Story on Latvian television about Smart Windows technology developed in Latvia. The materials developed at the Institute of Solid State Physics of Latvian University in Thin Films Laboratory under the guidance of an academician Juris Purans has been recognized by the Latvian Academy of Sciences as one of the most significant achievements in Latvian science in 2022.
Story on Latvian television about Latvian scientists development of an antibacterial transparent overlay for screens, which in the future may help in the fight against Covid-19 and other viruses.
“We make a very thin coating, almost invisible to the eye. We can apply multiple layers. As a result, we obtain an antimicrobial coating,” says Mārtiņš Zubkins, a leading researcher at the Thin Films Laboratoty in Institute of Solid State Physics of the University of Latvia. The head of the laboratory, Juris Purans, pointed out that the goal of the scientists is to create a transparent material, which in the future may be used to stick on the phone. And the virus will not live on it for a long time. One of the components of the coating is copper, and scientists do not disclose the rest of the composition - there is no patent yet.
The Baltic Assembly Prize in Science in 2020 was presented to physicist, corresponding member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, team member of Thin Films Laboratory Robert Eglitis. He has been awarded for the research cycle "Theoretical calculations for new materials for energy production and storage".
In March, 2021 as result of a collaboration between three laboratories of the Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia and KTH and Synchrotron SOLEIL (France) the scientific article A. Chesnokov, D. Gryaznov, N. V. Skorodumova, E. A. Kotomin, A. Zitolo, M. Zubkins, A. Kuzmin, A. Anspoks, J. Purans „The local atomic structure and thermoelectric properties of Ir-doped ZnO: hybrid DFT calculations and XAS experiments” (https://doi.org/10.1039/D1TC00223F) was published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C with an impact factor of 7,059!
On 19 of March, 2021 as result of a collaboration between the scientists of the Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia (Juris Purans, Inga Pudza, Alexei Kuzmin) and several world-leading centres the article "Local electronic structure rearrangements and strong anharmonicity in YH3 under pressures up to 180 GPa" (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21991-x) was published in the Nature Communications journal with an impact factor of 12.121!
Latvian Science’s Top 10 Achievements: 2013, 2014 and 2015 (A new magnetron sputtering technology and a new multifunctional R&D cluster tool for thin films manufacturing including transparent conductive coatings)
Latvian Academy of Science award: Acad. E. Silina prize (2009)
Rome International Center for Materials Science of Superstripes "Fibonacci" prize (2016)