Newsfrom our faculty members and students
APL publication by Pedro Cosme and Hugo Terças highlighted as "Editor's Pick"
April 16 2021The paper entitled "Hydrodynamical study of terahertz emission in magnetized graphene field-effect transistors", published in Applied Physics Letters by Pedro Cosme and Hugo Terças, has been highlighted as "Editor's Pick".
The paper advances a novel scheme in which a magnetised graphene field-effect transistor (gFET) can produce coherent terahertz (THz) radiation. In the presence of a transverse magnetic field, the cyclotron frequency sets the lower bound to the spectral emission. Contrary to ordinary plasmas, the cut-off frequency of two-dimensional electron gases can be tuned with the gate potential, as the effective carrier mass varies with the carrier density.
This research opens the venue for a new generation of THz emitters combining plasmonic and magnetic materials in integrated-circuit technology.
Pedro Cosme is a PhD student of the Advance Programme in PLAsma Science and Engineering (APPLAuSE) , supervised by Hugo Terças, invited professor of the scientific domain in Plasmas, Lasers and Nuclear Fusion.
Marija Vranic selected by the Lisbon Academy of Sciences to join the Young Scientists Seminar
March 29 2021Marija Vranic, invited professor of the Department of Physics, was selected by the Lisbon Academy of Sciences to join the Young Scientists Seminar (SJC), in the field of Sciences. Marija is part of a group of 20 selected young scientists – Sciences (10), and Letters and Humanities (10), chosen from the proposals of academics of both Classes, in different areas of knowledge: Bioethics, Physics, Geology, Biology, Philosophy or Literary Studies.
The young scientists, aged 30-40, who are part of the SJC “must have an academic and professional curriculum with highest distinction, preferably recognised internationally”. The SJC is part of the Institute of High Studies of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences and aims to maintain a link between the Academy and young scientists of exceptional merit in order to stimulate the discussion of socially and scientifically relevant issues through the implementation of activities, such as conferences, colloquia, etc. At the end of three years, the selected young scientists receive a praise certificate from the Institute of High Studies of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences.
Mario Galletti obtains PhD Research Award from EPS
March 14 2021Former APPLAuSE student Mario Galletti was awarded one of the European Physical Society (EPS) Plasma Physics Division PhD Research Award of its 2021 edition. The prize recognizes truly outstanding research achievements associated with a PhD study in the broad field of plasma physics. Up to four prizes are given annually to young scientists from the 38 European countries associated with the EPS. This year's winners will give an oral presentation of their works at the 47th European Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics.
Mario’s thesis is entitled “High contrast front-end for a petawatt laser system designed for electron acceleration & High-intensity laser-matter applications towards advanced compact particle accelerators” and was supervised by Prof. Gonçalo Figueira (IPFN, IST) and Dr. Mario Galimberti (CLF, STFC, UK).
In his thesis, Mario investigated the generation of ultrashort laser pulses in the near-infrared region between 750 and 1000 nm, which is of interest for current large scale laser projects based on optical parametric amplification. He designed and developed highly efficient ultra-broadband Optical Parametric Amplification (OPA) stages in the femtosecond and picosecond regime, as well as the associated temporal diagnostics. The systems were implemented at the Laboratory for Intense Lasers (IST) and at the Vulcan laser system (CLF) in the scope of facility upgrades for laser-plasma interaction and pump-probe experiments.
Additionally, he investigated one of the most promising applications of ultrashort, high-intensity lasers: Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA), which finds applications such as radiotherapy, isotope production, fusion fast ignition schemes and proton imaging. The experimental research for this topic was conducted in collaboration with the SPARC-LAB group at LNF-INFN (Italy).
Congratulations Mario !
Vasco Guerra and Luís Oliveira e Silva among the best scientists in the world according to Stanford study
February 25 2021Professors Vasco Guerra and Luís Oliveira e Silva are among the ninety-nine Técnico researchers included in the lists of highly cited researchers worldwide, falling within the top 2% in their respective fields, according to a study carried out by Stanford University. The selected authors are presented in the article entitled “Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators”, published in the journal PLOS Biology.
The article is based on standardized citation metrics, with the purpose of combating abuse of self-citation, and the number of citations allows to assess the impact and consolidated influence of a given scientist or institution in the progress of scientific knowledge. The selection derives from an exhaustive analysis of research data from the mid-1990s to 2019.
The list includes 160,000 researchers from 149 countries in 22 scientific disciplines and 176 subdisciplines. The ranking compiled by John Ioannidis and his team used Scopus, the largest abstract and citation online database of peer-reviewed literature.
Separate data are shown for career-long (updated to the end of 2019; V Guerra's category) and single-year impact (2019; LO Silva's category).
Congratulations to Profs Guerra and Oliveira e Silva !
More details here
Egor Seliunin receives PhD in Engineering Physics
February 20 2021On 19 February 2021, Dr. Egor Seliunin received his PhD in Engineering Physics with a thesis entitled 'Validation of the density profiles from the ICRF antenna
X-mode reflectometer on ASDEX Upgrade'. His work was supervised by Dr. Carlos Silva (IST) and Dr. Peter Manz (Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Germany).
The thesis committee consisted of Prof. Stéphane Heuraux (IJL, Univ. Lorraine, France), Dr. Garrard Conway (Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Germany), Dr. Bruno Gonçalves (IST), Dr. Carlos Silva (IST) and Prof. Luís L. Alves (IST, President).
Congratulations Egor !