • editorial board member of the Lithuanian Journal of Physics;
  • vice-president of the Lithuanian Physics Society;
  • head of the Molecular Compounds Physics Department at the Centre for Physical Sciences and Technology in Vilnius 
  • doctor Philosophiae Honoris Causa of the Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine;
  • participation in a radio broadcast on quantum mechanics.

Dr. M. Mačernis

  • participation in a public scientific workshop “Erdvėlaivis Žemė 2018” for public schools.

Dr. O. Rancova

  • participation in a public scientific workshop “Erdvėlaivis Žemė 2018” for public schools;
  • participation in a public scientific workshop “Tyrėjų naktis 2018” for public.

 

DIVISION OF MOLECULAR SPECTROSCOPY

3 Saulėtekio, LT-10257 Vilnius
Tel. 223 4596
E-mail:

Head - Prof. Dr. Valdas Šablinskas

STAFF

Professors: Habil. Dr. V. Balevičius, Dr. V. Šablinskas, Habil. Dr. G. Niaura (part-time), Dr. V. Gulbinas (part-time).
Associate professors: Dr. V. Aleksa, Dr. A. Gruodis, Dr. A. Maršalka, Dr. F. Kuliešius, Dr. J. Čeponkus, Dr. V. Urbonienė.
Lecturers: Dr. K. Aidas, V. Klimavičius, M. Velička, D. Lengvinaitė, R. Platakytė, L. Dagys, R. Bandzevičiūtė.
Doctoral students: K. Kristinaitytė, J. Stocka, S., M. Velička, D. Lengvinaitė, L. Dagys, R. Platakytė, R. Bandzevičiūtė.

RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

Vibrational spectroscopy of molecular compounds. PI: Prof. Valdas Šablinskas
NMR and EPR Spectroscopy PI: Prof. Vytautas Balevičius
Modelling of molecular spectra. PI: Dr. Kęstutis Aidas

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Spectroscopy of molecules and condensed matter
IR, UV, Raman, NMR studies of organic compounds of the organized structures in the liquid, solid phases and nano-crystals
SERS studies of traces of biologically active molecules in biological fluids
Phase transitions and critical phenomena
Molecular interactions, hydrogen bonding, conformational analysis
Spectral markers in biological tissues and fluids
Matrix isolation FTIR spectroscopy

RESEARCH PROJECTS CARRIED OUT IN 2018

Project Supported by University Budget

Spectroscopy of Hybrid and Structured Functional Materials and Coatings for Photonic Devices and Optical Sensors. Prof. V. Šablinskas, Prof. V. Balevičius. 2018.

NMR and EPR Spectroscopy

Sm3+-Doped and Eu3+/Sm3+-co-doped yttrium aluminium garnets (YAG) were studied by solid-state NMR, incl. CP MAS. The local environments of activator ions in the garnet crystal structure compounds were determined. Temperature and composition effects in Sunset Yellow FCF aqueous solutions were studied by 1H, 15N NMR passing through all phase transitions between isotropic phase (I) and chromonic phases - nematic (N) and columnar (M). Dimethylammonium zinc formate frameworks [(CH3)2NH2][Zn(HCOO)3] containing 14N and 15N isotopes were studied using NMR. 15N NMR spectroscopy measurements of the framework containing the 15N isotope were used to directly probe this motion for the first time.

Main publications:

Pavasaryte, L., Katelnikovas, A., Klimavicius, V., Balevicius, V., Momot, A., Van Bael, M., Hardy, A., and Kareiva, A. 2018. Eu3+-Doped Y3-xSmxAl5O12 garnet: synthesis and structural investigation. New J. Chem., vol. 42, p. 2278–2287.

Kristinaitytė, K., Maršalka, A., Dagys, L., Aidas, K., Doroshenko, I., Vaskivskyi, Y., Chernolevska, Y., Pogorelov, V., Valevičienė, N. R., Balevicius, V. 2018. NMR, Raman and DFT study of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals of biomedical interest: tautomeric equilibrium and slow self-assembling in sunset yellow aqueous solutions. Journal of Physical Chemistry B, vol. 122, p. 3047–3055.

Šimėnas, M., Ptak, M., Hossain Khan, A., Dagys, L., Balevičius, V., Bertmer, M., Völkel, G., Ma̧czka, M., Pöppl, A., Banys, J. 2018. Spectroscopic study of [(CH3)2NH2][Zn(HCOO)3] hybrid perovskite containing different nitrogen isotopes. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, vol. 122, p. 10284–10292.

Šimėnas, M., Ciupa, A., Usevičius, G., Aidas, K., Klose, D., Jeschke, G., Mączka, M., Völkel, G., Pöppl, A., Banys, J. 2018. Electron paramagnetic resonance of a copper doped [(CH3)2NH2][Zn(HCOO)3] hybrid perovskite framework. Phys Chem Chem Phys., vol. 20(17), p. 12097–12105, doi: 10.1039/c8cp01426d. Epub 2018 Apr 20.

Development of Raman matrix isolation system for the studies of molecules with internal hydrogen bond

The studies of different hydrogen bonded systems are continued using Matrix isolation assisted Raman and infrared spectroscopy. The system was recently adapted for the studies of the molecules with low volatility. The idea is to use this system in the future for the studies of OTC drugs properties, stability and interaction with water. Preliminary results were presented in the conference EUCMOS 2018. The studies of prototypes biologically active molecules having internal hydrogen bonds such as malonaldehyde, acetylacetone and their derivatives were continued in collaboration with groups in Paris-Sud University France.

Main publications:

Gutiérrez-Quintanilla, A., Chevalier, M., Platakyte, R., Ceponkus, J., Germán, A., Rojas-Lorenzo, Claudine Crépin. 2018. 2-chloromalonaldehyde, a model system of resonance-assisted hydrogen bonding: vibrational investigation. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, vol. 20, p. 12888–12897.

Ceponkus, J., Platakyte, R., Sablinskas, V., Gutierrez Quintanilla, A. 2018. FTIR study of acetylacetone, D2-acetylacetone and hexafluoroacetylacetone - water complexes in argon and nitrogen matrices. Chemija, vol. 29(1), p. 1–16.

Gutiérrez-Quintanilla, A., Chevalier, M., Ceponkus, J., Lozada-Garcia, R. R., Mestdagh, J. M., Crépin, C. 2018. Large amplitude motions within molecules trapped in solid parahydrogen. Faraday Discussions, vol. 212, p. 499–515.

Elaboration of spectroscopic methods for identification of cancerous tissue as well as for quantitative analysis of biological fluids

The method for identification of cancerous cells using experimental system based on portable IR spectrometer, IR region waveguide and changeable micro ATR crystal is developed in our laboratory in cooperation with optics company “Art photonics” Germany. The sample investigation methodology is patented in Lithuania reg. nr. LT2017504. The method was applied to the studies of kidney and brain cancers. These studies are expected to be continued with large class of the tissues.
Various biological fluids like saliva, tears, blood are studied in our laboratories using SERS spectroscopy. The main goal is to analyse these biofluids and to create the fast and precise method which would help to identify the overdosing with OCT (over the counter) drugs in patients. Most popular drugs – Acetylsalicylic acid, Paracetamol are being studied and detected in biologic fluids. Also tests are being done with caffeine as well in order to create a method for the detection of hard drugs like opioids which are seen to be abused much more often.

Main publications:

Pučetaitė, M., Velička, M., Urbonienė, V., Čeponkus, J., Bandzevičiūtė, R., Jankevičius, F., Želvys, A., Šablinskas, V., Steiner, G. 2018. Rapid intra-operative diagnosis of kidney cancer by ATR-IR spectroscopy of tissue smears. Journal of Biophotonics, vol. 11(5), art. no. e201700260. [23 p.].

Sablinskas, V., Velicka, M., Pucetaite, M., Urboniene, V., Ceponkus, J., Bandzeviciute, R., Jankevicius, F., Sakharova, T., Bibikova, O., Steiner, G. 2018. In situ detection of cancerous kidney tissue by means of fiber ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. Proc. SPIE 10497, Imaging, Manipulation, and Analysis of Biomolecules, Cells, and Tissues XVI, 1049713, 20 February 2018, doi: 10.1117/12.2289393.

Spectroscopic properties of lyotropic liquid crystals of biomedical interest

Lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals based on aqueous solution of sunset yellow are promising materials for biosensing in medical diagnosis. We have studied the NMR properties and tautomerism of sunset yellow in aqueous solution by using quantum chemical methods. Hybrid organic-inorganic materials are a new class of materials showing great potential for applications in photovoltaics, gas storage a multiferroic memory devices. We have performed quantum chemical modelling of EPR properties of hybrid metal-organic formate frameworks.

Main publication:

Kristinaitytė, K., Maršalka, A., Dagys, L., Aidas, K., Doroshenko, I., Vaskivskyi, Y., Chernolevska, Y., Pogorelov, V., Valevičienė, N. R., Balevicius, V., 2018. NMR, Raman and DFT study of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals of biomedical interest: tautomeric equilibrium and slow self-assembling in sunset yellow aqueous solutions. Journal of Physical Chemistry B, vol. 122, p. 3047–3055.

National Research Projects 

Research Council of Lithuania. National program Healthy aging. Spectroscopic Express Analyzer of Cancerous Tissue (No. SEN-15053). Prof. V. Šablinskas. 2015–2018. 

Prototype of spectroscopic device based on fibre ATR spectroscopy for in situ analysis of cancerous tissues was built, tested and patented.

Main publication:

Sablinskas, V., Velicka, M., Pucetaite, M., Urboniene, V., Ceponkus, J., Bandzeviciute, R., Jankevicius, F., Sakharova, T., Bibikova, O., Steiner, G. 2018. In situ detection of cancerous kidney tissue by means of fiber ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. Proc. SPIE 10497, Imaging, Manipulation, and Analysis of Biomolecules, Cells, and Tissues XVI, 1049713, 20 February 2018, doi: 10.1117/12.2289393.

Research Council of Lithuania. Modelling Quadrupolar NMR Relaxation: Development and Applications (S-MIP-17-84).

A practical computational algorithm for prediction of quadrupolar NMR relaxation parameters of monoatomic ions based on classical MD simulations and hybrid QM/MM calculations is being developed. Electric field gradient (EFG) and therefore the quadrupolar nuclear coupling constant of chloride anions in imidazolium-based ionic liquids and their mixtures with water are being studied. To this end, we have performed large-scale MD simulations of the systems in questions, and we are currently in a process of validating a computational scheme based on QM/MM calculations for reliable calculation of EFGs on quadrupolar nuclei.

EU structural funding project: Centre of Spectroscopic Characterization of Materials and Electronic/Molecular Processes (SPECTROVERSUM). 2018–2022.

Upgrade of SPECTROVERSUM instrumentation was started. Four additional services based on the new instrumentation were proposed.

International Research Projects 

Research Council of Lithuania. Ukrainian-Lithuanian project: NMR and Vibrational Spectroscopy of Molecular and Ionic Nano-Clusters in Aqueous Solutions of Lyotropic Liquid Crystals (financed by project number TAP-LU-15-017). Prof. V. Balevičius.

Structural studies of molecular and ionic nano-clusters in aqueous solutions of lyotropic liquid crystals were performed by means of NMR and Raman and infrared spectroscopy.

Main publication:

Kozlovskaya, E. N., Pitsevich, G. A., Malevich, A. E., Doroshenko, O. P., Pogorelov, V. E., Doroshenko, I. Y., Balevicius, V., Sablinskas, V., Kamnev A. A. 2018. Raman spectroscopic and theoretical study of liquid and solid water within the spectral region 1600–2300 cm–1. Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, vol.196, p. 406–412.

Baltic States - German Liaison Office project: Modern Trends in Solid-State NMR and Spin Dynamics: Towards Non-Destructive Peptide-Based Polarizing Agents for DNP, supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic Germany.

Some peculiarities of Quasi-Equilibria and Polarization Transfer between Adjacent and Remote Spins were analysed.

Main publication:

Dagys, L., Klimavicius, V., Gutmann, T., Buntkowsky, G., Balevicius, V. 2018. Quasi-equilibria and polarization transfer between adjacent and remote spins: 1H–13C CP MAS kinetics in glycine. Journal of Physical Chemistry A, doi: 10.1021/acs.jpca.8b09036.

Contractual Research 

Service agreement. Measurements of Transmission and Optical Phase Contrast of Optical Phase Retarders in MIR Region (Nr. APS-120000-43). Prof. V. Šablinskas. 2016–2019.

Service agreement. Measurements of Transmission and Reflection of Optical Crystals in VIS NIR and MIR Regions (Nr. APS-120000-108). J. Čeponkus. 2016–2019.

MAIN R&D&I (RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION) PARTNERS

Institute of Physics (National Centre of Physical and Technological Sciences) (Lithuania)
Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany)
Technical University of Dresden (Germany)
Paris Sud 11 University (France)
Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan (Poland)
National Institute of Chemistry (Slovenia)
Copenhagen University (Denmark)
Stockholm University (Sweden)
Lund University (Sweden)
University of Bialystok (Poland)
Kiev University (Ukraine)
Belarus State University (Republic of Belarus)
University of Cagliari (Italy)
Eduard-Zintl Institute for Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, University of Technology Darmstadt, Darmstadt (Germany)
National Institute of Chemistry and Slovenian NMR Centre (SLONMR), Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Faculty of Physics, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv (Ukraine)
Faculty of Physics, St Petersburg State University, St Petersburg (Russia)

OTHER SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES

Prof. V. Šablinskas

  • member of doctoral Committee for Physics at Vilnius University;
  • member of doctoral Committee for Biophysics at Vilnius University;
  • member of graduate studies committee “Applied Physics” at Vilnius University.

Prof. V. Balevičius

  • member of the international advisory board Horizons in Hydrogen Bond Research;
  • member of the international advisory board Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in Condensed Matter;
  • member of the advisory committee International School-Seminar of Galyna Puchkovska on Spectroscopy of Molecules and Crystals.

Dr. V. Urbonienė

  • Institutional ERASMUS coordinator for Physics.

Assoc. Prof. J. Čeponkus

  • chairman of graduate studies committee “Applied Physics” at Vilnius University.

MOST IMPORTANT NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AWARDS RECEIVED FOR R&D ACTIVITIES

Vytautas Klimavicius – Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at Technical University Darmstadt.
Laurynas Dagys - Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow at the University of Southampton.

CONSULTATIONS PROVIDED BY THE UNIT TO THE PUBLIC OR ECONOMIC ENTITIES

Consultation regarding possibilities to use Raman and infrared spectroscopy to study quality and chemical composition of fertilizers, company “Ikarai”.
Consultation regarding possibilities to use Raman spectroscopy to study quality and of food products, company “Spektrolabas”.
Consultation regarding possibilities to use Infrared microspectral imaging to study chemical composition of old paintings. Pranas Gudynas Centre of Restoration.

MOST IMPORTANT RESEARCH DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES

Participation in the science popularization event: National Science festival “Spaceship Earth”
PhD students of the group are involved in the organizing committee of student scientific conference “Open readings”.
Participation in the exhibition Life Sciences Baltic.

 

DIVISION OF SOLID STATE ELECTRONICS

3 Saulėtekio, LT-10257 Vilnius
Tel. 223 4544
E-mail

Head – Prof. Dr. Kęstutis Arlauskas

STAFF

Professors: Dr. K. Arlauskas, Habil. Dr. G. Juška, Dr. V. Jankauskas (part time), Dr. V. Karpus (part time).
Associate professors: Dr. A. Poškus, Dr. M.Viliūnas, Dr. N. Nekrašas, Dr. R. Maldžius (part time).
Lecturer: Dr. G. Sliaužys (part time).
Chief research fellow: Dr. K. Genevičius.
Senior research fellows: Dr. R. Rinkūnas, Dr. L. Tumonis, Dr. V. Jankauskas (part time), Dr. R. Maldžius (part time).
Research fellows: Dr. T. Grigaitis, Dr. E. Kamarauskas.
Junior research fellows: R. Dobužinskas, A. Aukštuolis, J. Nekrasovas,
Doctoral students: A. Aukštuolis, R. Dobužinskas, V. Sabonis, J. Nekrasovas, A. Naujokaitis.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

New functional materials and structures: deposition technologies of new organic, inorganic and hybrid material layers and structures, and investigation of electric, photoelectric and charge carrier transport features

RESEARCH PROJECTS CARRIED OUT IN 2018

Project Supported by University Budget

Solid State Physics and Technologies. Prof. K. Arlauskas.

The method of investigation of charge carrier recombination in interlayer region of organic material heterojunctions using i-CELIV was proposed.

Main publication:

Juška, G., Genevičius, K. 2018. Investigation of recombination in organic heterostructures by i-CELIV. Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 113, p. 123301.

The theoretical modelling and experimental investigation of features of charge carrier transport in case of multiple trapping as well as electric field distribution in CZT detectors have been performed.

Main publications:

Nenashev, A. V., Oelerich, J. O., Jandieri, K., Juška, G. et al. 2018. Field-enhanced mobility in the multiple-trapping regime. Phys. Rev. B, vol. 98, 035201.

Karasyuk, P., Shepelytskyi, Y., Semeniuk, O., Juška G. et al. 2018. Investigation of photoconductivity and electric field distribution in CZT detectors by time-of-flight (TOF) and charge extraction by linearly increasing voltage (CELIV). Journal of Materials Science-Materials in Electronics, vol. 29, 13941–13951.

The hole transport organic material, which may ensure the prolonged stability of perovskite solar cells, has been investigated.

Main publication:

Magomedov, A., Kasparavičius, E., Rakstys, K., Paek, S., Gasilova, N., Genevičius, K., Juška, G., Malinauskas, T., Nazeeruddin, M.K., Getautis, V. 2018. Pyridination of hole transporting material in perovskite solar cells questions the long-term stability. J. Mater. Chem. C, vol. 6, p. 8874–8878.

For the purpose to achieve/ensure the high efficiency of perovskite solar cells the spray method for formation of perovskite layers has been developed.
The electron emission spectra and the structure of electronic states using slow electron counting detector together with charge carrier transport of carbazole-based organic semiconductor materials with diphenylamine-substitutes and aniline-based enamines for perovskite solar cells have been investigated.

Main publications:

Vaitukaityte, D., Wang, Z., Malinauskas, T., Magomedov, A., Bubniene, G., Jankauskas, V., Getautis, V., Snaith, H. J. 2018. Efficient and stable perovskite solar cells using low-cost aniline-based enamine hole-transporting materials. Advanced Materials, vol. 30(45), 1803735,
doi: 10.1002/adma.201803735.

Magomedov, A., Paek, S., Gratia, P., Kasparavicius, E., Daskeviciene, M., Kamarauskas, E., Gruodis, A., Jankauskas, V., Kantminiene, K., Cho, K. T., Rakstys, K., Malinauskas, T., Getautis, V., Nazeeruddin, M. K. 2018. Diphenylamine-substituted carbazole-based hole transporting materials for perovskite solar cells: influence of isomeric derivatives. Advanced Functional Materials, vol. 28(9), 1704351, doi: 10.1002/adfm.201704351.

The role of negative direct current and alternating current (plasma) corona treatments in modification of bio-based dispersion barrier coatings and the response of replacing fossil-based binder with a thermoplastic bio-based binder (starch) were investigated. The coatings were exposed to different corona treatment conditions using a novel developed sheet-fed laboratory-scale device. Corona-induced topographical, mechanical and surface chemical changes were observed from atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and contact angle and surface energy measurements.
XPS results indicated further that partial starch decomposition occurred after plasma treatment. Coated surfaces became substantially smoother after both treatments suggesting that nanoparticle migration and re-orientation effects occurred.

Main publication:

Lyytikäinena, J., Ovaska, S.-S., Soboleva, E., Rinkunas, R., Lozovski, T., Maldzius, R., Sidaravicius, J., Johanssone, L. S., Backfolk, K. 2018. Optimizing electric corona treatment for hydroxypropylated starch-based coatings. Carbohydrate Polymers, vol. 197, p. 359–365,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbpol.2018.06.030.

The possibilities to apply of vacancy superdiffusion in c-Si for formation of SiC diode have been investigated.

Main publication:

Janavičius, A. J., Purlys, R., Rinkūnas, R., Daugėla, S., Viliūnas, M. 2018. Supercrystalization produced with X-rays and applications. International J. of Modern Engineering Research (IJMER), vol. 8(7), p. 31–34.

Using HW CVD apparatus the diamond layers onto crystalline silicone substrates have be deposited.

Contractual Research 

Research Cooperation Contract: Omega. Coordinators: Stora Enso Oyj, Finland, Vilnius University, Lithuania, 2018. Prof. K. Arlauskas.

MAIN R&D&I (RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION) PARTNERS

Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas (Lithuania)
Lappeenranta University, Lappeenranta (Finland)
Stora Enso Oyj (Finland)
School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland (Australia)
Thunder Bay Research Institute, Thunder Bay (Canada)

 

INSTITUTE OF PHOTONICS AND NANOTECHNOLOGY

3 Sauletekio, LT-10257 Vilnius
Tel. 223 4482
E-mail: 

Head – Prof. Dr. Saulius Antanas Juršėnas

STAFF
Professors: Dr. E. Gaubas (part-time), Dr. K. Jarašiūnas (professor emeritus), Dr. S. A. Juršėnas (part-time), Dr. V. Kažukauskas, Dr. E. Kuokštis, Dr. V. Tamošiūnas, Dr. G. Tamulaitis (part-time), Dr. R. Tomašiūnas (part-time), Dr. J. V. Vaitkus (professor emeritus), Dr. G. Valušis (part-time).
Associate professors: Dr. R. Aleksiejūnas (part-time), Dr. R. Butkutė (part-time), Dr. T. Malinauskas (part-time), Dr. S. Nargelas (part-time), Dr. S. Tamošiūnas (part-time), Dr. P. Vitta (part-time), Dr. E. Žąsinas (part-time).
Assistants: Dr. P. Adomėnas, Dr. A. Arlauskas (part-time), Dr. T. Čeponis (part-time), Dr. J. Jurkevičius (part-time), Dr. A. Mekys (part-time), Dr. L. Minkevičius (part-time), Dr. V. Nargelienė (part-time).
Junior Assistants: D. Banevičius (part-time), Mažena Mackoit-Sinkevičienė (part-time), E. Radiunas (part-time), A. Petrulis (part-time).
Senior research fellows: Dr. R. Aleksiejūnas, Dr. T. Čeponis, Dr. E. Gaubas, Dr. V. Grivickas, Dr.  S. A. Juršėnas, Dr. A. Kadys, Dr. K. Kazlauskas, Dr. V. Kažukauskas (part-time), Dr. Ž. Lukšienė, Dr. T. Malinauskas, Dr. J. Mickevičius, Dr. G. Tamulaitis, Dr. R. Tomašiūnas, Dr. A. Vaitkuvienė (part-time), Dr. P. Vitta.
Research fellows: Dr. O. Adomėnienė, Dr. V. Bikbajevas, Dr. D. Dobrovolskas, Dr. T. Grinys, Dr. J. Jurkevičius, Dr. A. Mekys, Dr. A. Miasojedovas (part-time), Dr. S. Miasojedovas, Dr. A. Novičkovas, Dr. J. Pavlov, Dr. S. Raišys, Dr. I. Reklaitis, Dr. V. Rumbauskas, Dr. T. Serevičius, Dr. P. Ščajev, Dr. E. Žąsinas.
Junior research fellows: K. Aponienė, P. Baronas, I. Buchovec, S. Butkus (part-time), M. Dmukauskas, J. Jovaišaitė, R. Komskis, O. Kravcov, G. Kreiza, S. Mačiulytė (part-time), D. Meškauskaitė, K. Nomeika, A. Petrulis, Ž. Podlipskas, A. Zabiliūtė-Karaliūnė
Engineers: S. Bikantienė, O. Bobrovas, V. Dadurkevičius, V. Gaidelis, V. Gėgžna, K. Gelžinytė, V. Kalcas, K. Kaliatka, L. Kaziukonytė, M. Kolenda, Ž. Komičius, G. Medeišienė, S. Nargelas (part-time), P. Herkus, F. Ralienė, D. A. Ralys, V. Ruibys, Dr. A. Samuilis, R. Skaisgiris, J. Vaičiulis, A. Vaitkevičius, D. Varanius
Technicians: L. Deveikis, R. Lebionka, V. Marčiulionytė, M. Pikaikinas, M. Riauka, K. Pūkas, Ž. Vosylius, V. Žvinytė
Doctoral students: K. Badokas, D. Banevičius, M. Černauskas, L. Deveikis, M. Dmukauskas, K. Gelžinytė, J. Jovaišaitė, M. Kolenda, R. Komskis, O. Kravcov, G. Kreiza, D. Meškauskaitė, K. Nomeika, Ž. Podlipskas, E. Radiunas, M. Skapas, A. Vaitkevičius, A. Zabiliūtė-Karaliūnė.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

A working out new methods of synthesis of selected structure of organic compounds
Applications of light emitting diodes
Artificial intelligence in various Lithuanian language computer implementations: e.g. machine translation, search systems, intelligent dictionaries, text parsing and data mining
Bio-, immuno-, DNA- sensors based on nanostructured conducting polymers
Carrier transport phenomena in organic materials and solar cell structures
Characterization, optimization and applications of light-emitting diodes and their systems
Computer simulation of crystal surface and defects
Development of GaN devices (LED, detectors, resonators, photonic devices)
Development of laser-based spectroscopic techniques with temporal, spectral, and spatial resolution for characterization of novel semiconductor materials for optoelectronics Development of measurement techniques for comprehensive characterization of photo-sensors, particle detectors, light emitting diodes and solar-cells
Development of measurement technologies and instrumentation for the in situ characterization of material and device structures under heavy irradiations by hadrons
Development of novel glass ceramic materials for optoelectronic applications
Development of novel organic materials and technologies for optoelectronic applications
Development of the dictionary of contemporary Lithuanian
Development of ultrafast scintillation detectors and infrared radiation-hard detectors
Dosimetry of large fluence irradiations
Dynamics of nonequilibrium carriers and excitons in highly excited semiconductors and their low-dimensional structures
Efficient technology for ultra-pure liquid crystal and OLED intermediates
Epitaxy of GaN and alloys, multi-quantum wells by MOCVD technology
Formation of OLED, light upconversion structures and organic sensor systems
Intelligent solid-state lighting systems for outdoor lighting
Investigation of native and ionizing radiation induced defects and micro-inhomogeneities in semiconductor materials and device structures
Investigation of photoinduced phenomena and optical memory effect in trinomial chalcogenide layers
Lighting systems for vegetable growth with improved nutritional quality
Lighting systems with advanced colour rendition control for general and niche lighting
New compounds and intermediates for OLED technology
Nondestructive characterization of wide band gap semiconductor materials
Nonequilibrium carrier relaxation, transport and related photoelectrical phenomena in highly excited semiconductors and their nanostructures
Optical nonlinearities in semiconductors caused by free carriers, electrooptic and spin-related mechanisms
Organic material (alanine) based dosimetry
Photophysics of organic electronics compounds
Radiation detectors, high-density scintillation crystals
Spectroscopic characterization of novel inorganic and organic semiconductor materials for optoelectronics
Spectroscopy of deep levels in wide-gap semiconductors as GaN and different technology diamond
Structural, optical and electrical properties of InGaN/GaN multi-quantum wells
Structure and photoluminescence spectroscopy investigation of polar, semi-polar and non-polar III-nitride structures
Synthesis methods for nitrogen and sulphur heterocycles, highly branched aromatic compounds
Synthesis of organic compounds by methods known from the literature
Trans-cis mobility in polymers, also at the GaN surface
Wide –gap material scintillators for detection and dosimetry of hadron irradiations

RESEARCH PROJECTS CARRIED OUT IN 2018

Projects Supported by University Budget

Development, Investigation and Application of Advanced Semiconductor Structures for Optoelectronics. Dr. R. Tomašiūnas. 2016–2018.

The main focus of the project was on the development of III-nitrides MOCVD technology and experimental investigations of nitride epilayers and structures. The technological study concentrated on the conventional and pulsed growth approaches, and the improvement of InN/p-GaN heterojunction. The influence of carrier localization on carrier dynamics was studied by using spatially- ant time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. The light-induced transient grating technique was used for studies of nitride structures grown on various polar, semi-polar, and non-polar substrates.
Carrier injection, transport and relaxation were also studied in other semiconductor materials and structures, prospective for optoelectronic and photoelectric applications. Carrier transport and recombination was investigated in layered chalcogenide and diamond semiconductors. The photo-galvanomagnetic transport phenomena were analyzed. Experimental techniques were developed: XTOF method was automated and software was developed.
The third research direction was the development of high-energy radiation detector and dosimeter technology. Radiation-induced defect modification engineering was investigated. Measurement techniques for characterization of detector parameters were developed.

Main publications:

Mickevičius, J., Dobrovolskas, D., Steponavičius, T., Malinauskas, T., Kolenda, M., Kadys, A., Tamulaitis, G. 2018. Engineering of InN epilayers by repeated deposition of ultrathin layers in pulsed MOCVD growth. Applied Surface Science, vol. 427, p. 1027–1032. 

Gaubas, E., Čeponis, T., Deveikis, L., Meškauskaitė, D., Pavlova, J., Rumbauskas, V., Vaitkus, J., Moll, M., Ravotti, F. 2018. Anneal induced transformations of defects in hadron irradiated Si wafers and Schottky diodes. Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing, vol. 75, p. 157–165. 

Aleksiejūnas, R., Podlipskas, Ž., Nargelas, S., Kadys, A., Kolenda, M., Nomeika, K., Mickevičius, J., Tamulaitis, G. 2018. Direct Auger recombination and density-dependent hole diffusion in InN. Scientific Reports, vol. 8, p. 4621.

Moon, D. I., Kim, B., Peterson, R., Badokas, K., Seol, M. L., Senesky, D. G., Han, J. W., Meyyappan, M. 2018. A single input multiple output (SIMO) variation-tolerant nanosensor. ACS Sensors, vol. 3, p. 1782–1788.

Organic photonics. Prof. S. A. Juršėnas. 2018–2020.

The project is addressed to organic crystal growth by physical vapor transport method, identification of crystal stucture and application in device prototypes. Synthesis, purification and application of new efficient organic emitter materials for photonics applications. Expansion of ultrafast spectroscopy setup for measurements in infrared region, optimization for polaron spectroscopy in organic materials. Production of organic light emitting diodes by vacuum deposition and wet-casting methods in oxygen-free atmosphere. Applications of scanning electron and atomic force microscopy for performing morfological, electrical conductance and thermal analysis at nanoscale. Electron paramagnetic resonance (ESR) spectroscopy of Alanine and other organic compounds affected by ionizing radiation for applications in dosimetry and analysis of radiation spectra.

Main publications:

Baronas, P., Kreiza, G., Adomėnas, P., Adomėnienė, O., Kazlauskas, K., Ribierre, J.-Ch., Adachi, Ch., Juršėnas, S. 2018. Low-threshold light amplification in bifluorene single crystals: role of the trap states. Applied Materials & Interfaces, vol 10, p. 2768–2775.

Ščajev, P., Qin, Ch., Aleksiejūnas, R., Baronas, P., Miasojedovas, S., Fujihara, T., Matsushima, T., Adachi, Ch., Juršėnas, S. 2018. Diffusion enhancement in highly excited MAPbI3 Perovskite layers with additives. Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, vol. 9, p. 3167–3172.

Serevičius, T., Bučiūnas, T., Bucevičius, J., Dodonova, J., Tumkevičius, S., Kazlauskas, K., Juršėnas, S. 2018. Room temperature phosphorescence vs. thermally activated delayed fluorescence in carbazole–pyrimidine cored compounds. Journal of Materials Chemistry C, vol. 6, p. 11128–11136.

Raišys, S., Juršėnas, S., Simon, Y. C., Weder, Ch., Kazlauskas, K. 2018. Enhancement of triplet-sensitized upconversion in rigid polymers via singlet exciton sink approach. Chemical Science, vol. 9, p. 6796.

Solid-State Lighting Technologies. Dr. P. Vitta. 2016–2018.

1. Recently, a novel method for evaluation of recombination coefficients corresponding to Shockley-Read-Hall, radiative, and Auger recombination channels has been proposed, which combines measurements of the light emitting diode (LED) external quantum efficiency under continuous wave operation with the determination of non-equilibrium carrier differential life time (DLT) by small-signal time-resolved photoluminescence. Therefore, an alternative technique, small-signal frequency-domain lifetime measurements was suggested with a potential to implement more easily and capable of operating in a wider range of LED operating currents. The DLTs measured by both techniques were shown to agree well with each other, but saturate at low currents, contrary to the trend predicted by the well-known ABC-model. Possible reasons for this deviation, as well as advantages and limitations of the measurement techniques are discussed.

2. The existence of regions of correlated color temperature (CCT) and illuminance at which the illumination is considered “pleasing” (Kruithof hypothesis) has been tested in several outdoor environments using a smart tetrachromatic solid-state light engine with tunable CCT and high-fidelity color rendition. Subjects from a culturally homogeneous group were asked to find the most “pleasing” illumination conditions at the set illuminance levels of 5 lx and 50 lx by performing a CCT adjustment task within a wide range of 1850–10,000 K at a fixed initial condition of 1900 K. The selected intervals or preferred CCT were found to shift to higher values with increased illuminance almost independently of the content of the viewed scene with statistical significance, which qualitatively is in agreement with the Kruithof hypothesis. However, the intervals of CCT for pleasing illumination were found to be shifted to a broader and higher “warm white” range than those predicted by Kruithof. In addition, subjects were asked to find the most pleasing illumination conditions when the adjustment of CCT was accompanied by instantaneous dimming in order to maintain constant circadian irradiance.

Main publications:

Petrulis, A., Petkevičius, L., Vitta, P., Vaicekauskas, R., Žukauskas, A. 2018. Exploring preferred correlated color temperature in outdoor environments using a smart solid-state light engine. LEUKOS, vol. 14, p. 95–106.

Viršilė, A., Brazaitytė, A., Jankauskienė, J., Miliauskienė, J., Vaštakaitė, V., Odminytė, I.,  Novičkovas, A.,  Samuolinė, G. 2018. Pre-harvest LED lighting strategies for reduced nitrate contents in leafy vegetables. Zemdirbyste-Agriculture, vol. 105, no. 3, p. 249–256.

Paškevičiūtė, E., Žudytė, B., Lukšienė, Ž. 2018. Towards better microbial safety of fresh produce: Chlorophyllin-based photosensitization for microbial control of foodborne pathogens on cherry tomatoes. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology, vol. 182, p. 130–136.   

National Research Projects

Research Council of Lithuania. Centre of Technologies of the Contactless and Remote Detection of Ionizing Radiations (No. 01.2.2-CPVA-K-703-02-0002). Habil. Dr. E. Gaubas. 2018–2021.

The project aims at the development of the ionizing radiation detection and characterization systems based on the material interaction with ionizing, optic and microwave radiation. Novel methods and prototype equipment enabling the radiation detection, measurement and monitoring in a wide range of fluencies are intended to be developed. The systems have no analogues on the global market of remote and fast detection technologies.

Research Council of Lithuania. Creation of the Prototype Wide-Spectrum Dosimetry System for Various Purpose Monitoring of Irradiations (No. 01.2.2-LMT-K-718-01-0013). Habil. Dr. E. Gaubas. 2018–2022.

The radiation technologies gain the increased role over nowadays innovations of the scientific&technological developments and applications: e.g., speeding of high power transducers by introduction of radiation defects, implantation&transmutation technologies for advanced doping technologies in microelectronics, accelerator&radioactive isotope equipment for medical diagnostics and therapy, etc. Simultaneously, exploitation of nuclear power plants, of high brightness particle accelerators and spallators needs the precise and in situ dosimetry monitoring for the proper governing of technological processes, for relevant storage of nuclear fuel and its waste, for permanent control of instruments employed within acceleration and spallation facilities, and, eventually, for environmental and personnel safety purposes. The project objective is to research and develop the optimal sensor materials, structures as well as layer parameters and to create a technology of fabrication of the sensor-reading instrumentation, capable to perform fast scans of big amount of sensors, to operate in remote and in situ signal recording modes in order to produce a prototype dosimetry system for wide spectrum and fluence range of irradiations. The tasks of the project would be addressed to search of materials and their combinations for making of the dual and triple response sensors and to development of the measurement engineering means for fabrication of the dose readers’ instrumentation and technology of assembly of various modules into a single device, which composes the microwave, laser and photonic technologies.

Research Council of Lithuania. Development of Advanced Optoelectronic Materials via Smart Molecular Engineering (No. 09.3.3-LMT-K-718-01-0026). Prof. S. A. Juršėnas. 2018-2022

The project is intended to create series of novel organic electronic materials - niche products with unique properties, and develop their large-scale synthesis and purification technologies. The project partner “Fine Synthesis Ltd” (FS) has expertise in synthesis of organic electronic and photonic materials as well as in development of technologies for large-scale synthesis and purification. FS is highly interested in development of niche organic electronic products with unique properties.

Research Council of Lithuania. MOCVD Growth of III-Nitride Semiconductors by Van Der Waals Epitaxy on Graphene (No. 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-01-0076). Dr. T. Malinauskas. 2018–2022.

Project goal is to improve scientific competence by executing research project on growth of III-nitrides epilayers and nanostructures for optoelectronics using graphene. The main task is to investigate peculiarities of MOCVD growth of III nitrides on graphene by employing complementary characterization methods. The main idea and novelty of project is based on using new method of semiconductor growth - van der Waals (vdW) epitaxy for III-nitrides using graphene as buffer layer. VdW epitaxy using graphene will enable easy lift-off of epitaxial layers from substrate. This feature will allow multiple use of expensive homoepitaxial bulk GaN substrate. While the use of these substrates will guarantee higher crystalline quality of epitaxial layers, and therefore higher efficiency of optoelectronics devices grown on top. MOCVD growth of GaN using vdW and graphene will be researched using different substrates - GaN template on sapphire, bulk GaN, SiC, sapphire and Si. The vdW epitaxy physics and properties of grown epitaxial layers and nanostructures will be investigated using structural, optical and electrical characterization methods. The project will result in improved scientific competence of researchers, development of new technology, the dissemination of scientific results in high quality peer reviewed scientific publications and international conferences.
Research Council of Lithuania. Neutron Flux Detection System with Optical Readout (No. 01.2.2-LMT-K-718-01-0041). Prof. G. Tamulaitis. 2018–2022.
The Project is aimed at the development and prototyping of a system capable to monitor neutron fluxes up to the densities above 1010 neutron/cm2/s, which are substantially higher than those monitored by the detection systems currently in use. The targeted applications are primarilly nuclear power plants and spallation facilities. The Project is planned in line with the priority Photonic and Laser Technologies of the Smart Specialization. The Project will contribute to the implementation of the specific objective of the corresponding Action plan „to research and establish optic and optomechanical components” and join the activities carried out to “research new glass, ceramics, crystal materials and fiber in lasers and nonlinear optical devices” in order to develop a device for monitoring dense neutron fluxes, which is based on a novel concept and contains a short-pulse laser and an optic unit exploiting nonlinear optical phenomena in radiation hard single crystal to be selected as optimal.

Research Council of Lithuania. Production and Investigation of Advanced Geometry Nitride Harmonic Generators (No. 01.2.2-LMT-K-718-01-0018). Dr. R. Tomašiūnas. 2018–2022.

The goal of the project is to enhance the ability of commercialisation and transfer of knowledge while developing new GaN based second harmonic generation (SHG) sources. Main task of the project is to develop and test GaN structures of new technologies for effetive SHG (>25 %) and pulse compression (> 150). The realisation of a GaN SHG crystal would substantially widen the appliction capabilities due to itsresistance against chemical and ionisation environments.

Research Council of Lithuania. Triplet State Engineering in Organic Optoelectronics Compounds (No. 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-01-0084). Dr. K. Kazlauskas. 2018–2022.

The project targets triplet state engineering of novel organic materials, accessible via molecular structure tunability, to harvest the energy stored in the triplet states for enhancing the performance of organic optoelectronics devices. Utilization of the energy stored in the form of a triplet excitation in the devices such as organic solar cells and OLEDs has created a great challenge for researchers, which lasted for manyyears. The issue caused low performance of organic electronic devices thereby severely limiting their competiveness and practicalapplications as compared to their inorganic counterparts.

Research Council of Lithuania. Postdoc Fellowship. Investigation of Electric and Scintillation Characteristics of Algan-Gan Structures Impacted by High Energy Radiations (No. 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-02-0012). Dr. J. Pavlov, Prof. G. Tamulaitis. 2017–2019.

The idea of the project is based on the modification of luminescence spectra of AlGaN-GaN scintillators by radiation defects to increase the threshold of radiation hardness of sensors needed for future experiments at CERN. The objective of the project is to increase the scientific competence in order to reveal the impact of radiation defects in AlGaN-GaN scintillator structures for transformations of luminescence spectra and electrical characteristics, those employed for detection of high energy radiation. The novelty of the project is related with the development of the contact as well as contactless techniques for defect spectroscopy in order to reveal the impact of polarization effects and the impact of different layers of the AlGaN-GaN structures for operational device characteristics. The following task is foreseen to implement the objective: investigation of the modifications of luminescence spectra by varying hadron fluence in structures of various thickness and of different technology (HVPE, MOCVD, ammono) AlGaN-GaN, grown on sapphire and Si substrates. Two main activities will be implemented: 1) investigation of variations of the electrical and luminescence characteristics in buffer layers (AlGaN, AlN) of GaN/Si and GaN/sapphire structures by varying high energy proton fluence for synchronous generation of electrical-optical signals; 2) investigation of variations of scintillator signals dependent on proton and neutron fluence in AlGaN-GaN structures of different thickness. The practical novelty of the project is associated with the development of characterization techniques devoted to investigation of multi-layered structures with high density of intrinsic defects. The identified defects and the evaluated parameters as well as luminescence characteristics would be beneficial for the characterization of newly synthesized materials and structures.

Research Council of Lithuania. Postdoc Fellowship. Investigation of Optical Properties of Fiber Scintillators for High Energy Physics Experiments (No. 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-02-0018) Dr. D. Dobrovoslkas, Habil. Dr. E. Gaubas. 2017–2019.

Fiber-shaped scintillators are planned to be used in the next generation of calorimeters for high energy physics experiments. The feasibility of the fibers was already demonstrated by experiments in European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).  However, to fully utilize all the advantages of scintillator fibers several roadblocks must be cleared. The most notably the performance of fiber-shaped scintillators is hampered by inhomogeneous distribution of rare-earth dopants inside the fibers. To improve the efficiency of scintillators there is a need to study the dimensions and causes of dopants segregations. This project will analyze fiber-shaped scintillators using confocal spectroscopy technique ensuring high (<300 nm) spatial resolution. Additionally, samples will be characterized with luminescence spectroscopy, luminescence efficiency and time resolve techniques. These measurements will allow to monitor recombination processes occurring crystals and to assess the quality of the scintillation detectors. The results of this project not only will contribute to the improvement of the calorimeter technology but also will raise qualification and competence of the researcher and ensure a successful involvement in CERN activities.

Research Council of Lithuania. Postdoc Fellowship. Perovskite White LED (PWLED) (No. 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-02-0009). Dr. P. Ščajev, Dr. R. Tomašiūnas. 2017–2019.

The project goal is to produce perovskite white LEDs, with good colour rendering index (Ra>80), and with variable correlated colour temperature (CCT=2500–7000 K). It will be realized through a development of perovskite blue LED and few lower bandgap perovskite layers absorbing blue emission and emitting in cyan-red spectral range. Photonic structures for light extraction efficiency enhancement, efficiency changes on driving current and temperature will be investigated.

Research Council of Lithuania. Distinction of the Influences of Defects and Carrier Localization on Emission in Green InGaN LED Structures (Delokingan) (No. MIP-079/2015). Dr. J. Mickevičius. 2015–2018.

The project is focused on technological study of growth of InGaN structures emitting in a wide spectral range using MOCVD and optimization of growth parameters, investigations of spatial distribution of luminescence in InGaN epilayers and quantum well structures, and study of the relation between carrier dynamics and localization in InGaN structures.

Main publications:

Mickevičius, J., Dobrovolskas, D., Aleknavičius, J., Grinys, T., Kadys, A., Tamulaitis, G. 2018. Spatial redistribution of photoexcited carriers in InGaN/GaN structures emitting in a wide spectral range. Journal of Luminescence, vol. 199, p. 379.

Mickevičius, J., Grinys, T., Kadys, A., Tamulaitis, G. 2018. Optimization of growing green-emitting InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells on stress-relieving superlattices. Optical Materials, vol. 82, p. 71.

Research Council of Lithuania. Enhancing Light Upconversion Efficiency in Organic Films for Optoelectronic Applications (Lightupcon) (No. S-MIP-17-77). Dr. K. Kazlauskas. 2017–2020.

The project aims to improve light upconversion efficiency in organic solid films via triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA) for optoelectronic applications. TTA allows accomplishing light upconversion (UC) in organic films from longer wavelengths to shorter ones by irradiating them with low intensity non‐coherent light, e.g. sunlight. The application of TTA-UC films opens up possibilities to enhance efficiency of solar cells by means of converting of poorly absorbed red-IR photons to shorter wavelength photons, which can contribute to photocurrent. One of the unresolved problems of TTA-UC – very low UC efficiency in organic films (1–2%), what hinders their practical applications. The project will focus on identification and elimination of the factors limiting TTA-UC efficiency in organic solid films.

Main publication:

Raišys, S., Juršėnas, S., Simon, Y.C., Weder, Ch., Kazlauskas, K. 2018. Enhancement of triplet-sensitized upconversion in rigid polymers via singlet exciton sink approach. Chemical Science, vol. 9, p. 6796.

European TD COST Action TD1401: Fast Advanced Scintillator Timing (FAST).  Prof. Habil. Dr. G. Tamulaitis. 2014–2018.

FAST aims at establishing an interdisciplinary network that brings together experts from different fields of interest in order to develop photon instrumentation with an unparalleled timing precision of <100ps.

Research Council of Lithuania. Origins and Pathways of Non-Radiative Recombination in Nonpolar and Semipolar Ingan Structures (NORAD) (No. MIP-17-75). Dr. S. Nargelas. 2017–2020.

The project is aimed at investigations of recombination pathways of free carriers in III-nitride structures oriented along the non-polar and semi-polar axis. In this project, a novel method of sample growth will be implemented, where InGaN structures will be deposited by pulsed-MOCVD on native GaN substrates.

Research Council of Lithuania. Perovskite Laser (PERLAS) (No. MIP-17-71). Prof. S. Juršėnas. 2017–2020.

In this project, the technology of a perovskite laser emitting in the visible range will be developed. Unique investigation techniques and sophisticated deposition technologies will be applied to optimize the carrier transport and optical parameters of the perovskite layers, seeking to achieve very low threshold of amplified spontaneous emission and lasing.

Main publication:

Ščajev, P., Qin Ch., Aleksiejūnas, R., Baronas, P., Miasojedovas, S., Fujihara, T., Matsushima, T., Adachi, Ch., Juršėnas, S. 2018. Diffusion enhancement in highly excited MAPbI3 perovskite layers with additives. Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, vol. 9, p. 3167–3172.

Projects Supported by the Lithuanian Academy of Science

National Research Programme Towards Future Technologies: III-nitride Semiconductors for Radiation-Hard Infrared Detectors (Irdet) (No. LAT-05/2016). Prof. Habil. Dr. G. Tamulaitis. 2016–2018.

The project is aimed at optimization of growth conditions for InN and low-Ga-content InGaN epitaxial layers and heterostructures to meet the requirements for utilization in infrared detectors and to ensure the radiation hardness, which is sufficient for exploitation in space applications.

Main publications:

Aleksiejūnas, R., Podlipskas, Ž., Nargelas, S., Kadys, A., Kolenda, M., Nomeika, K.,  Mickevičius, J., Tamulaitis, G. 2018. Direct Auger recombination and density-dependent hole diffusion in InN. Scientific Reports, vol. 8, p. 4621.

Mickevičius, J., Dobrovolskas, D., Steponavičius, T., Malinauskas, T., Kolenda, M., Kadys A., Tamulaitis, G. 2018. Engineering of InN epilayers by repeated deposition of ultrathin layers in pulsed MOCVD growth. Applied Surface Science, vol. 427, p.1027.

International Research Projects

H2020 Project AIDA-2: Advanced European Infrastructures for Detectors at Accelerators. Prof. Habil. Dr. J. V. Vaitkus, Prof. Habil. Dr. G. Tamulaitis. 2015–2018.

VU WP (at Department of New Materials Research and Measurement Technology) Project is devoted to search and investigations of the simple and cheap technology Si wafers for fabrication of dosimeters exploited in dose-reading using VUTEG-5-AIDA instrument.

M-ERA.NET. Functional Inorganic Layers for Next Generation Optical Devices (FLINGO). Dr. R. Tomašiūnas. 2016–2019.

During the first months of implementation of the project kick-off meeting was visited. Project website was discussed with partners and preparations started. Among partners suitable experimental set-ups need for project implementation were discussed and selected.

Lithuanian–Belarus Research project: Transient Optical Processes in Compensated Silicon Carbide and Chalcogenide 2D Semiconductors (LB-17-001). Dr. V. Grivickas. 2017–2018.

Main publications:

Bondarenko, E. A., Streltsov, E. A., Mazanik, A.V., Kulak, A. I., Grivickas, V., Ščajev, P., Skorb, E. V. 2018. Bismuth oxysulfide film electrodes with giant incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency: the dynamics of properties with deposition time. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, vol. 20, p. 20340.

Kazyrevich, M. E., Streltsov, E. A., Malashchonak, М. V., Mazanik, A. V., Kulak, A. I., Ščajev, P.,  Grivickas, V. 2018. Crystal stacking: A route to control photoelectrochemical behavior of BiOBr films. Electrochimica Acta, vol. 290, p. 63–71.

MAIN R&D&I (RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION) PARTNERS

Acros Organics B.V.B.A. (Belgium)
Adolphe Merkle Institute, University of Fribourg (Switzerland)
Advinus Therapeutics PVT Ltd. (India)
Aixtron AG (Germany)
Akos Consulting & Solutions GmbH (USA)
Alfa Aesar, Avocado Research Chemicals Ltd. (UK)
Alfa Aesar GmbH & Co. KG (Germany)
Alkali Metals Ltd. (India)
AppliChem GmbH (Germany)
Austin Chemical Company, Inc. (USA)
BCH Research L.L.P. (USA)
BCR GmbH & Co. KG (Germany)
Camida Ltd. (Ireland)
Carl Roth GmbH & Co. (Germany)
Centre of Organic Electronics and Photonics Research, Kyushu University (Japan)
Centre for Physical Sciences and Technology (Lithuania)
Chemosyntha N.V. (Belgium)
Chukan Butsu Ltd. (Japan)
CMS Chemicals Ltd. (UK)
Connect Marketing GmbH (Switzerland)
Crystal Clear Collaboration (RD18) at CERN
Discovery Fine Chemicals Ltd. (UK)
DKSH Switzerland Ltd. (Switzerland)
Durham University (United Kingdom)
Elite Inter-Chem FZC (UnitedArabEmirates)
Eurolabs Ltd. (UK)
Fraunhofer ISC (Germany)
International Centre for Genetic Engineering And Biotechnology (India)
JSC Ledigma (Lithuania)
JSC Tikslioji sintezė (Lithuania)
Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania)
KISCO Deutschland GmbH (Germany)
KISCO Tokyo Ltd. (Japan)
Korea University (South Korea)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA)
Matrix Marketing GmbH (Switzerland)
Maybridge Ltd. (UK)
MBraun Inertgas-Systeme GmbH (Germany)
Military University of Technology (Poland)
Mirae Interchem Co. Ltd. (South Corea)
Molekula UK Ltd. (UK)
MP Biomedicals LLC (USA)
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) (Japan)
Niche Materials Ltd. (UK)
Organica Feinchemie GmbH Wolfen (Germany)
OSRAM Opto Semiconductors (Germany)
Panslavia Chemicals LLC (USA)
PPW "AWAT" Spolka z o. o (Poland)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy NY, USA)
Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden)
Santa Cruz Biotechnology Inc (USA)
Sensor Electronic Technology Inc. (USA)
Sigma-Aldrich Logistik GmbH (Germany)
Sumitomo Shoji Chemicals Co. Ltd. (Japan)
Synthon Chemicals GmbH & Co.KG (Germany)
Taiwan National University
TCI Europe NV (Belgium)
Tianjin Datao International Trade Co. Ltd. (China)
TOPGAN (Poland)
Translucent Inc. (USA)
UCB Pharma SA (Belgium)
Ukrorgsyntez Ltd. (Ukraine)
University of Alicante (Spain)
University of Bordeaux (France)

OTHER SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES

Dr. V. Bikbajevas

Dr. V. Grivickas

Prof. S. Juršėnas

Prof. G. Tamulaitis

Dr. R. Tomašiūnas

  • member of the Technical Committee 73 Nanotechnologies, Lithuanian Standards Board;
  • member of the Lithuanian Material Research Society (LtMRS), http://www.ltmrs.lt/old/members.htm;
  • member of the management committee of COST MP1403 Nanoscale Quantum Optics action.

 

LASER RESEARCH CENTRE

10 Saulėtekio, LT-10223 Vilnius
Tel. 236 6050
E-mail: , ,

Head - Prof. Habil. Dr. Valdas Sirutkaitis (until April 2018),
           Prof. Dr. Roaldas Gadonas (until December 2018),
           Dr. Rytis Butkus.

STAFF

Professors: Habil. Dr. V. Sirutkaitis, Habil. Dr. R. Rotomskis, Habil. Dr. V. Smilgevičius, Dr. R. Gadonas, Dr. A. Dubietis, Dr. G. Valiulis, Dr. S. Bagdonas, Dr. M. Vengris, Habil. Dr. A. Piskarskas (emeritus), Habil. Dr. A. Stabinis (emeritus).
Leading research fellows: Dr. A. Varanavičius, Dr. V. Vaičaitis.
Associate professors: Dr. O. Balachninaitė, Dr. A. Matijošius, Dr. V. Karenauskaitė, Dr. V. Jarutis, Dr. A. Melninkaitis, Dr. V. Tamulienė, Dr. D. Paipulas, Dr. R. Butkus, Dr. G. Tamošauskas, Dr. V.Jukna.
Senior research fellows: Dr. E. Gaižauskas, Dr. R. Grigonis, Dr. M. Malinauskas.
Research fellows: Dr. D. Kaškelytė, Dr. S.Rekštytė, Dr. M. Peckus, Dr. V. Purlys, Dr. J. Vengelis.
Lecturer: J. Jurkienė.
Junior assistant: A. Kalnaitytė.
Engineer: A. Čiburys.
Doctoral students: L. Mažulė, I. Pipinytė, J. Vengelis, R. Budriūnas, S. Butkus, N. Garejev, D. Gailevičius, I. Stasevičius, M. Ivanov, T. Tičkūnas, L. Jonušauskas, R. Šuminas, L. Smalakys, A. Marcinkevičiūtė, S. Varapnickas, B. Momgaudis, S. Sobutas, G. Kontenis (from October 2018), D. Mackevičiūtė (from October 2018), D. Samsonas (from October 2018).

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Study of interaction of high power ultrashort light pulses with transparent media
Development of effective light frequency convertors and light pulse sources with the duration of few optical cycles and stable carrier-envelope phase
Study of femtosecond light filaments and generation of supercontinuum in transparent dielectrics
Development of new technologies for biomedical and industrial applications based on specific interaction of ultrashort light pulses with matter, enabling high precision material processing by surface and bulk modification
Development of optical methods of biomedical diagnostics and extension of application areas
In vivo and in vitro studies of spectral and photophysical properties of biologically active molecules and nanostructures aiming at optimisation of therapy and diagnostics
Imaging and spectroscopy of biologic objects
Nonlinear optics of ultrashort pulses
Ultrafast spectroscopy of photoactive molecules, nanostructures and semiconductors
Damage in bulk materials and coatings induced by femtosecond pulses
Optics characterization including reflection/transmission, scattering as well as absorption and laser-induced optical damage threshold in wide spectral range
Peculiarities of ultrafast exciton dynamics at reduced dimension in self-assembled molecular nanostructures and quantum dots
Laser submicro- and nanoscale engineering of functional 3D devices
High intensity ultrashort pulse generation by OPCPA systems
Time-resolved digital holography
Radial/azimuthal polarization beams, Bessel beams and optical vortices

MAIN SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2018

S. Vezzoli, V. Bruno, C. DeVault, T. Roger, V. M. Shalaev, A. Boltasseva, M. Ferrera, M. Clerici, A. Dubietis, D. Faccio. Optical time reversal from time-dependent Epsilon-Near-Zero media, Physical Review Letters 120, 043902.

A. Viotti, R. Lindberg, A. Zukauskas, R. Budriunas,D Kucinskas, T. Stanislauskas, F. Laurell, V. Pasiskevicius. Supercontinuum generation and soliton selfcompression in χ(2)-structured KTiOPO4 / Optica, 5(6), 711–717. https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.5.000711.

J. Vengelis, V. Jarutis, V.Sirutkaitis, Measurement of phase refractive index of photonic crystal fiber mode. Optics Letters, 43, 2571–2574.

Projects Supported by University Budget

Study of Fundamental Ultrafast Processes in Laser and Nonlinear Optical Systems. Prof. V. Sirutkaitis. 2018–2021.

A time-reversal feature was demonstrated in an optically pumped thin-film of epsilon-near-zero material based on Al-doped zinc oxide. As a result of the high nonlinearity and the refractive index that is close to zero, the thin-film leads to time reversed beams (simultaneous negative refraction and phase conjugation) with near-unit efficiency and greater-than-unit internal conversion efficiency.
A new experimental technique for measurement of the refractive index of a photonic crystal fiber fundamental mode was demonstrated. The refractive index of the fibre mode can be estimated by analysing a phase shift of interfering adjacent longitudinal laser modes of a continuous-wave laser corresponding to a shift from constructive to destructive interference.
A new method based on a single-shot pump probe digital holography was developed and has been used to image the intensity-induced phase shift and evaluate n2. in sapphire. In addition to high temporal and spatial resolution, the method has the ability to distinguish the nonlinear refraction from absorption, evaluate the absolute nondegenerate nonlinear refractive index, and determine the sign, dispersion, and induced birefringence.
A difference frequency mixing between a chirped visible broadband pulse and infrared non-chirped narrowband pulse for the generation of broad spectrum pulses with central wavelength at 2.1 μm. The generated chirped infrared radiation was further amplified in an optical parametric amplifier with spectral bandwidth supporting transform-limited pulses as short as sub-four optical cycles.
We have demonstrated, for the first time, a diffraction-induced filamentation in air of a weakly focused femtosecond laser beam and formation of the more than one octave spanning supercontinuum. The supercontinuum generation efficiency in such diffraction-induced laser filament was found to be at least an order of magnitude higher than that obtained from a simply focused beam.
It was demonstrated that undoped and doped YAG crystals exhibit remarkably different filament-induced luminescence spectra whose qualitative features are independent of the excitation wavelength and provide information on the energy deposition to embedded dopants, impurities, and the crystal lattice itself. These results suggest that filament-induced luminescence may serve as a simple and non-destructive tool for spectroscopic studies in various transparent dielectric media.

Main publications:

Vezzoli, S., Bruno, V., DeVault, C., Roger, T., Shalaev, V. M., Boltasseva, A., Ferrera, M., Clerici, M., Dubietis, A., Faccio, D. 2018. Optical time reversal from time-dependent Epsilon-Near-Zero media. Physical Review Letters, vol. 120, p. 043902.

Vengelis, J., Jarutis, V., Sirutkaitis, V. 2018. Measurement of phase refractive index of photonic crystal fiber mode. Optics Letters, vol. 43, p. 2571–2574.

Kudarauskas, D., Tamošauskas, G., Vengris, M., Dubietis, A. 2018. Filament-induced luminescence and supercontinuum generation in undoped, Yb-doped and Nd-doped YAG crystals. Applied Physics Letters, vol. 112, p. 041103.

Development of Laser Technologies for Industrial and Biomedical Applications. Prof. R. Gadonas 2018–2021.

Optical readout of local-heating in various prepolymers being processed by direct laser writing nanopolymerization technique was carried out. Variation of thermally-coupled spectral bands fluorescence intensity ratio by dispersed nanocrystals was observed in pulse energy range varying from below modification threshold to the optical breakdown. Temperature changes around polymerized voxel were measured within polymerization window as well as in overexposing regime.
The photobleaching of capped CdTe quantum dots (QDs) possessing a photoluminescence (PL) emission band in green or orange spectral regions (550 nm or 570 nm, respectively) was investigated in aqueous solution under irradiation with violet light. The three main stages were detected spectrophotometrically in the variable pattern of the PL intensity, in the capacity to recover the reduced PL intensity of QDs and in the spectroscopic changes of PL as well as absorption spectra of the photo exposed samples, which were associated with the photo induced modification and disintegration of a capping layer of QDs.
In a joint study with National Cancer Institute (NCI), accumulation and distribution of carboxylated CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs), chosen as model nanoparticles, was investigated in cellular spheroids composed of different phenotype mammalian cells as well as in human tumour xenografts being established in immune-deficient mice. The diffusive transport model was used for theoretical nanoparticles distribution estimation. QDs were shown to be stable and inert; they did not have any side-effects for cellular spheroids formation. Penetration of QDs in both cellular spheroids was found to be limited to the peripheral cells and showed similar tendencies for in vivo tumour model. The mathematical model confirmed the experimental results: nanoparticles penetrated only 25 µm in the cellular spheroids after 24h of incubation. 
The joint study performed also in collaboration with colleagues for Latvia University revealed the possibility of using the nanoengineered mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) being loaded with QDs as model vehicles for drug delivery to cancer cells.

Main publications:

Kalnaitytė, A., Bagdonas, S., Rotomskis, R. 2018. The dose-dependent photobleaching of CdTe quantum dots in aqueous media. Journal of Luminescence, vol. 201, p. 434–44.

Jarockyte, G., Dapkute, D., Karabanovas, V., Daugmaudis, J. V., Ivanauskas, F., Rotomskis, R. 2018. 3D cellular spheroids as tools for understanding carboxylated quantum dot behavior in tumors. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta-General Subjects, vol. 1862(4), p. 914–923.

Saulite, L., Pleiko, K., Popena, K. I., Dapkute, D., Rotomskis, R., Riekstina, U. 2018. Nanoparticle delivery to metastatic breast cancer cells by nanoengineered mesenchymal stem cells. Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, vol. 98, p. 321–332.

National Research Projects

Research Council of Lithuania programme Implementing World-class R&D project: Photonic Technologies of the Future: Extreme Light Sources and their Applications (No 01.2.2-LMT-K-718-01-0014 ). Prof. M. Vengris. 2018–2021.

Project goal: develop the industry-ready extreme light technologies employing novel nonlinear optical schemes, capable of generating high-energy, few-optical-cycles octave-spanning pulses in the VIS-nIR-midIR spectral range, based on applied research, enabling the reliability of the developed photonic devices.

Main publication:

Viotti, A., Lindberg, R., Zukauskas, A., Budriunas, R., Kucinskas, D., Stanislauskas, T., Laurell, F., Pasiskevicius, V. 2018. Supercontinuum generation and soliton selfcompression in χ(2)-structured KTiOPO4. Optica, vol. 5(6), p. 711–717, doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.5.000711.

Research Council of Lithuania Healthy Aging project: Fabrication of 3D Microstructured and Collagen Scaffolds with Chondrogenic Cells and Translational Application Ffr Cartilage Regeneration (Regen) (No. SEN-20/2015). Prof. R. Mačiulaitis. 2015–2018.

Scaffolds with different pore shapes (hexagons and rectangles) were fabricated using direct laser writing (DLW) in pre-polymers technique. After seeding them with chondrocytes the influence of pore shape to cell proliferation and production of extracellular matrix was determined. Rectangular pore shape was chosen to further investigate the importance of pore size (scaled by factors 1.5 and 2). Also, mechanical properties of the DLW fabricated scaffolds are being investigated and compared with collagen membranes.

Research Council of Lithuania programme Towards Future Technologies project: Optical 3D Micro-/Nano-Processing of Bioplastics (Optibioform) (No. S-LAT-17-2). Vilnius University and Kaunas University of Technology. Dr. M. Malinauskas. 2017–2018.

The goal of this Project is to study, optimize and install efficient optical 3D printing technologies for micro-/nano-processing of bioplastics derived from widely grown cereal cultures.

Main publications:

Skliutas, E., Kasetaite, S., Jonusauskas, L., Ostrauskaite, J., Malinauskas, M. 2018. Photosensitive naturally derived resins towards optical 3D printing. Opt. Eng., vol. 57(4), 041412, 10.1117/1.OE.57.4.041412, SPIE [IF - 1.082].

Jonusauskas, L., Juodkazis, S., Malinauskas, M. 2018. Optical 3D printing: bridging the gaps in the meso-scale. J. Opt.: invited review 20 053001, 10.1088/2040-8986/aab3fe, IOP [IF - 1.741].

Ryu, M., Linklater, D., Hart, W., Balčytis, A., Skliutas, E., Malinauskas, M., Appadoo, D., Tan, Y.-R.E., Ivanova, E. P, Morikawa, J. Juodkazis, S. 2018. 3D Printed polarising grids for IR-THz synchrotron radiation. Journal of Optics, vol. 20, p. 035101.

Research Council of Lithuania funded project (Research groups projects): Subtractive and Additive Laser Micromachining Synergy for Transparent Microtechnologies (+Tech-) (No. S-MIP-17-99). Dr. D. Paipulas. 2018–2020.

The aim of the project is to develop the hybrid femtosecond laser micromachining methods by combining two different manufacturing technologies thus expanding their technological potential. Up to now the subtractive and additive methods have been mostly cultivated separately. In the context of our project additive manufacturing includes optical printing of cross-linkable materials with sub-micrometer spatial resolution and arbitrary 3D architectures, which in turn are already successfully applied in photonic and microengineering applications. On the other hand, subtractive manufacturing covers precision free-form cutting, drilling, surface patterning and bulk modification of transparent materials (glasses) which are also widely used in the field of microtechnologies.

Research Council of Lithuania. Control of Filamentation Phenomena by Means of Competing Quadratic and Cubic Nonlinearities (COFIL), Grant No. APP-8/2016. Prof. A. Dubietis. 2016–2018.

The aim of the Project is to demonstrate efficient control of filamentation dynamics and related phenomena, such as pulse compression and supercontinuum generation in birefringent media by means of competing quadratic and cubic nonlinearities. The project actions include comprehensive theoretical, numerical and experimental studies of filamentation and supercontinuum generation dynamics in basic nonlinear crystals using broadly tuneable ultrashort laser pulses and so accessing the regimes of normal and anomalous group velocity dispersion.

Main publication:

Šuminas, R., Tamošauskas, G., Dubietis ,A. 2018. Filamentation-free self-compression of mid-infrared pulses in birefringent crystals with second-order cascading-enhanced self-focusing nonlinearity. Optics Letters, vol. 43, p. 235–238.

Research Council of Lithuania. Photonic Crystal Microchip Laser (FOKRILAS), Grant No. P-MIP-17-190. Dr. V. Purlys. 2017–2020.

Microchip lasers are preferable to their counterparts due to their compactness and energy efficiency, but they have one fundamental drawback - low beam quality, which greatly limits their laser radiation maximum brightness and limits the field of applications. Most approaches to increase beam quality proposed so far either significantly limit the maximum achievable output power, or at least greatly increase the dimensions of the system. The aim of the project is to create a compact photonic crystal microstructure capable to block the generation of higher order modes and thus significantly increase the quality of the microchip laser radiation.

Main publication:

Bree, C., Gailevičius, D., Purlys, V., Werner, G., G. Staliunas, K., Rathsfeld, A., Schmidt, G., Radziunas, M. 2018. Chirped photonic crystal for spatially filtered optical feedback to a broad-area laser. Journal of Optics, vol. 20, p. 095804.

Student practical research activities funded by Research Council of Lithuania:

Feasibility Study for the Laser Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Microstructured Scaffolds for Cells with Defined Architecture out of Biodegradable Pre-Polymers. Student E. Skliutas, supervisor Dr. S. Rekštytė. 2017–2018.

Investigation of Optical 3D Printing for Microporous Scaffolds, Research and Optimization of their Biocompatibility. Student G. Grigalevičiūtė, supervisor Dr. M. Malinauskas. 2017–2018.

Investigation of Elastomer 3D Microfabrication Peculiarities Employing Femtosecond Laser Irradiantion. Student G. Grigalevičiūtė, supervisor Dr. M. Malinauskas. 2018–2019.

Direct Laser Writing 3D Lithography Induced Birefringent Structures and their Characterization. Student R. Pakalnytė, supervisor Dr. M. Malnauskas. 2018.

Formation of The Femtosecond Light Beams Propagating in Curved Trajectories by Phase Masks Manufactured from Glass. M. Karpavicius, supervisor Prof. V. Sirutkaitis. 2017–2018.

Generation of Broadband Terahertz Radiation Generation in Laser Created Air Plasma. Student Ž. Svirskas, supervisor Dr. V. Vaičaitis.

Investigation of the Influence of Air Plasma Created by Laser Pulses on Propagation of Terahertz Frequency Radiation. Student D. Buožius, Supervisor Dr. V. Vaičaitis.

Measurement of Photonic Crystal Fiber Dispersion by the Use of XFROG. Student M. Kuliešaitė, supervisor Dr. V. Jarutis.

Travel projects funded by Research Council of Lithuania

Visit project of prof. V. Mizeikis (Shizuoka University) Realization and Characterization of Optically Transparent Electromagnetic Metasurface Structures Without Metallic Substrate for IR Spectral Range (6-12µm). Internship at Swinburne University of Technology PhD student S. Varapnickas, supervisor Prof. S. Juodkazis. 2018.

Dielectric templates of helix-type 3D structures (perfect absorbers) were fabricated over large area (~1mm2) using the femtosecond direct laser writing technique, subsequently metalized with gold by sputtering and the metal deposited on the substrate was then selectively ablated to achieve transparency. FTIR characterization of the prepared samples showed that the optical transparency of ablated samples rose to 50% (as compared to 1% of the non-ablated samples) without impacting the optical properties of the metasurface structures.

International Research Projects

7FP Project: Integrated European Laser Laboratories IV (LASERLAB-Europe IV). 2015–2019.

The Vilnius University represented by Department of Quantum Electronics and Laser Research Centre is member of LASERLAB-EUROPE IV and was involved in two joint research activities - Innovative Laser Technologies (ILAT) and Biomedical Optics for Life Science Applications (BIOAPP), networking and providing of the Transnational Access.
An efficient and broadband terahertz (THz) radiation generation from laser-excited air plasma has been demonstrated for a wide tuning range and various wavelength ratios of three-colour pump laser pulses. As a pump source the femtosecond laser pulses of various wavelengths were used. It was found that the spectrum of generated THz pulses spans up to 50 THz, while the overall terahertz generation efficiency can reach up to 10-5.
The influence of laser-preformed plasma on the energy and spatial properties of terahertz emission generated in air by focused femtosecond bichromatic laser pulses has been investigated. It was found that the power of THz wave decreases in the presence of the prepulse-created plasma even when the crossing point of the two laser beams is well before or after the pump beam focus. Analysis of the obtained data revealed that at least two different mechanisms, namely, the phase modification of the pump waves and screening of THz radiation by preformed plasma filament are responsible for this effect.

Visit project of Dr. F. Claeyssens (University of Sheffield).

As a demonstration of the direct laser writing 3D lithography capabilities - poly(glycerol sebacate)-methacrylate (PGS-M), µm-scale 3D scaffold structures were fabricated using 2-photon polymerization and used for 3D cell culture. The tuneable properties of PGS-M coupled with its enhanced processing capabilities make the polymer an attractive potential biomaterial for various future applications.

Main publication:

Pashneh-Tala, S., Owen, R., Bahmaee, H., Rekstyte, S., Malinauskas, M., Claeyssens, F. 2018. 3D micro structuring via 2-photon polymerisation of poly(glycerol sebacate)-methacrylate - an elastomeric degradable polymer. Front. Phys., vol. 6, p. 41, 10.3389/fphy.2018.00041.

NATO Science for Peace and Security programme project: Nanostructures for Highly Efficient Infrared Detection (Vilnius University + Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya + Shizuoka University + Swinburne University of Technology + University of Economics and Technology). VU part project leader Dr. M. Malinauskas. 2016–2019.
Project info [https://www.researchgate.net/project/Nanostructures-for-Highly-Efficient-Infrared-Detection].

We first show that light can be gradually slowed down in the defect waveguide (WG), which is obtained by gradually changing the period of the surrounding woodpile photonic crystal (WPC) along the propagation direction. In result, the waveguide mode gradually approaches the band edge region, while this phenomenon has three consequences. First, the Fourier components of propagating wave will be spatially separated as each frequency will reach its zero velocity at different positions. Second, as the wave slows down, it will penetrate deeper into the surrounding cladding, thus increasing the coupling efficiency between the WG and a nearby placed resonator. Third, the high density of states near the band edge result in highly efficient light scattering of a nearby placed resonator, which in turn increases the quality factor of the interaction. Following this idea, the acceptor type cavities, which are tuned to the localized frequencies, are side-coupled to the WG at respective wave localization areas. Furthermore, drop channels have been introduced to read-out the trapped spectra, showing that the targeted frequencies can be detected selectively. Compared to previous studies, our approach has the advantages of low radiation losses, the absence of any reflection feedback and both enhanced quality factor and transmission of the captured light.

US Army grant: Enhanced Absorption in Stopped-Light Photonic Nanostructures: Application to Efficient Sensing (Vilnius University + Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya).Project coordinator Dr. M. Malinauskas. 2016–2018.

In this work we explore a possibility to apply ultrafast 3D laser nanolithography in conjunction with pyrolysis to acquire glass-ceramic 3D structures in micro- and nano-scale. Laser fabrication allows for production of initial 3D structures with relatively small (hundreds nm - µm) feature sizes out of SZ2080 hybrid material. Then, post-fabrication heating at 600oC in Ar atmosphere decomposes organic part of the material leaving the glass-ceramic component of the hybrid. Resulting structures are uniformly shrunk by 40%. This brings us one step closer to fabricating highly efficient slow-light absorbers.

Contractual Research

Formation of holes in rocks using microfabrication complex with femtosecond laser Pharos, customer - Kęstutis Vanagas, January 2018.

Measurement of tissue thickness, customer - Vilnius University, Faculty of Medicine, January 2018.

Heigth measurement of microfluidic grating, customer - DropletGenomics, February-March 2018. Research using femtosecond microfabrication complex with 5 axis positioning system and femtosecond laser Pharos, customer - Standa, October 2018.

Fabrication of samples using principles of nanophotonics, customer - Riga Technical University, October 2018.

Fabrication of masks made from copper using microfabrication complex, customer - Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnology, VU, December 2018.

Characterization of diffractive optical elements and microstructures in transparent materials using profilometer and SEM, customer – Femtika, 2018.

Measurement and inspection of laser induced damage threshold, research of quality of optical elements, customer - Lidaris, 2018.

Characterization of optical elements, customer - Light Conversion, 2018.

Laser fabrication of polymeric microstructures and sample development procedures, customer – Altechna R&D, 2018.

MAIN R&D&I (RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION) PARTNERS

Swinburne University of Technology, Centre for Micro-Photonics, Hawthorn, Victoria (Australia)
UPC (Universitat Politechnica de Catalunya), Departament de Fisica i Enginyeria Nuclear, Barcelona (Spain)
Institut Fresnel-CNRS UMR 7249-Equipe ILM, Escole Centrale Marseille-Aix Marseille Universite (France)
Laboratoire des Solides Irradiés, Ecole Polytechnique (France)
Light Conversion, Ltd. (Lithuania)
CNISM and Dipartimento di Scienza e Alta Tecnologia, University of Insubria, Como (Italy)
University of Patras, Physics Department, Laser, Nonlinear and Quantum Optics Labs (Greece)
Centre de Physique Théorique, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, Palaiseau (France)
University of Bordeaux, Laboratoire Ondes et Matière d’Aquitaine (LOMA), Talence (France)
University of Sheffield, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Sheffield (United Kingdom)
Belarusian State University, Research Institute of Physical Chemical Problems, Minsk (Belarus)
Institute of Quantum Optics, Leibniz University of Hannover (Germany)
Shizuoka University, Research Institute of Electronics, Hamamatsu (Japan)

OTHER SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES

Dr. M. Malinauskas

  • associate editor of Optics Express (OSA);
  • scientific committee member at Photonics West (SPIE);
  • associate editor of Applied Surface Science VSI: ICPEPA-11 (Elsevier).

Prof. A. Dubietis

  • lead guest editor of the Journal of the Optical Society of America B (OSA), feature issue Supercontinuum Generation.

Prof. V. Sirutkaitis, Prof. A. Dubietis, Dr. M. Malinauskas, Dr. D. Paipulas

  • members of scientific committee at ICPEPA 11, (2018).

MOST IMPORTANT NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AWARDS RECEIVED FOR R&D ACTIVITIES

Prof. A. Dubietis received a status of a distinguished professor at Vilnius University – the first and only so far such position in the Faculty of Physics.

MOST IMPORTANT PARTICIPATION CASES OF RESEARCHERS IN WORKING GROUPS OR COMMISSIONS SET UP BY STATE AUTHORITIES, STATE AND MUNICIPAL INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANISATIONS, AND BUSINESS ENTITIES

Prof. Habil. Dr. Ričardas Rotomskis, Deputy Chairman of the Research Council of Lithuania, Chairman of the Committee on Natural and Technical Sciences.
Dr. M. Malinauskas, member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences - Young Academy.

MOST IMPORTANT RESEARCH DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES

Dr. M. Malinauskas:
With Lasers, 3D Printing on a Miniature Scale, Photonics Spectra, September, 44–47.

Lecture about lasers given by prof. M. Vengris:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxiu7fDBAvk

Public inaugural lecture given by a distinguished professor A. Dubietis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYQBg1UhXgo

National Radio broadcast prof. M. Vengris:
https://www.ziniuradijas.lt/laidos/ismani-lietuva/sviesos-vertimas-pinigais?video=1

Prof. M. Vengris on laser innovations:
https://www.15min.lt/mokslasit/straipsnis/laboratorija/lietuviska-lazeriu-pramone-tarsi-laiminga-pasaka-be-galo-650-923698

 

APPLIED ELECTRODYNAMICS AND TELECOMMUNICATION INSTITUTE

3 Saulėtekio, LT-10257 Vilnius
Tel. 223 4585
E-mail

Head - Prof. Habil. Dr. Jonas Matukas

STAFF

Professors: Habil. Dr J. Banys (part-time), Habil. Dr. J. Matukas, Dr. A. Kežionis, Dr. R. Grigalaitis, Dr. A. Lisauskas. Habil. Dr. A.F. Orliukas (Professor Emeritus), Habil. Dr. J. Grigas (Professor Emeritus).
Associate professors: Dr. R. Aleksiejūnas, Dr. M. Ivanov, Dr. V. Jonkus, Dr. T. Šalkus, Dr. E. Kazakevičius, Dr. S. Pralgauskaitė, Dr. R. Rimeika, Dr. R. Sobiestijanskas, Dr. K. Svirskas, Dr. M. Žilinskas.
Lecturers: Dr. S. Kazlauskas, Dr. E. Palaimienė, Dr. Č. Pavasaris, Dr. V. Kavaliukė, Dr. K. Ikamas, Dr. Dž. Jablonskas, Dr. Š. Svirskas, Dr. M. Šimėnas.
Research fellows: Dr. J. Macutkevič, Dr. J. Vyšniauskas, Dr. S. Lapinskas, Dr. A. Džiaugys, Dr. A. Bernotas,    Dr. S. Kazlauskas, Dr. V. Kavaliukė, Dr. S. Rudys, Dr. M. Kinka, J. Aleksandravičius.
Engineering staff:  A. Sereika, V. Adomaitis, Dr. Č. Pavasaris, A. Cesiul, J. Glemža, J. Zdanevičius, M. Tretjak, L. Giriūnas.
Doctoral students: D. Adamchuk, J. Aleksandravičius, S. Balčiūnas, A. Cesiul, S. Daugėla, J. Glemža, J. Krivochiža, D. Meisak, D. Petrulionis, M. Tretjak, I. Zamaraitė, G. Gorokhov, E. Zdaniauskis.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Broadband dielectric spectroscopy of ferroelectrics and related materials, relaxation and phonon dynamic studies in order-disorder ferroelectrics, ferroelectric ceramics, dipolar glasses, relaxors, composite systems, liquids, metal-organic structures etc.

Charge carrier transport and device modelling for field-effect transistor-based terahertz detectors fabricated with Si CMOS and AlGaN/GaN HEMT fabrication technologies, noise measurement-based transport and reliability studies of (2–3) μm GaSb laser diodes, noise spectroscopy of novel multi feroicmaterials (e.g. with carbon nano particles)
Technological processing of solid electrolyte ceramics and films. Broadband impedance spectroscopy of solid electrolytes
Investigation of spectral efficiency of radio communication systems. Localization of objects in space. Electromagnetic compatibility measurements between different wireless technologies. Radio antenna testing. Investigation of Internet of Things Protocol (IoT) capabilities for narrowband radio communication

RESEARCH PROJECTS CARRIED OUT IN 2018

Projects Supported by University Budget

Broadband Dielectric and Ultrasonic Spectroscopy of Innovative Materials. Prof. J. Banys. 2014–2018.

Dielectric and ultrasonic studies of various ferroelectrics, relaxor ferroelectrics, multiferroics, nanosized materials and inorganic and organic composites have been carried out. It was shown that in the most cases interesting and important information can be extracted from these investigations for the fundamental understanding as well as for the possible applications in today`s and future advanced devices and/or technologies.

Main publications:

Svirskas, Š., Shvartsman, V.V., Dunce, M., Ignatans, R., Birks, E., Ostapchuk, T., Kamba, S., Lupascu, D.C., Banys, J. 2018. 2018. Two-phase dielectric polar structures in 0.1NBT-0.6ST-0.3PT solid solutions. Acta Materialia, vol. 153, p. 117–125.

Jablonskas, D., Ivanov, M., Banys, J., Giffin, G.A., Passerini, S. 2018. Dielectric spectroscopy of Pyr14TFSI and Pyr12O1TFSI ionic liquids. Electrochimica Acta, vol. 274, p. 400–405.

Simenas, M., Ptak, M., Khan, A.H., Dagys, L., Balevicius, V., Bertmer, M., Voelkel, G., Maczka, M., Poeppl, A., Banys, J. 2018. Spectroscopic study of [(CH3)2NH2][Zn(HCOO)3] hybrid perovskite containing different nitrogen isotopes. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, vol. 122, 18, p. 10284–10292.

Electromagnetic Methods for Increasing Spectral Efficiency of Radio Communication Systems. Assoc. Prof. K. Svirskas. 2018.

Complexity of wireless network research problems requires close comparison of experimental measurements with numerical simulations. For this purpose simulation framework for MIMO LTE network performance analysis is being used. The core of this environment consists of cloud-based virtual server environment, allowing interactively share results between team members and run massive simulations, e.g., antenna analysis, radio propagation channel, radio interference estimation problems. Simulations are based on statistical Monte Carlo algorithm, implemented using GNU Octave and Python numerical libraries.

Main publication:

Aleksiejūnas, R., Cesiul, A., Svirskas, K. 2018. Spatially consistent LOS/NLOS model for time-varying MIMO channels. 2018 Baltic URSI Symposium (URSI), Poznan, Poland, doi: 10.23919/URSI.2018.8406737.

Noise Characteristics Investigation of Quantum Structure Devices Employed in Telecommunication Systems. Prof. J. Matukas. 2016–2018.

Comprehensive investigation of materials and devices employed in telecommunication systems have been carried out: low frequency noise characteristics, responsivity of detectors and radiation characteristics of sources have been measured and analysed. Devices under investigation were: GaN, Si and graphene based diodes and transistors operating as detectors of terahertz radiation, GaSb based semiconductor lasers for mid-infrared radiation, materials with carbon nanoparticles.

Main publications:

Glemza, J., Palenskis, V., Pralgauskaite, S., Vysniauskas, J., Matukas, J. 2018. Properties of the surface generation-recombination noise in 1.94 µm GaSb-based laser diodes. Infrared Physics & Tenology, vol. 91, p. 101–106, doi: 10.1016/j.infrared.2018.04.002.

Tretjak, M., Pralgauskaite, S., Macutkevic, J., Matukas, J., Banys, J., Kuzhir, P., Ivanov, E., Kotsilkova, R. 2018. Influence of carbon nanotube surface treatment on resistivity and low-frequency noise characteristics of epoxy-based composites. Polymer Composites, vol. 39, p. E1224–E1230, doi: 10.1002/Pc.24775.

Palenskis, V., Minkevicius, L., Matukas, J., Jokubauskis, D., Pralgauskaite, S., Seliuta, D., Cechavicius, B. ,Valusis. R. G. 2018. InGaAs diodes for terahertz sensing-effect of molecular beam epitaxy growth conditions. Sensors, vol. 18, doi: 10.3390/S18113760.

Glemza, J., Matukas, J., Pralgauskaite, S., Palenskis, V. 2018. Low-frequency noise characteristics of high-power white LED during long-term aging experiment. Lithuanian Journal of Physics, vol. 58, p. 194–203.

Investigation of Technological Processing and Ion Transport Peculiarities of Solid Electrolyte Thin Films, Thick Films and Bulk Ceramics. Assoc. Prof. T. Šalkus. 2016–2020.

Different technological processing conditions were applied in order to obtain solid electrolyte ceramics and films. Lithium and sodium substitutions in manganum double phosphates were investigated. This substitution influences the phase transitions taking place in these materials and strongly affects the ionic conductivity. Proton and oxygen conductivities were investigated in barium zirconium cerate ceramics. The obtained LLTO films were studied in the broad frequency range of 10 Hz up to 10 GHz by impedance spectroscopy.

Main publications:

Venckutė, V., Kazlauskas, S., Kazakevičius, E., Kežionis, A., Korobko, R., Šalkus, T. 2018. High frequency impedance spectroscopy study on Gd-doped CeO2 thin films. Ionics, vol. 24, p.1153–1159.

Mosialek, M., Michna, A., Dziubaniuk, M., Bielanska, E., Kežionis, A., Šalkus, T., Kazakevičius, E., Bozek, B., Krawczyk, A., Wyrwa, J., Orliukas, A.F. 2018. Composite cathode material LSCF-Ag for solid oxide fuel cells obtained in one step sintering procedure. Electrochimica Acta, vol. 282, p. 427–436.

National Research Projects

Development of Specialized Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Detection and Neutralization of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Dr. S. Rudys. 2018–2022.

Technologies of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are developing especially rapidly and have extremely wide field of implementation. Unfortunately same as other technologies UAVs can be both beneficial and dangerous for the society. There are many solutions for UAV detection and neutralization suggested but all of these solutions have drawbacks. Thus, there are no effective UAV detection and neutralizing technologies available. The main goal of the project – to develop an effective (more effective than is available in this moment) solution for UAV detection and neutralizing.

National research project: Compact Integrated THz Components and Spectroscopic THz Imaging Systems of the National program Towards Future Technologies. Prof. A. Lisauskas. 2016– 2018.

The main aim of the project is to develop compact THz components and spectroscopic THz imaging systems. Broadband THz antennas coupled with field effect transistors and asymmetric geometry diodes operation which are based on the hot carriers phenomena are used as the THz radiation sensors up to 4 THz frequencies. The best candidate for high responsivity and short response time between all compact THz detectors were found and compared with available THz detectors operating at room temperature.

Main publications:

Ikamas, K., Čibiraitė, D., Lisauskas, A., Bauer, M., Krozer, V., & Roskos, H. G. 2018. Broadband terahertz power detectors based on 90-nm silicon CMOS transistors with flat responsivity up to 2.2 THz. IEEE Electron Device Letters, vol. 39(9), p. 1413–1416, doi: 10.1109/LED.2018.2859300.

Voß, D., Zouaghi, W., Jamshidifar, M., Boppel, S., McDonnell, C., Bain, J. R., Lisauskas, A. 2018. Imaging and spectroscopic sensing with low-repetition-rate terahertz pulses and GaN TeraFET detectors. J. Infrared, Millimetre, and Terahertz Waves, vol. 39(3), p. 262–272, doi: 10.1007/s10762-017-0447-1.

Javadi, E., Lisauskas, A., Shahabadi, M., Masoumi, N., Zhang, J., Matukas, J., & Roskos, H. 2019. Terahertz detection with a low-cost packaged GaAs high-electron-mobility transistor. IEEE Trans. Terahertz Science and Technology, vol. 9(1), p. 1–11, doi: 10.1109/TTHZ.2018.2877908.

National research project: Terahertz Radiation Sources Based on Nonlinearities of Nanometric Semiconductor Devices of the National program Towards Future Technologies. Prof. A. Lisauskas. 2017– 2018.

This project targets development of new semiconductor-based terahertz sources that exploit two phenomena: the negative differential conductivity of the semiconductor super lattice and nonlinearity of field effect transistors above their cut-off frequency. We target to achieve operation at discrete frequencies from 200 GHz to 600 THz focusing on the development of modelling, fabrication and evaluation procedures for terahertz sources.

Main publications:

Lisauskas, A., Ikamas, K., Massabeau, S., Bauer, M., Čibiraitė, D., Matukas, J., Roskos, H. G. 2018. Field-effect transistors as electrically controllable nonlinear rectifiers for the characterization of terahertz pulses. APL Photonics, vol. 3, no. 5, 051705, doi: 10.1063/1.5011392.

Ikamas, K., Nevinskas, I., Krotkus, A., & Lisauskas, A. 2018. Silicon field effect transistor as the nonlinear detector for terahertz autocorellators. Sensors, vol. 18, no. 11, 3735, doi: 10.3390/s18113735.

Zdanevicius, J., Cibiraite, D., Ikamas, K., Bauer, M., Matukas, J., Lisauskas, A., Roskos, H. 2018. Field-effect transistor-based detectors for power monitoring of THz quantum cascade lasers. IEEE Trans. Terahertz Science and Technology, vol. 8, no. 6, doi: 10.1109/TTHZ.2018.2871360.

Research Council of Lithuania. Lithuanian-French Cooperation Programme Project: Elaboration and Optimization of Solid Composites for Electrochemical Devices (No. S-LZ-17-7). Assoc. Prof. E. Kazakevičius. 2017–2018.

The synthesis of LAMOX and NASICON polycrystalline compounds, preparation of composites and ceramics was conducted in the project. The obtained samples were characterized by structural, microstructural and electrical investigations.

Main publication:

Žalga, A., Gaidamavičienė, G., Gricius, Ž., Užpurvytė, E., Gadeikis, J., Diktanaitė, A., Barre, M., Šalkus, T., Kežionis, A., Kazakevičius, E. 2018. Aqueous sol–gel synthesis, thermoanalytical study and electrical properties of La2Mo2O9. Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, vol. 132, p. 1499–1511.

International Research Projects

MSCA-RISE-2014: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange Contractual Research project TUneable Multiferroics based on oxygen OCtahedral Structures TUMOCS. Prof. J. Banys. 2015–2018.

Sophisticated gas sensor systems are being researched for use in medical diagnostic, monitoring, and treatment systems. Layered Double Hydroxides (LDHs) or hydrocalcite-type compounds can be successfully applied to diagnose the formation of volatile compounds in the atmosphere. Nevertheless, their use in gas sensors is still complicated because the physical mechanisms of the sensors of double hydroxides are still unclear. For this purpose, dielectric and electrical properties of hydrocalcite compounds based on CoII(n)AlIII layered double hydroxides (LDHs) (n=Co/Al=2,3 and 4) were provided. In particular, the dielectric properties of two different volatile compounds (CO2 and N2) were measured in a wide range of frequencies and temperatures. Obtained dielectric properties are used to clarify sensor appliance for different gas detection. Co(2)Al-NO3, Co(2)Al-CO3 and Co(3)Al-NO3 were found to be suitable for CO2 gas detection, and Co(2)Al-CO3, Co(3)Al-CO3 - for production of N2 gas sensors.

Main publications:

Balciunas, S., Ivanov, M,. Grigalaitis, R., Banys, J., Amorin, H., Castro, A., Alguero, M. 2018. Evidence of Kittel type behaviour of the permittivity of a nanostructured high sensitivity piezoelectric. Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 123, no. 20, 204103.

Zamaraite, I., Yevych, R., Dziaugys, A., Molnar, A., Banys, J., Svirskas, S. and Yu.Vysochanskii. 2018. Double hysteresis loops in proper uniaxial ferroelectrics. Phys. Rev. Applied, vol. 10, 034017.

Gheorghiu, F., Ciomaga, C.E., Simenas, M., Airimioaeid, M., Qiao, S., Tascu, S., Kalendra, V., Banys, J., Avadenei, O.G., Mitoseriu, L. 2018. Preparation and structural characterization of Ba(Ti1-xFex) O3-x/2 ceramics. Application for a miniaturized resonator antenna. Ceramics International, vol. 44, p. 20862–20870.

Bilateral Lithuanian-Japanese partnership projects Dielectric and Piezoelectric Enhancements of New Nano-structured Ceramics with High-density Artificially-made Extrinsic MPB Structures. Assoc. Prof. M. Ivanov. 2016–2018.

The main objective of the project is to create an artificial morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) via creation of composites instead of solid solutions, which do not always possess an MPB. This was demonstrated to be experimentally possible, and the results were disseminated at various international conferences. The project was evaluated as successfully finished.

Main publications:

Ivanov, M., Macutkevic, J., Grigalaitis, R, Banys, J. 2018. General view of ferroelectrics: origin of ferroelectricity in metal oxide ferroelectrics and ferroelectric properties. In: Magnetic, Ferroelectric and Multiferroic Metal Oxides, ed. B. Stojanovic, p, 5–33.

Belovickis, J., Werne, L., Silibin, M., Samulionis, V., Lellinger, D., Oehler, H., Banys, J., Sysa, A., Nekludov, K., Shvartsman, V.V., Alig, I. 2018. Influence of annealing conditions on elastic and dielectric properties of P(VDF‐TrFE) copolymer and its composites. Polymer Composites, doi: org/10.1002/pc.24908 (2018).

Bilateral Lithuanian-Japanese partnership projects Ultrabroadband Dielectric Spectroscopy of Relaxor Ferroelectrics. Prof. J. Banys. 2016–2018.

Relaxor ferroelectric properties of 0.83PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3-0.17PbTiO3 single crystals were investigated by means of broadband dielectric spectroscopy. The role of random fields in this composition was determined. Apparently, the ferroelectric phase nucleates spontaneously in this composition despite the fact that the dielectric anomaly does not show any indication of structural phase transition. The temperature dependences of permittivity resemble canonical relaxors.

Main publications:

Helal, M. A., Tsukada, S., Svirskas, Š., Banys, J., Kojima, S. 2018. Angle-resolved polarized Raman scattering on relaxor ferroelectrics with intermediate random fields. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., vol. 57, no. 11S, p. 11UB08, Sep. 2018.

Svirskas, Š., Jablonskas, D., Samulionis, V., Kojima, S., Banys, J. 2018. Is there a spontaneous ferroelectric phase transition in 0.83PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3-0.17PbTiO3 single crystal? Journal of Alloys and Compounds, vol. 748, pp. 127–133, Jun. 2018.

Joint Lithuanian-Latvian-Taiwan project Nano Architectonics of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs): Design, Dielectric Property and Organic Catalysis. Prof. R. Grigalaitis. 2017–2019.

The aim of this project is the synthesis of MOF structures via de novo procedure with different catalysts incorporated and the investigation of their dielectric and other functional properties. During year 2018 the data on the dielectric studies of ZIF-90 MOFs in different atmospheres was analysed. Activation energies of water and linker dynamics were calculated, explained and compared with similar MOFs. Also, preliminary dielectric studies of MOF-525 powders were carried out.

Main publication:

Balčiu̅nas, S., Šimėnas, M., Pavlovaitė, D., Kinka, M. Shieh, F.-K., Wu, K.C.-W., Banys, J., Grigalaitis, R. 2018. Low-frequency dipolar dynamics and atmospheric effects in ZIF-90 metal–organic framework. J. Phys. Chem. C, doi:10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b10862.

Bilateral Lithuanian-Belorussian project Multifunctional Ceramics with Sic and Carbon Nanoparticles. Dr. J. Macutkevič. 2017–2018.

The main result of the project is the ceramics produced with SiC and carbon nanoinclusions, stable till very high temperatures (1700 0C) and exhibiting strong electromagnetic wave absorption. Ceramics are prepared by the mixing method by using aluminium oxide, aluminium nitride, SiC nanoparticles and the special binder. Ceramics also exhibit peculiar mechanical properties. Electrical properties of these ceramics were studied in frequency range from 10 μHz to 3 THz at temperatures from 20 to 1500 K. It was determined that the frequency dependence of electrical properties is caused by Maxwell-Wagner relaxation and the temperature dependence of electrical conductivity exhibit non-Arrhenius behaviour. The electrical percolation threshold determined for ceramics with SiC nanotubes is 35 wt%, while for round SiC nanoparticles is close to 40 wt%.

Main publication:

Tretjak, M., Pralgauskaite, S., Macutkevic, J., Matukas, J., Banys, J., Kuzhir, P., Ivanov, E., Kotsilkova, R. 2018. Influence of carbon nanotube surface treatment on resistivity and low frequency noise characteristics of epoxy based composites. Polymer Composites, E1224–E1230.

Bilateral Lithuanian-French Gilbert project Dielectric and Electric Properties of Carbon Spheres and Mesoporous Carbon. Dr. J. Macutkevič. 2017–2018.

The main results of the project are determined electromagnetic properties of hollow carbon spheres, mesoporous carbon and carbon xerogels with various sizes of pores. All these porous materials are suitable for electromagnetic shielding. For mesoporous carbon and carbon xerogels dielectric permittivity increases with density.

Main publication:

Palaimiene, E., Macutkevic, J., Banys, J., Selskis, A., Fierro, V., Celzard, A., Schaefer, S., Shenderova, O. 2018. Ultra-low percolation threshold in epoxy resin-onion-like carbon composites. Applied Physics Letters, vol. 113, 033105.

European Space Agency project Directive Transistor-Based Thz Detectors (Thzfet). Prof. A. Lisauskas. 2018–2019.
The project is concentrated on developing devices and technologies for 0.3–5 THz frequency range, by employing scalable manufacturing processes and integrated sub-systems. The idea is to use field-effect transistors of existing micro-fabrication technologies, such as those in CMOS and AlGaN/GaN MMIC, and to operate these well beyond standard operating conditions in terms of frequency.

Contractual Research

Contractual project carried out for The Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania (RRT) Compatibility Study of Wireless Radio Local Area Networks (WAS/RLAN) in 6 GHz Band. Assoc. Prof. R. Aleksiejūnas. 2017–2018.

Analysis of electromagnetic compatibility between Radio Local Area Networks (RLAN) in newly planned 6 GHz frequency band and other wireless systems such as fixed service, fixed-satellite service and ultra wideband systems has been carried out. The tasks performed include RLAN device distribution analysis, radio wave propagation modelling and assessment of allowable interference levels. Special attention has been given to aggregated interference from RLAN devices to geostationary satellites over globe-wide populated areas.

MAIN R&D&I (RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION) PARTNERS

Institute of Solid State Physics of University of Latvia (Latvia)
Leipzig University (Germany)
University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany)
University of Aveiro (Portugal)
National Taiwan University (Taiwan)
University of Yamanashi (Japan)
University of Tsukuba (Japan)
Le Mans University (France)
Jerzy Haber Institute of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry (Poland)

OTHER SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES

Prof. Jūras Banys

  • member of the International Advisory Board of ECAPD (European Conference on Applications of Polar Dielectrics);
  • member of the International Advisory Board of EMF (European Meeting on Ferroelectrics);
  • member of the International Advisory Bboard of IMF (International Meeting on Ferroelectrics);
  • IEEE FEROCOM member;
  • member of the IEEE Society;
  • foreign member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences;
  • correspondent member of the Saxonian Academy of Sciences in Leipzig;
  • Uzhgorod National University Doctor Honoris Causa;
  • member of the Lithuanian Physical Society;
  • member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences;
  • AMPERE Society Committee;
  • member of CERN Council;
  • editorial board member of the Lithuanian Journal of Physics.

Dr. S. Pralgauskaitė

  • member of the International Advisory Committee of the International Conference on Noise and Fluctuations (ICNF);
  • member of the International Advisory Committee of the International Conference Unsolved Problems on Noise (UPoN).

MOST IMPORTANT NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AWARDS RECEIVED FOR R&D ACTIVITIESDr. Mantas Šimėnas –

  • Rector’s award for the best Vilnius University young scientist.

MOST IMPORTANT PARTICIPATION CASES OF RESEARCHERS IN WORKING GROUPS OR COMMISSIONS SET UP BY STATE AUTHORITIES, STATE AND MUNICIPAL INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANISATIONS, AND BUSINESS ENTITIES

Prof. Jūras Banys

  • President of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.

MOST IMPORTANT RESEARCH DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES

Video report 15min.lt https://www.15min.lt/mokslasit/straipsnis/laboratorija/vilniaus-universitete-pristatytas-beaidis-kambarys-neatspindi-nei-garso-nei-elektromagnetiniu-bangu-650-1057402?c=mokslasit, 2018 12 11

TV Report “Mokslo sriuba”, December 17.

 

INSTITUTE OF THEORETICAL PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

3 Saulėtekio, LT-10257 Vilnius
Tel. 223 4636
E-mail:

Director – Habil. Dr. Gražina Tautvaišienė

STAFF

Professors: Dr. E. Anisimovas (part-time), Habil. Dr. A. Bartkevičius (affiliated), Habil. Dr. R. Karazija (affiliated), Dr. A. Kučinskas (part-time), Habil. Dr. V. Straižys (Emeritus), Prof. Dr. V. Vansevičius (part-time).
Research professors: Dr. K. Černis, Dr. A. Deltuva, Prof. Habil. Dr. G. Gaigalas, Dr.  V. Gontis, Assoc. Prof. Dr. V. Jonauskas, Habil. Dr. G. Juzeliūnas, Habil. Dr. B. Kaulakys (part-time), Dr. A. Kučinskas (part-time), Dr. J. Ruseckas, Habil. Dr. G. Tautvaišienė (part-time), Habil. Dr. K. Zdanavičius (affiliated).
Associate professors: Assoc. Prof. Dr. T. Gajdosik, Dr. D. Narbutis (part-time), Dr. R. Stonkutė (part-time), Dr. K. Zubovas (part-time), Assoc. Prof. Dr. D. Šatkovskienė (affiliated).
Senior research fellows: Assoc. Prof. Dr. A. Acus, Dr. R. Janulis (part-time), Dr. A. Juodagalvis, Habil. Dr. V. Gineitytė (affiliated), Dr. D. Jurčiukonis, Dr. R. Karpuškienė, Dr. A. Kazlauskas (part-time), Dr. R. Kisielius, Dr. S. Kučas (part-time), Dr. Š. Mikolaitis, Prof. Dr. E. Norvaišas (part-time), Dr. E. Pakštienė, Dr. V. Regelskis (part-time), Dr. J. Sperauskas, Dr. J. Tamulienė, Dr. A. Vektarienė, Dr. G. Vektaris, Dr. J. Zdanavičius.
Research fellows: Dr. Y. Chorniy , Dr. V. Čepas (part-time), Dr. V. Dobrovolskas, Dr. A. Drazdauskas, Dr. R. Juršėnas, Dr. H. R. Hamedi, Dr. R. Kazakevičius, Dr. A. Kynienė (part-time), Dr. J. Klevas, Dr. A. Kononovičius, Dr. V. Kudriašov (part-time), Dr. Š. Masys, Dr. M. Maskoliūnas, Dr. R. Minkevičiūtė, Dr. A. Mekys (part-time), Dr. A. Momkauskaitė, Dr. V. Novičenko, Dr. L. Radžiūtė, Dr. P. Rynkun, Dr. E. Stonkutė.
Teaching assistant: S. Raudeliūnas (part-time).
Research assistants: T. Andrijauskas, V. Dūdėnas, M. Macijauskas (part-time), K. Milašius (part-time), M. Račiūnas (part-time), S. Raudeliūnas (part-time), G. Žlabys (part-time).
Project-specialists: V. Bagdonas (part-time), C. Viscasillas Vazquez (part-time).
Doctoral students: J. Bialopetravičius, G. Kerevičius, E. Kolomiecas, J. Koncevičiūtė, S. Pakalka, M. Račiūnas, C. Viscasillas Vazquez, G. Žlabys.
Lecturer: S. Lovčikas.
Technicians: V. Bagdonas (part-time), M. Račiūnas (part-time), G. Žlabys (part-time).

RESEARCH AREAS

Analysis of Atoms, Subatomic Particles or their Ensembles, Complex Systems, Electromagnetic Radiation and Cosmic Objects

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Galactic structure and chemodynamical evolution of stellar populations
Chemical composition and mixing phenomena in stellar atmospheres
Convection and non-equilibrium radiative transfer in stellar atmospheres
Stellar asteroseismology
Planet hosting stars and exoplanet transits
Structure and evolution of galaxies
Search and positional observations of comets and asteroids
Theoretical atomic spectroscopy
Algorithms and computer programs for plasma physics, astrophysics and other fields
Application of quantum mechanics and electrodynamics for transitions in atoms, molecules and molecular complexes
Interactions of atoms and molecules with electrons and radiation
Theoretical investigation of crystalline and electronic structure of perovskite crystals
Algebraic techniques for nuclear and particle physics
Analysis of pp collision data recorded at CERN CMS experiment
Neutrinos in the extended Standard model
Scattering processes in few-body nuclear systems
Quantum optics and ultra-cold atoms
Bose-Einstein condensates
Condensed matter systems
Quantum chemistry
Complexity and statistical physics applications in economics, finance and other social sciences
Fluctuations and noise, theory of 1/f noise

RESEARCH PROJECTS CARRIED OUT IN 2018

Projects Supported by University Budget

Stellar Chemical Composition and Asteroseismic Activity in the Milky Way Galaxy. Habil. Dr. G. Tautvaišienė. 2016–2020.

We used the Gaia-ESO Survey data to investigate the main sequence stars and found a Li-anticorrelation in respect of [-element/Fe] ratios, which indicates that more Li is produced during the Galactic thin disc phase than during the Galactic thick disc phase. We also found a correlation between the abundance of Li and s-process elements Ba and Y, which decreases above the solar metallicity. Analysis of the largest homogeneous sample of open clusters was dedicated to analysis of the abundance evolution of s-process elements showing the increase of abundances in younger objects. We have homogeneously combined spectroscopic information from GES and Gaia-DR1 TGAS parallaxes for eight open clusters, to derive a uniform set of cluster ages and reddening values.

Main publications:

Fu, X., Romano, D., Bragaglia, A., Mucciarelli, A., Lind, K., Delgado Mena, E., Sousa, S. G., Randich, S., Bressan, A., Sbordone, L., Martell, S., Korn, A. J., Abia, C., Smiljanic, R., Jofré, P., Pancino, E., Tautvaišienė, G., Tang, B., Magrini, L., Lanzafame, A. C., Carraro, G., Bensby, T., Damiani, F., Alfaro, E. J., Flaccomio, E., Morbidelli, L., Zaggia, S., Lardo, C., Monaco, L,; Frasca, A., Donati, P., Drazdauskas, A., Chorniy, Y., Bayo, A., Kordopatis, G. 2018. The Gaia-ESO Survey: Lithium enrichment histories of the Galactic thick and thin disc. Astronomy & Astrophysics, vol. 610, id.A38.

Magrini, L., Spina, L., Randich, S., Friel, E., Kordopatis, G., Worley, C., Pancino, E., Bragaglia, A., Donati, P., Tautvaišienė, G., Bagdonas, V., Delgado-Mena, E., Adibekyan, V., Sousa, S. G., Jiménez-Esteban, F. M., Sanna, N., Roccatagliata, V., Bonito, R., Sbordone, L., Duffau, S., Gilmore, G., Feltzing, S., Jeffries, R. D., Vallenari, A., Alfaro, E. J., Bensby, T., Francois, P., Koposov, S., Korn, A. J., Recio-Blanco, A., Smiljanic, R., Bayo, A., Carraro, G., Casey, A. R., Costado, M. T.; Damiani, F.; Franciosini, E.; Frasca, A.; Hourihane, A.; Jofré, P.; de Laverny, P.; Lewis, J., Masseron, T., Monaco, L., Morbidelli, L., Prisinzano, L., Sacco, G., Zaggia, S. 2018. The Gaia-ESO Survey: the origin and evolution of s-process elements. Astronomy & Astrophysics, vol. 617, id.A106.

Randich, S., Tognelli, E., Jackson, R., Jeffries, R. D., Degl'Innocenti, S., Pancino, E., Re Fiorentin, P., Spagna, A., Sacco, G., Bragaglia, A., Magrini, L., Prada Moroni, P. G., Alfaro, E., Franciosini, E., Morbidelli, L., Roccatagliata, V., Bouy, H., Bravi, L., Jiménez-Esteban, F. M., Jordi, C., Zari, E. Tautvaišienė, G., Drazdauskas, A., Mikolaitis, Š., Gilmore, G., Feltzing, S., Vallenari, A., Bensby, T., Koposov, S., Korn, A., Lanzafame, A., Smiljanic, R., Bayo, A., Carraro, G., Costado, M. T., Heiter, U., Hourihane, A., Jofré, P., Lewis, J., Monaco, L., Prisinzano, L., Sbordone, L., Sousa, S. G., Worley, C. C., Zaggia, S. 2018. The Gaia-ESO Survey: open clusters in Gaia-DR1. A way forward to stellar age calibration. Astronomy & Astrophysics, vol. 612, id.A99.

Star Formation and Dust Clouds in the Orion and Perseus Arms of the Galaxy. Prof. V. Straižys. 2016–2020.

Interstellar extinction was investigated in a 2x2 degree area containing the dust and molecular clouds LDN 183 (MBM 37) and LDN 169. The study was based on a photometric classification in spectral and luminosity classes of 782 stars selected from the catalogues of 1299 stars down to V = 20 mag observed in the Vilnius seven-colour system. Using 57 stars closer than 200 pc, the front edge of the clouds at 105 (+-) 8 pc was found. The extinction layer in the vicinities of the clouds can be about 20 pc thick. Behind the Serpens/Libra clouds, the extinction range does not increase; this means that the dust layer at 105 pc is a single extinction source.

Main publication:

Straižys, V., Boyle, R.P., Zdanavičius, J., Janusz, R., Corbally, C.J., Munari, U., Andersson, B.-G., Zdanavičius, K., Kazlauskas, A., Maskoliūnas, M., Černis, K. and Macijauskas, M. 2018. High-latitude dust clouds LDN 183 and LDN 169: distances and extinctions, Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 611, A9.

Hydrodynamical Phenomena and Radiative Transfer in Stellar Atmospheres. Dr. A. Kučinskas. 2015–2019.

We studied abundances of Mg, K, and Zn in the Galactic globular cluster 47 Tuc. Contrary to earlier claims, our results demonstrate that none of the stellar populations in this cluster were enhanced in the abundances of Mg, K, and Zn. Also, there are no statistically significant relations between the abundances of K and those of other light elements. We also find that the mean abundances of K and Zn in this cluster follow the trends of the Galactic disk stars at the metallicity of 47 Tuc.

Main publications:

Černiauskas, A., Kučinskas, A., Klevas, J., Dobrovolskas, V., Korotin, S., Bonifacio, P., Ludwig, H.-G., Caffau, E., Steffen, M. 2018. Abundances of Mg and K in the atmospheres of turn-off stars in Galactic globular cluster 47 Tucanae. Astronomy & Astrophysics, vol. 615, A173

Černiauskas, A., Kučinskas, A., Klevas, J., Bonifacio, P., Ludwig, H.-G., Caffau, E., Steffen, M. 2018. Abundance of zinc in the red giants of Galactic globular cluster 47 Tucanae. Astronomy & Astrophysics, vol. 616, A142.

Stochastic Effects in Stellar Systems. Prof. Dr. V. Vansevičius. 2014–2018.

We studied the Leo A galaxy based on deep HST photometry data and discovered old stellar populations of very low metallicity extending beyond the previously known limits – up to 2.3 kpc from the galaxy centre. We investigated star formation histories of dwarf irregular galaxies and find that the stochasticity caused by mass assembly is enhanced due to the photoionizing intergalactic radiation field. This result might explain the peculiar star formation histories of some galaxies such as Leo A and Aquarius.

Main publications:

Stonkutė, R., Čeponis, M., Leščinskaitė, A., Naujalis, R., Vansevičius, V. 2018. Dwarf irregular galaxy Leo A extends even farther, according to HST WFC3 photometry. Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 614, A144.

Ledinauskas, E., Zubovas, K., 2018. Reignited star formation in dwarf galaxies that were quenched during reionization. Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 615, A64.

Astrometry and Photometry of Small Solar-System Bodies. Dr. K. Černis. 2016–2020.

Nine new asteroids have been discovered. A new precise orbit of the NEO object 2006 VB14 was determined. Precise orbits were calculated for our earlier discovered 15 objects at the Baldone Observatory in 2015–2018. We published 7929 astrometric positions for 2165 asteroids. Near Earth Objects, TNO, Main Belt asteroids and comets were observed with the 0.35/0.51 m Maksutov telescope (Molėtai Observatory), with the 0.80/1.20 m Schmidt telescope (Baldone Observatory, Latvia), and with the 1.8 m Vatican telescope (Mt. Graham, Arizona, U.S.A.). Noctilucent clouds were observed in summer time from the Vilnius station. Four asteroids were named by Birutė, Vansevičius, Mažeikiai and Machholz.

Main publications:

Dalin, V. P., Pertsev, N., Perminov, V., Dubietis, A., Zadorozhny, A., Zalcik, M., McEachran, I., McEwan, T., Černis, K., Gronne, J., Taustrup, T., Hansen, O., Andersen, H., Melnikov, D., Manevich, A., Romejko, V. 2018. Daily Response of Noctilucent Clouds to Daily Solar Variations. JASTP.

Černis, K. 2018. Astrometric observations of 63 asteroids (219 positions) in Molėtai Astronomical Observatory (Code 152). M.P.C. 108760 (2018 Mar. 2).

Černis, K., Boyle, R. 2018. Astrometric observations of 9 asteroids (50 positions) in Vatican Astronomical Observatory (Code 290). M.P.C. 108762 (2018 Mar. 2).

Investigation of Ordered and Unordered Atomic Systems. Dr. V. Jonauskas. 2014–2018.

Excitation-autoionization (EA) and direct ionization Maxwellian rate coefficients (MRC) were presented for the levels of the ground configuration of the W26+ ion distorted-wave approximation including radiative damping. Excitations to the high-nl shells (n<26) were taken into account for the EA process. It was shown that electron-impact ionization from the different levels of the ground configuration produces a significant variation of MRC. The difference of 40% among the EA MRC was determined for the levels of the ground configuration.
The crystalline structure of tensile strained SrRuO3 thin film grown in the (110) orientation on the DyScO3 substrate was investigated by applying DFT and beyond-DFT methods. It was revealed that P21/m symmetry with its tilt system a+b−c− is the most energetically favourable one among 15 octahedral rotation patterns inherent for perovskites.

Main publications:

Koncevičiūtė, J., Kučas, S., Masys, Š., Kynienė, A., Jonauskas, V. 2018. Electron-impact triple ionization of Se2+. Phys. Rev. A 97, 012705.

Kynienė, A., Merkelis, G., Šukys, A., Masys, Š., Pakalka, S., Kisielius, R., Jonauskas, V. 2018. Maxwellian rate coefficients for electron-impact ionization of W26+. J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys., vol. 51, 155202.

Masys, Š. Jonauskas, V. 2018. The crystalline structure of tensile strained SrRuO3: A first-principles investigation. Cryst. Growth Des., vol. 18, 3397.

Correlation and Relativistic Effects in Complex Atoms and Ions. Prof. G. Gaigalas. 2015–2019.

The relativistic multiconfiguration Dirac–Hartree–Fock method was used to compute excitation energies and lifetimes for the 143 lowest states of the 3s23p3, 3s3p4, 3s23p23d, 3s3p33d, 3p5, 3s23p3d2 configurations in P-like ions from Cr X to Zn XVI. Multipole (E1, M1, E2, M2) transition rates, line strengths, oscillator strengths, and branching fractions among these states were also given. Computed excitation energies were compared with the NIST and CHIANTI compiled values and previous calculations.

Main publications:

Wang, K., Jönsson, P., Gaigalas, G., Radžiūtė, L., Rynkun, P., Del Zanna G., Chen, C.Y. 2018. Energy levels, lifetimes, and transition rates for P-like ions from Cr X to Zn XVI from large-scale relativistic multiconfiguration calculations. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, vol. 235, p. 27.

Ekman, J., Jönsson, P., Radžiūtė, L., Gaigalas, G. Del Zanna, G., Grant, I.P. 2018. Large-scale calculations of atomic level and transition properties in the aluminium isoelectronic sequence from Ti X through Kr XXIV, Xe XLII, and WLXII. Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables, vol. 120, p. 152.

Bieroń, J., Filippin, L., Gaigalas, G., Godefroid, M., Jönsson, P., Pyykkö, P. 2018. Ab initio calculations of the hyperfine structure of zinc and evaluation of the nuclear quadrupole moment Q(67Zn). Phys. Rev. A, vol. 97, p. 062505.

Theoretical Study of Light Nuclei and Elementary Particles. Dr. A. Deltuva. 2016–2020.

Absence of observable three- and four-neutron resonances was demonstrated using rigorous few-body scattering theory for transition operators. Weak sensitivity of (d,p) reactions to np force models was established. The inverse formula of general multivector of Clifford algebra Cl_{p,q} for p+q=6 was found in terms of grade involutions.  A conjecture on structure of multivector inversion formula in any Clifford algebra was formulated.

Main publications:

Deltuva, A. 2018. Three-neutron resonance study using transition operators. Phys. Rev. C 97, 034001, doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.97.034001.

Deltuva, A. 2018. Tetraneutron: rigorous continuum calculation. Phys. Lett. B 782, 238, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2018.05.041.

Acus, A., Dargys, A. 2018. The inverse of a multivector: beyond the threshold p+q=5. Adv. Appl. Clifford Algebras, vol. 28, p. 65, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00006-018-0885-4.

Optical, Kinetic, and Topological Properties of Cold Atoms and Condensed Molecular Structures. Habil. Dr. G. Juzeliūnas. 2018–2021.

A scheme was considered to exchange optical vortices of slow light using the electromagnetically induced transparency in a four-level double-Lambda scheme. The enhancement of the Goos–Hänchen shift and the atom localization was studied in a four-level atomic system involving a Rydberg state. It was found that the maximum positive and negative Goos–Hänchen shifts can be obtained in reflected and transmitted light beams owning to the effect of the Rydberg Electromagnetically induced transparency. The new Ag precursor for FEBID technology was suggested based on the results obtained. The investigation of fragmentation of glutamine was performed. The new calculation scheme was proposed to Ru complex aiming to illuminate the Dewar Chatt Duncanson model validity by computations.

Main publications:

Hamedi, H. R., Ruseckas, J., Juzeliūnas, G. 2018. Exchange of optical vortices using an electromagnetically induced transparency based four wave mixing setup. Phys. Rev. A 98, 013840.

Seyyed Hossein Asadpour, Hamid Reza Hamedi, and Mahmoud Jafari. 2018. Enhancement of Goos–Hänchen shift due to a Rydberg state. Applied Optics, vol. 57, p. 4013–4019.

Hamid Reza Hamedi, M. Sahrai, H. Khoshsima. 2018. Atom localization using a Rydberg state. Physics of Wave Phenomena, vol. 26, p. 47–55.

Evolution and Statistics of Complex Systems. Prof. B. Kaulakys. 2017–2021.

We have investigated burst and inter-burst duration statistics of volatility in the financial markets employing the consentaneous model. This serves as a strong argument that long-range memory in finance can have spurious nature. We have compared statistical vote share models commonly used in sociophysical literature and determined conditions when the statistical models become nearly indistinguishable. In case of the Lithuanian parliamentary election data set, the models become distinguishable and thus we found further evidence for the use of Beta distribution, which results from an agent-based herding model with long-range memory. We have investigated the general class of nearly identical complex oscillators connected into network in a context of a phase reduction approach. By treating each oscillator as a black-box possessing a single-input single-output, we have provided a practical and simply realizable control algorithm to attain the in-phase synchrony of the network.

Main publications:

Gontis, V., Kononovicius, A. 2018. The consentaneous model of the financial markets exhibiting spurious nature of long-range memory. Physica A 505, p. 1075–1083.

Kononovicius, A. 2018. Modelling of the parties’ vote share distributions. Acta Physica Polonica A 133, 1450, doi: 10.12693/APhysPolA.133.1450.

Novicenko, V., Ratas, I. 2018. In-phase synchronization in complex oscillator networks by adaptive delayed feedback control. PhysRevE, vol. 98, 4, doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.98.042302.

National Research Projects

Global Grant research project Stellar and Exoplanet Investigations in the Context of the TESS and JWST Space Missions (No. 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-01-0103). Habil. Dr. G. Tautvaišienė. 2018–2022.

This project starts a new research programme in a rapidly growing field of exoplanet and planet-hosting star investigations in Lithuania. The main task is to investigate chemical composition and internal structure of bright Galactic stars and characterise exoplanets using ground-based and space observations. We started spectrometric observations at the Molėtai Astronomical Observatory of bright F, G, K spectral type stars in the northern continuous viewing field of the NASA TESS space telescope, in order to determine their main atmospheric parameters and chemical composition. Both spectroscopic and photometric time series observations were started for two eclipsing binary stars (HD27130 and NGC188_V11) in order to investigate their internal structure.

Main publications:

Magrini, L., Vincenzo, F., Randich, S., Pancino, E., Casali, G., Tautvaišienė, G., Drazdauskas, A., Mikolaitis, Š., Minkevičiūtė, R., Stonkutė, E., Chorniy, Y., Bagdonas, V., Kordopatis, G., Friel, E., Roccatagliata, V.,, Jiménez-Esteban, F. M., Gilmore, G., Vallenari, A., Bensby, T., Bragaglia, A., Korn, A. J., Lanzafame, A. C., Smiljanic, R., Bayo, A., Casey, A. R., Costado, M. T., Franciosini, E., Hourihane, A., Jofré, P. Lewis, J., Monaco, L., Morbidelli, L. Sacco, G.; Worley, C. 2018. The Gaia-ESO Survey: the N/O abundance ratio in the Milky Way. Astronomy & Astrophysics, vol. 618, id.A102.

Smiljanic, R., Franciosini, E., Bragaglia, A., Tautvaišienė, G., Fu, X., Pancino, E., Adibekyan, V., Sousa, S. G., Randich, S., Montalbán, J., Pasquini, L., Magrini, L., Drazdauskas, A., García, R. A., Mathur, S., Mosser, B., Régulo, C., de Assis Peralta, R., Hekker, S., Feuillet, D., Valentini, M., Morel, T., Martell, S., Gilmore, G., Feltzing, S., Vallenari, A., Bensby, T., Korn, A. J., Lanzafame, A. C., Recio-Blanco, A., Bayo, A., Carraro, G., Costado, M. T., Frasca, A., Jofré, P., Lardo, C., de Laverny, P.; Lind, K.; Masseron, T.; Monaco, L.; Morbidelli, L.; Prisinzano, L.; Sbordone, L.; Zaggia, S. 2018. The Gaia-ESO Survey: properties of newly discovered Li-rich giants. Astronomy & Astrophysics, vol. 617, id.A4.

Global Grant research project Quantum Engineering in Cold Atomic Gases (No. 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-01-0051). Prof. E. Anisimovas. 2018–2022.

A new possibility was considered for detection of the structured light by measuring the absorption profile of a weak non-vortex probe beam in a highly resonant five-level combined tripod and Lambda atom-light coupling setup. It was demonstrated that due to the closed-loop structure of this scheme, the absorption of the probe beam depends on the azimuthal angle and orbital angular momentum of the control vortex beams. One can identify different regions of spatially structured transparency through measuring the absorption of probe field under different configurations of structured control light.

Main publication:

Hamedi, H. R., Kudriašov, V., Ruseckas, J., Juzeliūnas, G. 2018. Azimuthal modulation of electromagnetically induced transparency using structured light. Optics Express, vol. 26, 28249.

Research Council of Lithuania. Spectroscopic and Photometric Survey of Northern Sky for the ESA PLATO Space Mission (LAT-16019). Dr. Š. Mikolaitis. 2016–2018.

The main atmospheric parameters (effective temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity) as well as chemical abundances of 33 neutral and ionised species were determined for 249 slowly rotating stars using spectra obtained at the Molėtai Astronomical Observatory. Conclusions concerning the elemental radial and vertical abundance gradients in the Galactic disc as well as in respect to stellar age were drawn. Photometric observations of 13 δ Scuti candidate stars were analysed for variability characterisation, twelve of them were attributed to δ Scuti pulators and one star may be a hybrid δ Scuti-γ Doradus pulsator. From the 24 470 CCD images obtained, we analysed stellar light curves of 3598 stars and found 81 new variables.

Main publications:

Burdanov, A., Benni, P., Sokov, E., Krushinsky, V., Popov, A., Delrez, L., Gillon, M., Hébrard, G., Deleuil, M., Wilson, P. A., Demangeon, O., Baştürk, Ö., Pakštienė, E., Sokova, I., Rusov, S. A., Dyachenko, V. V., Rastegaev, D. A., Beskakotov, A., Marchini, A., Bretton, M. Shadick, S., Ivanov, K. 2018. KPS-1b: the first transiting exoplanet discovered using an amateur astronomer’s wide-field CCD data. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, vol. 130(989), p. 074401.

Pakštienė, E., Janulis, R., Tautvaišienė, G., Drazdauskas, A., Klebonas, L., Mikolaitis, Š., Minkevičiūtė, R., Bagdonas, V. 2018. Variability analysis of δ Scuti candidate stars. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, vol. 130(990), p. 084201.

Mikolaitis, Š., Tautvaišienė, G., Drazdauskas, A., Minkevičiūtė, R., Klebonas, L., Bagdonas, V., Pakštienė, E., Janulis, R. 2018. Spectroscopy of dwarf stars around the north Celestial Pole. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, vol. 130(989), p. 074202.

Research Council of Lithuania. Towards Realistic Stellar Model Atmospheres: Magnetic Fields, Molecules, and Non-Equilibrium Radiative Transfer in Stellar Atmospheres (MIP–089/2015). Dr. A. Kučinskas. 2015–2018.

We performed a first extensive study of the influence of convection on the spectra and photometric colour indices of stars across the HR diagram, using for this purpose 3D hydrodynamical model atmospheres. Based on these results, we produced a first grid of 3D–1D colour corrections. The 3D–1D differences in colour indices are small but they may nevertheless lead to errors of up to 200 K in the determined effective temperatures and up to 0.5 dex in gravities.

Main publications:

Kučinskas, A., Klevas, J., Ludwig, H.-G., Bonifacio, P., Steffen, M., Caffau, E. 2018. Using the CIFIST grid of CO5BOLD 3D model atmospheres to study the effects of stellar granulation on photometric colours. II. The role of convection across the H-R diagram. Astronomy & Astrophysics, vol. 613, A24.

Bonifacio, P., Caffau, E., Ludwig, H.-G., Steffen, M., Castelli, F., Gallagher, A. J., Kučinskas, A., Prakapavičius, D., Cayrel, R., Freytag, B., Plez, B., Homeier, D. 2018. Using the CIFIST grid of CO5BOLD 3D model atmospheres to study the effects of stellar granulation on photometric colours. I. Grids of 3D corrections in the UBVRI, 2MASS, HIPPARCOS, Gaia, and SDSS systems. Astronomy & Astrophysics, vol. 611, A68.

Research Council of Lithuania. Spectroscopic Survey of Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen in Stars of the Galactic Open Clusters (MIP-082/2015). Habil. Dr. G. Tautvaišienė. 2015–2018.

The project was successfully completed in March 2018. In the last paper, we investigated variations of the surface chemical composition in member stars of the old open cluster M67 as a possible consequence of atomic diffusion effects taking place during the main-sequence phase. We found that the surface abundances of stars on the main sequence decrease with increasing mass reaching a minimum at the turn-off. After deepening of the convective envelope in subgiant branch stars, the initial surface abundances are restored. Our findings indicate that atomic diffusion poses a non-negligible constraint on the achievable precision of chemical tagging methods.

Main publications:

Bagdonas, V., Drazdauskas, A., Tautvaišienė, G., Smiljanic, R., Chorniy, Y. 2018. Chemical composition of giant stars in the open cluster IC 4756. Astronomy & Astrophysics, vol. 615, id.A165.

Bertelli Motta, C., Pasquali, A., Richer, J., Michaud, G., Salaris, M., Bragaglia, A., Magrini, L., Randich, S., Grebel, E. K., Adibekyan, V., Blanco-Cuaresma, S., Drazdauskas, A., Fu, X., Martell, S., Tautvaišienė, G., Gilmore, G., Alfaro, E. J., Bensby, T., Flaccomio, E., Koposov, S. E., Korn, A. J., Lanzafame, A. C., Smiljanic, R., Bayo, A., Carraro, G., Casey, A. R., Costado, M. T., Damiani, F., Franciosini, E., Heiter, U., Hourihane, A., Jofré, P., Lardo, C., Lewis, J., Monaco, L., Morbidelli, L., Sacco, G. G., Sousa, S. G., Worley, C. C., Zaggia, S. 2018. The Gaia-ESO Survey: evidence of atomic diffusion in M67? Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 478(1), p.425–438

Research Council of Lithuania. Novel Optical Lattices (No. MIP-86/2015). Habil. Dr. G. Juzeliūnas. 2015–2018.

A novel technique was described for creating an artificial magnetic field for ultracold atoms using a periodically pulsed pair of counter propagating Raman lasers that drive transitions between a pair of internal atomic spin states: a multi-frequency coupling term. In conjunction with a magnetic field gradient, this dynamically generates a rectangular lattice with a non-staggered magnetic flux. For a wide range of parameters, the resulting Bloch bands have non-trivial topology, reminiscent of Landau levels, as quantified by their Chern numbers.

Main publication:

Andrijauskas, T., Spielman I. B., Juzeliūnas, G. 2018. Topological lattice using multi-frequency radiation. New J. Phys., vol. 20, 055001.

Research Council of Lithuania. Quantum Phases and Phase Transitions in Restricted-Geometry Condensates (No. APP-4/2016). Prof. Dr. E. Anisimovas. 2016–2019.

A possibility to realize and observe fractional quantum Hall physics in a quantum gas microscope has been addressed. We proposed three different probes that can be implemented in quantum gas microscopes, and simulated them exactly for small systems. Simulations of repulsively interacting bosons on a finite square lattice showed that already a four-particle system exhibits signatures of charge fractionalization.

Main publications:

Račiūnas, M., Unal, F. N., Anisimovas, E., Eckardt, A. 2018. Creating, probing, and manipulating fractionally charged excitations of fractional Chern insulators in optical lattices. Phys. Rev. A, doi: 10.1103/PhysRevA.98.063621.

Research Council of Lithuania. Interstellar Clouds and Star Forming in the Great Cygnus Rift of the Milky Way (S-MIP–17-74). Dr. S. A. Kazlauskas. 2017–2019.

A goal of this project is to investigate a group of interstellar clouds and star forming regions (SFRs) located in the direction of the Great Cygnus Rift, between the Galactic longitudes 70 – 90 deg. Using the seven-colour Vilnius photometric system as well as astrometric data from the Gaia orbiting observatory we determine the distances, membership and interstellar extinction to several young clusters located in this region. New parameters for the open cluster IC 4996 in Cygnus and its vicinity were derived applying two-dimensional photometric classification of stars measured in the Vilnius seven-colour photometric system. Work was started on the open cluster IC 1369.

Lithuanian-Japanese project Theoretical Studies of Structure and Properties of Heavy Elements Toward Identification of Gravitational Wave Sources funded by Research Council of Lithuania (S-LJB-18-1). Prof. Dr. G. Gaigalas. 2018–2020.

By employing multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock and relativistic configuration interaction methods, we calculate energy levels and transition data of electric dipole transitions for Nd II ion. Compared with previous calculations, our new results provide better agreement with the experimental data. The accuracy of energy levels in the present work was achieved 10 %, comparing with the NIST database.

Research Council of Lithuania postdoctoral fellowship Physical Modeling of Order Book and Opinion Dynamics (09.3.3-LMT-K-712-02-0026). Dr. A. Kononovičius, supervisor Dr. J. Ruseckas, 2017–2019.

The first year of post-doctoral fellowship was mostly dedicated to the topic of order-book modeling. The fellow together with his supervisor have formulated an agent-based order book model, which is built atop two analytically tractable frameworks: the agent-based herding model (developed in our institute) and the concept of financial Brownian motion proposed by Kanazawa et al. in Physical Review Letters.

Research Council of Lithuania postdoctoral fellowship Algebraic Analysis of Strongly Correlated Systems (09.3.3-LMT-K-712-02-0017). Dr. V. Regelskis, supervisor Dr. A. Acus. 2017–2019.

Generic boundary conditions for open spin chain systems were obtained and the spectral problem for orthogonal and symplectic open spin chain systems was solved.

Main publications:

Regelskis, V., Vlaar, B. 2018. Solutions of the Uq(slN) reflection equations. J. Phys. A 51, 345204, https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/aad026 .

Gerrard, A., MacKay, N., Regelskis, V. 2018. Nested algebraic Bethe Ansatz for open spin chains with even twisted Yangian symmetry. Ann. Henri Poincaré, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00023-018-0731-1.

Research Council of Lithuania postdoctoral fellowship. Functionalized Nanodiamonds: Investigation of Magnetic Properties (09.3.3-LMT-K-712-02-0077). Dr. Š. Masys, supervisor Dr. J. Tamulienė. 2017–2019.

Overhauser effect-enhanced MRI can be applied to monitor and track nanodiamonds (NDs) in vivo without utilizing contrast agents. But for that to happen, NDs must possess suitable magnetic properties, therefore the objective of the project is to investigate magnetic properties of functionalized NDs in order to evaluate their potential for application in the field of innovative biomedical imaging. Theoretical modelling of NDs is carried out within density functional theory scheme using quantum chemistry packages.

Research Council of Lithuania postdoctoral fellowship Theoretical Study of Atomic Parameters with Applications to Astrophysics (Nr. 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-02-0072). Dr. P. Rynkun, supervisor Prof. Dr. G. Gaigalas. 2017–2019.

We obtain accurate and extensive results of electric dipole (E1), magnetic dipole (M1), and electric quadrupole (E2) transition for S II ion using MCDHF and RCI methods. The accuracy of results is evaluated comparing energy levels with data from NIST database and by the agreement of transition rates between length and velocity gauges. Some levels of the calculated ions are presented for the first time.

Research Council of Lithuania postdoctoral fellowship Topological Properties of Periodically Driven Quantum Systems (09.3.3-LMT-K-712-0.2-0065) Dr. V. Novičenko, supervisor Habil. Dr. G. Juzeliūnas. 2017–2019.

We considered a periodically driven quantum system governed by a Hamiltonian, which is a product of a slowly varying Hermitian operator and a fast oscillating periodic function with a zero average. It is shown that the adiabatic evolution of the system within degenerate Floquet bands is accompanied by the non-Abelian (non-commuting) geometric phases, which can have significant values even after completing a single cycle of the slow variable.

International Research Projects

EC Horizon2020 project EUROPLANET2020 – Research Infrastructure (project No. 654208). Dr. Habil. G. Tautvaišienė. 2015–2019.

We were working in the work packages dedicated to on-ground observations, coordination and training of amateur astronomers and planetary science outreachers. A summer school was organized on July 31-August 10, 2018 at the Molėtai Astronomical Observatory. The aim of the course was to give participants an introduction into space missions and the ground-based observations required by space missions before and after launch, as well as an introduction to science communication. 22 participants from nine countries (Finland, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Spain, Romania, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA) were trained.

Main publication:

Chatzichristou, E., Daglis, I., Heward, A., Tautvaisiene, G., Russo, P., Doran, R. 2018. Europlanet 2020 RI Outreach Innovation and Communication Training Workshops, in European Planetary Science Congress 2018, September 16–21 at TU Berlin, Berlin, Germany, id.EPSC2018-1272

Taiwan-Latvia-Lithuania joint research project Quantum and Nonlinear Optics with Rydberg-State Atoms (TAP LLT-2/2016). Dr. J. Ruseckas. 2016–2018.

We investigated quantum nonlinear effects at a level of individual quanta in a double-tripod atom-light coupling scheme involving two atomic Rydberg states. A distinctive feature of the proposed setup is that it combines the spin-orbit coupling for the spinor slow light with an interaction between the photons, enabling generation of the second probe beam even when two-photon detuning is zero. It was shown that the interaction between the photons can become repulsive if the one-photon detunings have opposite signs.

Main publication:

Ruseckas, J., Kudriašov, V., Mekys, A., Andrijauskas T., Ite A. Yu, and G. Juzeliūnas. 2018. Nonlinear quantum optics for spinor slow light. Phys. Rev. A 98, 013846.

Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. Lithuanian Cooperation with CERN. Dr. A. Juodagalvis, since 2008.

Activities at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at CERN are focused on participation in the Detector performance group of the CMS muon system upgrade project GEM. GEM-related database integration into CMS software (CMSSW) and DAQ systems were targeted. DCS shifts at P5 were carried out. The analysis of the CMS pp collision data recorded in 2016 was started with an aim of deducing Drell-Yan process properties at the centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. A study of the Grimus-Neufeld model was continued. The idea of using the measured neutrino mixing matrix as model input parameters was pursued. The studies of Standard Model extensions (SM with additional two scalars singlets, two and three Higgs doublets models and two Higgs doublet model with added scalar singlet) were performed. By applying various theoretical and experimental bounds, like the unitarity bounds and the bounded-from-below bounds, we obtained bounds on the scalar masses and couplings.

Main publications:

CMS Collaboration [from Lithuania V. Dudenas, A. Juodagalvis, J. Vaitkus]. 2018. Evidence for the Higgs boson decay to a bottom quark-antiquark pair. Physics Letters B, vol. 780, p. 501–532, doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2018.02.050.

CMS Collaboration [from Lithuania V. Dudenas, A. Juodagalvis, J. Vaitkus]. 2018. Observation of the Higgs boson decay to a pair of tau leptons with the CMS detector. Physics Letters B, vol. 779, p. 283–316, doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2018.02.004.

Jurčiukonis, D. and Lavoura, L. 2018. The three- and four-Higgs couplings in the general two-Higgs-doublet model. , vol. 12, 004, doi:10.1007/JHEP12(2018)004.

International programme Gaia-ESO Spectroscopic Survey (ESO project 188.B-3002). Habil. Dr. G. Tautvaišienė. 2012–2019.

In a framework of this programme, we were working on the chemodynamical evolution of the Galaxy. From a sample of more than 3000 stars selected from the fourth internal data release of the Gaia-ESO Survey, we suggested that migration processes are likely to have played an important role in the evolution of the Milky Way, with metal-rich stars migrating from the inner disk toward to solar neighbourhood and past mergers potentially driving enhanced migration of older stellar populations in the disk.

Main publications:

Thompson, B. B., Few, C. G., Bergemann, M., Gibson, B. K., MacFarlane, B. A., Serenelli, A., Gilmore, G., Randich, S., Vallenari, A., Alfaro, E. J., Bensby, T., Francois, P., Korn, A. J., Bayo, A., Carraro, G., Casey, A. R., Costado, M. T., Donati, P., Franciosini, E., Frasca, A., Hourihane, A., Jofré, P., Hill, V., Heiter, U., Koposov, S. E., Lanzafame, A., Lardo, C., de Laverny, P., Lewis, J., Magrini, L., Marconi, G., Masseron, T., Monaco, L., Morbidelli, L., Pancino, E., Prisinzano, L., Recio-Blanco, A., Sacco, G., Sousa, S. G., Tautvaišienė, G., Worley, C. C., Zaggia, S. 2018. The Gaia-ESO Survey: matching chemodynamical simulations to observations of the Milky Way. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 473(1), p.185–197.

Hayden, M. R., Recio-Blanco, A., de Laverny, P., Mikolaitis, Š., Guiglion, G., Hill, V., Gilmore, G., Randich, S., Bayo, A., Bensby, T., Bergemann, M., Bragaglia, A., Casey, A., Costado, M., Feltzing, S., Franciosini, E., Hourihane, A., Jofre, P., Koposov, S., Kordopatis, G., Lanzafame, A., Lardo, C., Lewis, J., Lind, K., Magrini, L., Monaco, L., Morbidelli, L., Pancino, E., Sacco, G., Stonkutė, E., Worley, C. C., Zwitter, T. 2018. The Gaia-ESO Survey: churning through the Milky Way. Astronomy & Astrophysics, vol. 609, id.A79.

Long-term international project The Whole Earth Telescope (WET). Dr. E. Pakštienė, Dr. R. Janulis.

We participated in WET campaign on Sep 1–8 and observed a variable white dwarf G29-38, which is actively accreting dust from an asteroid or comet. Circumstellar dust of G29-38 creates one of the brightest infrared excesses of all dust-hosting white dwarfs. This the WET campaign we supported observations of G29-38 performed by NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) in Hawaii on Sept 3, 4, 5. Photometric observations of G29-38 at the Molėtai Astronomical Observatory were carried out with 35/51 cm telescope (on Sep 1, 3, & 6) and with the 1.65 m telescope (on Sep 2, 7, & 8). The aim of the campaign was to determine optical thickness and geometry of the debris disc in order to able to find the dust mass and/or circumstellar debris lifetimes, which in turn are necessary to constrain their formation from the extrasolar planetary system.

Main publication:

Silvotti, R., Schuh, S., Kim, S.-L., Lutz, R., Reed, M., Benatti, S., Janulis, R., Lanteri, L., Østensen, R., Marsh, T. R., Dhillon, V. S., Paparo, M., Molnar, L. 2018. The sdB pulsating star V391 Peg and its putative giant planet revisited after 13 years of time-series photometric data. Astronomy & Astrophysics, vol. 611, id.A85.

International long-term international project Kepler Follow-up Program of Kepler Objects of Interest (KFOP-KOIs). Dr. E. Pakštienė, Dr. R. Janulis. Since 2016.

KFOP-KOIs is a multisite photometric follow-up of Kepler KOIs, the framework of a large collaboration between institutions around the globe. The main goal of the KFOP-KOIs is to continue with Kepler’s heritage, to increase the number of confirmed and characterized exoplanets. The observations focus the instrumental capabilities into the KOIs that require additional data to achieve a proper characterization or confirmation by means of the Transit Timing Variations (TTV) technique. We observed two objects from the list of Kepler Objects of Interest (KOI) with 1.65 m telescope at the Molėtai Astronomical Observatory: KOI 0410.01 (on May 3 and on Sep 10) and KOI 0377.01 (on Apr 20 and Sep 2). In addition, we observed KOI 0410.01 with the Nordic Optical Telescope on Oct 16.

Main publications:

von Essen, C., Ofir, A., Dreizler, S., Agol, E., Freudenthal, J., Hernández, J., Wedemeyer, S., Parkash, V., Deeg, H. J., Hoyer, S., Morris, B. M., Becker, A. C., Sun, L., Gu, S. H., Herrero, E., Tal-Or, L., Poppenhaeger, K., Mallonn, M., Albrecht, S., Khalafinejad, S., Boumis, P., Delgado-Correal, C., Fabrycky, D. C., Janulis, R., Lalitha, S., Liakos, A., Mikolaitis, Š., Moyano D'Angelo, L., Sokov, E., Pakštienė, E., Popov, A., Krushinsky, V., Ribas, I., Rodríguez M. M. S., Rusov, S., Sokova, I., Tautvaišienė, G., Wang, X. 2018. Kepler Object of Interest Network. I. First results combining ground- and space-based observations of Kepler systems with transit timing variations. Astronomy & Astrophysics, vol. 615, id.A79.

National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS, Japan) International research project Construction of Atomic Data and Radiative Transfer Simulations toward Identification of Gravitational Wave Sources and the Origin of Heavy Elements. Prof. Dr. G. Gaigalas. 2016–2018.

We obtained opacities from bound-bound transitions for Se, Ru, Te, Ba, Nd, and Er. We showed that the optical brightness can be different by >2 mag depending on the element abundances in the ejecta such that post-merger, lanthanide-free ejecta produce brighter and bluer optical emission. Such blue emission from post-merger ejecta can be observed from the polar directions if the mass of the preceding dynamical ejecta in these regions is small.

Main publication:

Tanaka, M., Kato D., Gaigalas, G., Rynkun, P., Radžiūtė, L., Wanajo, S., Sekiguchi, Y., Nakamura, N., Tanuma, H., Murakami, I., Sakaue, H. 2018. Properties of Kilonovae from dynamical and post-merger ejecta of neutron star mergers. The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 852, 109.

COST Action TD1308 Origins and Evolution Oo Life on Earth and in the Universe (ORIGINS) (http://www.cost.eu/COST_Actions/tdp/TD1308). Action Chair: Prof. Muriel Gargaud, France) (29 countries). Habil. Dr. G. Tautvaišienė. 2014–2018.

In a framework of this COST action, an international conference Life on Earth and beyond: emergence, survivability, and impact on the environment was organised in Bertinoro, Italy on 19–24 March, 2018. An oral scientific presentation Spectroscopic and Photometric Survey of the Northern Sky for Exoplanetary Research was presented by Tautvaišienė G., Mikolaitis Š., Pakštienė E., Janulis R., Drazdauskas A., Minkevičiūtė R., Klebonas L., and Bagdonas V.

COST Action CA16117 Chemical Elements as Tracers of the Evolution of the Cosmos (ChETEC) (http://www.cost.eu/COST_Actions/ca/ca11617). Action Chair: Dr. Raphael Hirschi, England) (30 countries). Dr. A. Kučinskas, Managing Committee Member, Co-lead of the Working Group 3 (Astronomical Observations). 2017–2021.

We organized a ChETEC Working Group 3 Workshop, which took place in Vilnius, on March 14–16. The Workshop was dedicated to the preparation for future observations to be carried out within the framework of this Action and was heavily based on discussions and interactions, as well as hands-on activities in several working sub-groups. The scientific stage for the Workshop was set by several key presentations, including those by the local participants (A. Kučinskas, A. Černiauskas, V. Dobrovolskas).

Long-term international project Researchers’ Night. S. Lovčikas, Dr. A. Kazlauskas. Since 2005.
The main purpose of this project is meetings of scientists with general public. Such meetings took place on the September 28th of 2018 at the Molėtai Astronomical Observatory. It is a Europe-wide public event dedicated to popular science. More than 30 countries and over 300 cities are involved. The Molėtai Astronomical Observatory programme included the show „Signals“, given by the Laboratory of Art and Science, 12 lectures given by seven lecturers, tours to professional telescopes, stargazing, show of physical experiments. Almost all the staff of the Observatory and several scientists from other departments met with 400 people visiting the Observatory.

MAIN R&D&I (RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION) PARTNERS

Aarhus University (Denmark)
European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN (Switzerland)
Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, Université Paris Diderot (France)
Centre for Physical Sciences and Technology (Lithuania)
National Institute for Fusion Science (Japan)
Vatican Observatory (USA)

OTHER SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES

Dr. A. Drazdauskas

  • member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

Dr. K. Černis

  • member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

Habil. Prof. Dr. G. Gaigalas

Dr. V. Gontis

  • member of the association of Euroscience, http://www.euroscience.org/;
  • council member of the Lithuanian Scientific Society;
  • Academic editor of PlosOne.

Dr. A. Juodagalvis

  • contact person for the CMS outreach and communication in Lithuania, representing the Lithuanian Team at CERN CMS experiment (since 2015);
  • Lithuanian representative in CERN Finance Committee (since 2018);
  • member of the Council of Experimental Nuclear and Particle Physics Centre at the Faculty of Physics of Vilnius University;
  • member of the Board of Lithuanian Physics Society.

Dr. R. Juršėnas

  • member of the American Mathematical Society.

Habil. Dr. G. Juzeliūnas

  • associated member of the National Centre for Theoretical Sciences at the National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan;
  • member of the Institute of Physics (UK);
  • Academic editor of the journal Plos One.

Prof. B. Kaulakys

  • member of the Institute of Physics (UK);
  • member of the European Physical Society;
  • editorial board member of the Lithuanian Journal of Physics;
  • editorial board member of the journal Nonlinear Analysis. Modelling and Control;
  • vice-president of the Lithuanian Association of Nonlinear Analysts;
  • council member of the Lithuanian Scientific Society.

Prof. R. Karazija

  • editorial board member of the Lithuanian Journal of Physics;
  • member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.

Dr. A. Kynienė

  • president of the Vilnius City Board of the Physics Teachers’ Association;
  • member of Vilnius City Physics Methodical Board;
  • Team leader of Particle Physics Outreach Group at the VU Experimental Nuclear and Particle Physics Centre.

Dr. A. Kučinskas

  • member of the Board of Directors of the international journal Astronomy and Astrophysics;
  • vice-president of the Lithuanian Astronomical Society;
  • member of the International Astronomical Union.

Dr. Š. Mikolaitis

  • member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU);
  • member of the European Astronomical Society.

Prof. Dr. E. Norvaišas

  • member of Institute of Physics;
  • member of the European Physics Society.

Dr. L. Radžiūtė

Dr. P. Rynkun

Prof. V. Straižys

  • member emeritus of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences;
  • member of the working group on stellar classification of the ESA Gaia project;
  • member of the International Astronomical Union;
  • member of the European Astronomical Society.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. D. Šatkovskienė

  • member of Administration Board (BoA) of European Platform of Women Scientists (EPWS, https://epws.org/epws-general-assembly-2017/);
  • President of regional Baltic States Association BASNET Forumas, https://www.basnetforumas.eu/;
  • Lithuanian Team member of IUPAP working group on Women in Physics (WP5);
  • member of International Advisory Board (IAB) of EC HORIZON 2020 programme project BALTIC GENDER, https://www.baltic-gender.eu/;
  • Represented Vilnius University observership in EC Horizon 2020 project GENERA, https://genera-project.com/index.php;
  • programme committee member of the international conference on Marine Responsible Research and Innovation in Science, Innovation and Society (RRI-SIS MARINA2018) 17–19 of September, Tartu, Estonia;
  • scientific committee member of the international conference Femininity and Masculinity towards Complementarity - the Interdisciplinary Approach, to be held 9 of April 2019, in Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Warsaw, Poland .

Dr. J. Tamulienė

  • management committee member of the Lithuanian Physics Society.

Habil. Dr. G. Tautvaišienė

  • vice-president of Commission H1 The Local Universe (IAU);
  • organizing committee member of Commission H1 The Local Universe (IAU);
  • member of Special Nominating Committee (IAU);
  • vice-president of the Lithuanian Physics Society;
  • member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU);
  • IAU National Outreach Coordinator, https://www.iau.org/public/noc/;
  • founding member of the European Astronomical Society;
  • editorial board member of the Mol journal, http://mol-en.scg.org.es/editorial-board;
  • editor-in-chief of the annual astronomical almanac Lietuvos dangus (Sky of Lithuania);
  • Chair of the scientific organizing committee of the international Europlanet Summer School Space missions: ground-based observations and science communication, July 31–August 10, 2018, Molėtai, Lithuania.

Prof. Dr. V. Vansevičius

  • member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU);
  • member of the Lithuanian Science Council.

Dr. M. Maskoliūnas, Dr. R. Minkevičiūtė, Dr. D. Narbutis, Dr. E. Pakštienė, Dr. J. Sperauskas, Dr. E. Stonkutė, Dr. R. Stonkutė, Dr. J. Zdanavičius

  • members of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

MOST IMPORTANT PARTICIPATION CASES OF RESEARCHERS IN WORKING GROUPS OR COMMISSIONS SET UP BY STATE AUTHORITIES, STATE AND MUNICIPAL INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANISATIONS, AND BUSINESS ENTITIES

Prof. V. Vansevičius is a member of the Lithuanian Science Council.

CONSULTATIONS PROVIDED BY THE UNIT TO THE PUBLIC OR ECONOMIC ENTITIES

Regular consultations for various Police departments concerning astronomical conditions during the requested time periods, when car accidents happened, dr. A. Kazlauskas.

Regular consultations to public concerning unusual astronomical events and stones found, which are suspected to be of extra-terrestrial origin, S. Lovčikas, V. Straižys, G. Tautvaišienė.

MOST IMPORTANT RESEARCH DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES

International science-popularisation event International MasterClass: Hands-on Particle Physics (March 23, 2018), organized in collaboration with the International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG) and reported to the CERN Council, http://physicsmasterclasses.org/index.php?cat=archive&page=schedule_2018

Annual popular science edition Lietuvos dangus 2019, published since 1989, 154 p., in Lithuanian.

In 2018, 39 posts in the Physics of Risk blog written in English were published http://rf.mokslasplius.lt/. Majority of the posts contained a brief description of some econophysics models and their interactive implementation.

Science popularisation event of the long-term international project Researchers’ Night 2018, 28 September, VU ITPA Molėtai Observatory.

Science popularisation event Starry Night 2018, 20 April, VU ITPA Molėtai Observatory.