News Archive
Best paper award of LCVU in 2007
At the LCVU-symposium on 17th December 2007 Rudi Berera received the Prize for the best LCVU paper in 2007.
Rudi Berera
Science at LCVU:
In the 21 April. Issue of Physical Review Letters (2006) LCVU scientists report on an indication for a variation of a fundamental constant in a paper entitled:
"Indication of a cosmological variation of the proton-electron mass ratio based on laboratory measurement and reanalysis of H2 spectra"
Click to download a reprint. For further details see: Constant of nature not constant?
Visit of Deputy Minister of Education Mr. Mark Rutte
On March 27th of 2006 the Deputy Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Mr. Mark Rutte visited the Laser Centre VU. Mr. Rutte was informed about the activities at LCVU in research and education, on the planned restructuring of the Sciences building at the VU-Campus, on the collaboration between VU and the University of Amsterdam in the sciences, and about the complementarity of research topics chosen by scientists at both university campuses in Amsterdam.
Prof. Rienk van Grondelle (LCVU) informed him, and the audience, about the prospects of producing future solar cells on the basis of organic material, mimicking photosynthesis, and about the crucial role of femto-second lasers in such research.
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Left Photo: Mr. Rutte (centre) in discussion with Prof. Rienk van Grondelle (left) and Prof. Wim Hogervorst (Dean of Sciences at VU -right); Right Photo: with Prof. Marloes Groot (LCVU), principal investigator on the near-infrared pump-probe femto-second laser setup visited by Mr. Rutte.
Demonstration of the sample cell by PhD student Thomas Cohen Stuart (right); on the left Prof. Wim Ubachs (Director of LCVU).
Best paper award of LCVU in 2004
At the symposium the Prize for the Best Paper at LCVU (by a young scientist) was awarded to Maryam Atakhorrami for her paper:
M. Atakhorrami, G.H. Koenderink, C.F. Schmidt, F.C. MacKintosh
Short-time inertial response of viscoelastic fluids: observation of vortex propagation
Phys. Rev. Lett. 95 (2005)208302
Picture of Maryam with the Diploma and the 500 Euro award
Laser Centre Symposium 2005
On December 15th 2005 LCVU held a its yearly Scientific symposium with the following program.
Meeting of the Participants Council of LASERLAB-Europe
on February 4th 2005 at the Laser Centre Vrije Universiteit
(Full Pixel size)
Above: Picture of all delegates of the 17 Laser Centres participating in LASERLAB Europe, taken at VU campus on Feb. 4th 2005.
Pictures taken during the meeting:
Discusions went on over lunch:
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Science at LCVU:
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In the 21 Jan. Issue of Science (2005) LCVU scientists report on a breakthrough in the field of metrology. Using pulses from a frequency comb laser, after amplification and frequency conversion toward the deep ultraviolet, the pulses are used to perform ultra-precision spectroscopy on a deep-UV two-photon resonance (in the Krypton atom, chosen as an example). This work marks a step of bringing frequency combs and their revolutionairy precision to ever shorter wavelengths. The spectroscopic method follows that of Ramsey, now taking advantage of the phase-stability between two laser pulses (also with three pulses) separated in time.
Best paper award of LCVU in 2004
Best paper award of LCVU in 2004 was given to Alrik van den Brom (Physical Chemistry group) for his paper entitled: Directional dynamics in the photodissociation of oriented molecules, Science 303 (2004), 1852. See PDF-file of the paper.
Picture of Alrik van den Brom with co-author Peter Rakitzis
Laser Centre Symposium 2004
On December 15th 2004 LCVU held a Scientific symposium with the following program.
Science at LCVU:
Peter Rakitzis (University of Crete and FORTH), Alrik van den Brom and Maurice Janssen (LCVU) reported in Science 303 (2004), 1852 the observation of a new phenomenon when a molecular bond is broken with a polarised laser. Isolated carbonyl sulfide molecules in a molecular beam are first oriented with electrostatic fields; a laser breaks the C-S bond and images of the three-dimensional recoil of CO fragments are measured with a position sensitive particle camera. By clamping the OCS molecule in an electrostatic quantum vice the usual averaging over the random orientation of freely rotating molecules is prevented. A striking asymmetry is observed in the images which reveals a microscopic view of the curved trajectories that the fragments follow as they fly away after the bond is broken.
See also:
Press Release FOM.
See PDF-file of the paper.
Science at LCVU:
In the 12 March issue of Physical Review Letters (2004) research on the spectral lines of molecular hydrogen and their connection to a constraint on the cosmological variation of the proton-to-electron mass ratio was published. This research was carried out by Wim Ubachs (LCVU) in collaboration with Elmar Reinhold (Laboratoire Aime Cotton, Orsay, France). The work was carried out within the LCVU - ACCESS program supported by the European Union. See PDF-file of the paper.
See also:
Press Release Vrije Universiteit.
Press Release Noorderlicht.
Kennislink.
Laser Centre Symposium 2003
On December 17th 2003 LCVU held a Scientific symposium with the following program.
Present for all staff, students and guests of LCVU.
Best paper award of LCVU in 2003
Best paper award of LCVU in 2003 was given to Fernando Brandi for his paper entitled:
High-order harmonic generation yielding tunable extreme-ultraviolet radiation of high spectral purity,
which appeared in: Phys. Rev. Lett. 91 (2003) 163901. See PDF-file of the paper.
This paper also appeared in the Virtual Journal of Ultrafast Science
Picture of Fernando Brandi
kick-off ceremony for LASERLAB-Europe
On November 10th 2003 the kick-off ceremony for LASERLAB-Europe was held in Prague. LASERLAB-Europe is a consortium of 17 collaborating Laser Centres in Europe, forming an Integrated Infrastructure Initiative of the EU.
Czech minister of Education Mrs Petra Buzkova (centre), Daniel Pasini (EU-officer; left) and Wolfgang Sandner (Coordinator-Director of Laserlab Europe; right) at the meeting. Picture at the right: delegates from the participating Laser Centres.
Symposium CROSSING BORDERS
On May 30-31 2002 a scientific symposium was held at the occasion of the 10th anniversary of LCVU. For the program of the meeting click here.