The laser ray, one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century, began to be researched by scientists in Kobylisy, Prague, where the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics was then located, in the second half of 1962. In modest conditions, with a single discharge tube and self-built apparatus, but very successfully. In collaboration with Jan John, a doctor at the nearby Bulovka Hospital, a team led by Jan Blabla and Alena Jelínková carried out a series of experiments on the eye background of rabbits, whose eye structure is very similar to that of humans.
“The laser appeared to be the ideal technology for treating the detached retina of the eye. Experiments on the Kobylisy ruby laser confirmed this,” says Pavel Peterka, director of the Institute of Photonics and Electronics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS).
A unique opportunity arose in 1964, when a doctor brought a patient with a torn retina to the laboratory whose only chance was a laser treatment. The operation was successful and the success prompted the production of an ophthalmocoagulator. By 1972 alone, it had helped save the sight of more than 6000 patients.
Fibers for industry and defense systems
Laser technology has become a flagship for the Institute, which has also hosted groups from the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Plasma Physics of the CAS on its premises. For more than three decades, for example, ÚFE has been developing a large infrastructure for research on fiber lasers and optical fiber technology, keeping it at the forefront of world research.
“For example, we can prepare thulium optical fibers with efficiencies in high power lasers of over 62%, which is higher than commercially available thulium fibers,” says Pavel Honzátko, who leads the Fiber lasers and non-linear optics research team and amplifiers at the ÚFE.
Thulium fibers developed at the ÚFE have also found applications in high-power amplification stages for the new generation of anti-drone laser systems (TALOS project).
“At the national level, ÚFE is coordinating the large LasApp project, which is developing a center of scientific excellence and competence in laser technology, focusing on fiber and thin-disc lasers and their applications. By linking top laser laboratories, it is intended to help overcome the criticized fragmentation of Czech research,” Pavel Peterka recalls.
Research and accurate diagnosis of diseases
Optical biosensors that detect biomolecules (but also larger objects such as cells) on the functional layer of the sensor offer extensive potential for medical applications. For example, to detect myelodysplastic syndrome, which often progresses to acute myeloid leukemia, scientists have developed an extremely sensitive analytical method. “Directly from a blood plasma sample and without complex preparatory steps, this method detects potential biomarkers of myelodysplastic syndrome,” explains Jiří Homola, who leads Optical biosensors research team at the ÚFE, which focuses not only on medical applications but also on food safety control and environmental monitoring.
The field of bioelectrodynamics also promises new diagnostic and therapeutic methods. “Electromagnetic technologies make it possible to influence the behavior of cells and protein molecules, but they also offer new ways to monitor extremely dynamic biological processes,” emphasizes Michal Cifra, head of the Bioelectrodynamics research team. “For example, the analysis of biological autoluminescence, a weak light emission inherent in all living organisms, can be used to monitor oxidative stress and other pathological phenomena,” adds the scientist.
Nanomaterials for green technologies
The electrification of industry, transport, and households in the context of reducing greenhouse gas emissions poses a number of scientific challenges. One of these is the early detection of breakdowns and subsequent potential fires in lithium batteries in electric vehicles and photovoltaic systems. A possible solution is the development of so-called chemiresistors – sensors that measure changes in electrical conductivity in response to the surrounding atmosphere and are thus able to detect low concentrations of gases released before they fail.
“The first chemiresistors were made in the 1960s, but the development of nanotechnology in recent decades has made it possible to replace their sensitive layers with nanostructures that significantly improve the parameters of chemiresistors,” points out Jan Grym, who works on semiconductor materials and nanostructures for electronics and optoelectronics at the ÚFE. The sensors that the research team is involved in developing will be able to serve the entire hydrogen economy. “We will be able to use them to monitor the safety of all hydrogen facilities, from storage to handling to production processes,” adds Jan Grym.
Where microscopy ends
The youngest one at the ÚFE is the Nano-Optics research team. It deals with ultrasensitive and super-resolution microscopy at a level below the diffraction limit of light. “We are developing a unique method to image individual protein molecules in their natural environment, thus revealing previously unseen processes in biology. We want to see changes even inside individual protein cells,” explains Marek Piliarik, team leader.
ÚFE also runs and develops the Laboratory of the National Time and Frequency Standard. Since 1971, a special laboratory with a highly stable temperature has been creating a physical approximation of the unit of time, the second, on an atomic (cesium) clock. The Tempus Pragense scale measured here reports to the BIPM International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris. The latter calculates the coordinated time based on this and other data from about a hundred similar laboratories around the world.
Attachments
- The first laser eye surgery in Czechoslovakia – ÚFE 70 years
Video on YouTube about the history of ÚFE, including archival footage of the first laser retinal surgery, Czech with English subtitles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejz2FpKHjpA - Guardians of the exact second. How is time measured, stored, and shared?
More about timekeeping, press release from avcr.cz, 29.8.2022 (in Czech only)
https://www.avcr.cz/cs/pro-media/tiskove-zpravy/Strazci-presne-sekundy.-Jak-se-meri-uchovava-a-sdili-cas/ - Specialized supplement of the magazine Vesmír No. 12/2024
More about the individual departments of the ÚFE (in Czech only)
PDF version
Web vesmir.cz: https://vesmir.cz/cz/casopis/serialy/70-let-UFE.html - JMO (Fine Mechanics and Optics) – special double issue dedicated to the 70th Anniversary of the Institute of Photonics and Electronics
Read more about the individual departments of the ÚFE (bilingual and extended version)
PDF version