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The International Conference on Quasicrystals – ICQ14 took place in Kranjska Gora from May 26 to May 31, 2019. It was attended by 120 scientists from 18 countries and three continents (Europe, Asia and America). Dr. Andreja Jelen of the F5 Department also attended the conference, where she presented the poster “Microstructure and magnetic properties of a single-crystalline FeCoCrMnAl high-entropy alloy”. The committee of three scientists from France, Japan and Poland selected her poster as the best poster contribution at the ICQ14 conference. The Best Poster Prize was sponsored by the Crystals journal. The photo shows dr. Andrej Jelen and the president of the committee, prof. Hiroyuki Takakura from the University of Hokkaido, Japan.

Matjaž Gomilšek, Martin Klanjšek, Matej Pregelj and Andrej Zorko from the Condensed Matter Physics Department and Rok Žitko from the Department of Theoretical Physics at the “Jožef Stefan” Institute, in collaboration with researchers from Switzerland and China, have published the paper Kondo screening in a charge-insulating spinon metal in Nature Physics. The Kondo effect where conduction electrons screen the local moments of magnetic impurities is well known to occur in ordinary metals. Here, the researchers have shown that an analogous phenomenon is possible also in electric insulators, in particular, in a quantum spin liquid with magnetic spinon excitations forming a Fermi surface. This discovery could be important for manipulating topologically protected spin-liquid states in quantum computing.

Researchers from the Condensed Matter Physics Department (F5), Matej Pregelj, Andrej Zorko, Matjaž Gomilšek, Martin Klanjšek and Denis Arčon, in collaboration with colleagues from Switzerland, UK and Croatia, published an article in npj Quantum materials entitled Elementary excitation in the spin-stripe phase in quantum chains. To describe the dynamics of a large number of interacting particles, we often use a decomposition into elementary excitation modes, such as phonons in case of lattice vibrations. In the published article, the researchers discovered a new excitation mode in the spin chains, a collective wiggling of spins occurring in a spin-stripe state. The work provides a new insight into the physics of stripe states, which are also found in high-temperature superconductors.

For the 27th time, the Jožef Stefan Institute awarded the Golden Emblem Prize to authors of doctoral theses with the highest impact in Slovenia and abroad, which were defended in the Republic of Slovenia in the past three years. This year, the Golden Emblem was awarded to dr. Primož Koželj and dr. Victor Vega Mayoral. Dr. Koželj received the Golden Emblem for the high impact of his dissertation “Physical Properties of High-Entropy Alloys and their Comparison to Complex Intermetallics” and dr. Mayoral for his dissertation “Photophysics of transition metal dichalcogenides obtained from liquid phase exfoliation”. The Golden Emblems were awarded on March 27, 2019, in the Cankarjev dom conference centre as part of the celebration in honour of 70 years of the Jožef Stefan Institute. Keynote speakers were the director of JSI, prof. dr. Jadran Lenarčič, and president of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr. Marjan Šarec.

1.  Janez Grad, Anton Gradišek, “Bumblebee brood temperature and colony development: a field study”, Acta entomologica slovenica, 2018, 26, 2, 219-232.

2.  Peter Keil, Maximilian Trapp, Nikola Novak, Till Frömling, Hans-Joachim Kleebe, Jürgen Rödel, “Piezotronic tuning of potential barriers in ZnO bicrystals”, Advanced materials, 2018, 30, 10, 1705573.

3.  Chloe C. Tartan, John J. Sandford O’Neill, Patrick S. Salter, Jure Aplinc, Martin J. Booth, Miha Ravnik, Stephen Morris, Steve Elston, “Read on demand images in laser-written polymerizable liquid crystal devices”, Advanced optical materials, 2018, 6, 1800515.

4.  Bojana Višić, Eva Kranjc, Luka Pirker, Urška Bačnik, Gašper Tavčar, Srečo D. Škapin, Maja Remškar, “Incense powder and particle emission characteristics during and after burning incense in an unventilated room setting”, Air quality, atmosphere & health, 2018, 11, 6, 649-663.

5.  Aleksander Matavž, Janez Kovač, Miha Čekada, Barbara Malič, Vid Bobnar, “Enhanced electrical response in ferroelectric thin film capacitors with inkjet-printed  electrodes”, Applied physics letters, 2018, 113, 1, 012904.

6.  D. R. Kazanov et al. (12 authors), “Multiwall  tubes as optical resonators”, Applied physics letters, 2018, 113, 10, 101106.

7.  Nikša Krstulović, Krešimir Salamon, Ognjen Budimlija, Janez Kovač, Jasna Dasović, Polona Umek, Ivana Capan, “Parameters optimization for synthesis of Al-doped ZnO nanoparticles by laser ablation in water”, Applied Surface Science, 2018, 440, 916-925.… Read the rest “Original Article – 2018”