Institute of Physics opens modern regional Training Center for Advanced Analysis of Atomic and Molecular Structures, first of its kind in Western Balkans

A new laboratory called the Training Center for Advanced Analysis of Atomic and Molecular Structures has been opened at the Institute of Physics in Belgrade, where an instrument worth EUR 350,000 has been installed, the institute announced. The new X-ray diffractometer (XRD) was provided with funds from the European project called Hidden Phases in 2D Quantum Materials (HIP-2D-QM). This is a project from the prestigious ERA Chair program of the European Union, which was won last year by researchers from the Center for Solid State Physics and New Materials at the Institute of Physics.

With the help of the new XRD instrument, researchers can record atomic and molecular structures in a way that has not been possible in Serbia so far. This laboratory, as it was pointed out, is actually a regional training center where researchers will have the opportunity to use methods for advanced analysis of structures that have not been applied in the Western Balkans so far.

The new XRD, like any X-ray diffractometer, generates X-rays that are aimed at a sample, which can be a powder or a thin film of the material being investigated. The X-ray beam is scattered by the crystal structure of this sample at different angles, and the instrument’s detector records all these scattered rays, thus obtaining the so-called diffractogram. The new XRD can record structures that were “invisible” to previous instruments. The instrument has two types of X-ray sources, while the samples can be recorded at different temperatures - the temperature range at which the recording is performed is actually huge, from -190 to +600 degrees Celsius.

The new diffractometer provides a “view to the unknown” - previously unobserved phenomena and unknown characteristics of the material can be observed on this XRD, but this is only the beginning. The plan is to use powerful European cyclotrons and other large European infrastructures for further analysis and even more precise and comprehensive recordings. However, the findings obtained on this XRD will represent a “ticket” to continue research on these gigantic machines.

Institut za fiziku Beograd

SANU Beograd

Institute of Physics Belgrade

ERA Chair

Center for Solid State Physics and New Materials

Training Center for Advanced Analysis of Atomic and Molecular Structures