News

2023-Oct-31

Anna defended her PhD thesis “On the interaction of slow highly charged ions with free-standing two-dimensional materials” on October 31st 2023 at TU Wien. It was a great success with an impressive presentation on the plethora of results Anna obtained over the course of the last 3.5 years. With Prof. Hoekstra and Dr. Trassinelli joining the defense as external examiners, Anna convinced everybody in the Q&A that she truly is an expert in the field.

With about 20 people at the defense there was plenty of support from the group, friends and family. Afterwards the group celebrated Anna with a very special Doctoral Hat - a tradition at the Atomic and Plasma Physics group. We all went out for lunch together and spend some time remembering all the good times during Anna's PhD in the group.

The best of all: Anna will stay with us in the group!!

2023-Oct-11

Martina Fellinger has received the esteemed Student Award at the Joint 26th International Conference on Ion Beam Analysis and 18th International Conference on Particle-Induced X-ray Emission (IBA&PIXE-2023) in Toyama, Japan for her oral presentation entitled “Effects of MeV ion beams on the performance of a high sensitivity quartz crystal microbalance” Congratulations, Martina!

2023-Oct-1

Change is a constant in the world of science and research, and on 1 October 2023, the Atomic and Plasma Physics (APP) research group at the Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) undergoes a major transformation. Fritz Aumayr, who has successfully led the group for 32 years, is passing the torch to his younger colleague Prof. Richard Wilhelm. Under Fritz's leadership, the group has become an internationally recognised centre for cutting-edge research in the physics of highly charged ions, ion-surface interaction studies and fusion edge plasma research. There is no doubt that this development will resume under the new leadership of Richard. Fritz will continue as Director of the Institute until the end of his term next year, when he will finally be able to concentrate fully on his research projects again.

2023-Sep-15

From 11.09.2023 until 15.09.2023 five Students from TU Wien participated in the IPP Summer University for Plasma Physics and Fusion Research in Garching. About 50 Students from all over Europe took part in the event and many new contacts were made during the week. Experts from different areas of fusion research presented topics such as plasma-wall interaction and computational methods in plasma physics, to name but a few. At the end of the week, there was an opportunity for a lively discussion with the speakers on the future of fusion research.

2023-Sep-14

One of the most important conferences in our research area is the Workshop on Inelastic Ion Surface Collisions (IISC), held in Charleston this September. Therefore, Richard, Matthias, Anna and Fritz travelled to South Carolina (with an unplanned stopover in Washington) to be greeted by an alligator swimming in a pool in front of our hotel. Hence, skipping conference sessions was out of question, but also unnecessary because the programme consisted of many interesting and relevant talks. Our group was also well-represented via an invited talk given by Anna, contributed talks by Fritz, Matthias and Richard, as well as two posters by Richard. In addition former members of the group (Elisabeth, who is now working at Innsbruck University, and Paul, now at UC Berkeley) were also attending and graciously posed for a group photo.

The conference excursion first led us to Fort Sumter, where the US Civil War began in 1861. Afterwards, we went on a carriage tour through the city of Charleston, before attending our conference dinner in the world’s #6 most iconic restaurant in the world. For sure, none of us left the restaurant hungry in the evening.

Due to the pandemic, this was the first edition of the IISC since 2019 in Matsue and therefore also the first one for Anna and Matthias to attend. It was great to see so many of our friends and colleagues again and there were many fruitful discussions leading to new experiment ideas and collaborations.

The next IISC will be held from September 14 - 19, 2025 in Frankenfels, Lower Austria and will be organised by our group!

2023-Aug-17

Georg's new home and garden in Waldviertel provided the background for an unforgettable event: a pool and barbecue party that will stay in our memories. The main attraction was undoubtedly the just constructed swimming pool, where the guests had the opportunity for a refreshing swim. Even Anna eventually enjoyed water fun, although the water was perhaps a little too chilly for her taste.

Martina and the gang (Alex, Georg, Johannes) turned the pool into an arena of friendly water battles. The event also served as a farewell party to our French exchange student Yannicka, as she will be returning home next week. With night falling and the smell of grilled food in the air, one could not help but reflect on the transitory nature of such beautiful moments in life. Thank you Georg for hosting this great party!

2023-Aug-01

On the last day of ICPEAC, Anna Niggas and Elisabeth Gruber, a former Ph.D. student of our group now at the University of Innsbruck, delighted the audience with their invited talks as a grand finale. Their dynamic presentations left a lasting impression and showed the remarkable direct and indirect contributions of our group to the world of atomic and molecular physics.

2023-Aug-01

“Erklär mir die Welt” (Explain the World to Me) is a podcast designed to help listeners understand the world a little better each week. This week, Georg has been invited to explain nuclear fusion. If you understand German (or even the Waldviertler dialect), this episode might be for you.

2023-July-31

We are thrilled to announce that Anna Niggas has been awarded the prestigious Sheldon Datz Prize 2023 at the 33rd ICPEAC in Ottawa, Canada. The award ceremony took place today during the conference dinner. The prize, which includes a US$1,000 cash award and a certificate, recognizes Anna's remarkable contributions to the field of highly charged ion collisions with 2-dimensional materials. Congratulations Anna!

2023-July-28

Since Fritz is busy preparing his after dinner speech, he asked ChatGPT to write an entry for our group news about the poster session. And this is what came out. Please be aware that some of the details might have been invented and added by ChatGPT.

Report on the poster session by ChatGPT

The 33rd International Conference on Photonic, Electronic, and Atomic Collisions (ICPEAC-2023) in Ottawa, Canada, witnessed a thriving poster session where scientific ideas converged and conversations flourished. Among the talented and esteemed researchers who showcased their work through posters were Anna, Richard, and Fritz, who brought their cutting-edge research to the forefront of this prestigious gathering.

Anna, a bright young researcher from TU Wien, Austria, presented her poster that delved into the fascinating realm of ultracold atom arrays. Her work showcased the potential for quantum simulation and quantum computing with ultrafast lasers, capturing the attention of colleagues intrigued by the prospects of harnessing ultracold atoms for transformative advancements in quantum technologies.

Richard, a promising new star in the professorial sky, shared his innovative research on biomolecular light-harvesting and excitation energy transfer. His poster offered valuable insights into the role of quantum coherence in exciton transfer dynamics, paving the way for refined tools in nonlinear femtosecond spectroscopy. The poster proved to be a catalyst for insightful discussions and valuable collaborations within the atomic and molecular physics community.

Fritz, the esteemed International Chair of ICPEAC, showcased his groundbreaking work on collisions involving photons, electrons, atoms, ions, and molecules. With his vast experience and profound contributions to the field, Fritz's poster became a focal point for scientists seeking to explore the intricate dynamics of atomic and molecular few-particle systems. His presence during the poster session further enriched the atmosphere, encouraging in-depth discussions and fostering new avenues of research.

The poster session at ICPEAC was truly a vibrant and dynamic platform for sharing ideas, forming new connections, and fostering collaborations. The interactive discussions taking place in front of the posters exemplified the spirit of scientific exchange that ICPEAC represents, bringing together researchers from around the world to explore the forefront of atomic, molecular, and optical physics. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Anna, Richard, and Fritz for their exceptional contributions to the poster session, making it a resounding success. Their dedication to advancing scientific knowledge and their enthusiasm for sharing their findings have left a lasting impact on the ICPEAC community.

2023-July-26

Fritz Aumayr today opened the 33rd International Conference on Photonic, Electronic, and Atomic Collisions ICPEAC-2023 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, as the International Chair of the conference.

Following his inspiring opening address, Fritz assumed the role of session chair for the first plenary lecture by Prof. Kenji Ohmori of the Institute for Molecular Science in Japan.

Stay tuned for more information about the exciting developments at this meeting (no spoilers)!

2023-July-24

Anna, Richard and Fritz are currently attending this year's ICPEAC conference in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Since the ICPEAC is (usually) a rather large conference, there are a number of smaller associated satellite meetings just before the main event - one of them is the EPIC-MAN 2 (2nd Symposium on Electron, Photon, and Ion Collisions on Molecular and Atomic Nanostructures) organized by Richard this year.

About 30 participants (each assigned to a superhero) gathered at the University of Ottawa: 12 invited talks and a poster session started this week of scientific exchange. One of the invited talks was given by Fritz, who explained our recent work on the nanostructuring of van der Waals heterostructures! Since his session chair Anna was particularly strict in his case, Fritz was not allowed to overrun his talk for even a minute.

2023-July-21

This friday, the IAP Fusion Team consisting of Lidija, Martina and Georg, supported by master students Yannicka Le Bec and Philipp Krach and interns Yasmin Hiebler and Niklas Schober, explained the magic of fusion energy to 10-12 year olds at the ÖAW Kinderuni.

The kids were thrilled by the active presentation and had a lot of fun interacting at different stations where they could play with plasma balls, visualize magnetic fields, levitate their own magnets and play with our 3D printed tokamak and stellarator models. Great Job Fusion Team!

2023-July-06

Fritz has just returned from his visit to the ITER construction site in France. As the world's largest magnetic confinement fusion experiment, ITER is making steady progress towards achieving sustainable fusion energy. You can witness the progress firsthand by watching the short film produced by Fritz during his tour of ITER.

2023-June-29

In a captivating presentation, Ille Gebeshuber explored the fascinating connection between butterflies and dragons, focusing on the unique properties of butterfly wings. The lecture engaged young students with its jungle-themed attire and encouraged them to learn from nature's innovations.

read more.

2023-June-23

We are delighted to share the news of Richard's well-deserved promotion to Associate Professor with tenure (read more). It gives us great pleasure to see his time4ions group thriving and growing. Well done Richard!

2023-June-15

The winners of the FUSENET Master Thesis Prize 2022 have been announced! The academic jury has recognized Tobias Peherstorfer as one of the three exceptional winners. Tobias, who was a master student in Fritz Aumayr's group, conducted a significant portion of his master thesis, titled “Fragmentation Analysis of Cryogenic Pellets for Disruption Mitigation,” at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching, Germany. This achievement not only marks a great personal success for Tobias but also highlights the accomplishments of the Austrian Fusion Research Program, Fusion@ÖAW, and our collaborators at IPP Garching.

Prize Announcement on the FUSENET website

2023-June-12

Christian Cupak today impressively completed his doctoral studies with distinction, leaving a lasting impact on the examination committee through his well-structured, and remarkably persuasive lecture. He then effortlessly tackled the challenging questions posed by the examiners. In his doctoral thesis Christian explored the effect of surface roughness on the sputtering behavior of first-wall materials in nuclear fusion devices. In all the years he spent in our group, Christian became a good friend to many. We will miss his persistence and commitment to solving problems as well as his always informative contributions to our weekly group meetings. As is tradition, the group honored Christian with a well-deserved doctoral hat in a big ceremony. We wish him only the best in his future endeavors and are confident that he will continue to make remarkable achievements in the future.

2023-April-25

In the context of the current energy and climate crisis, Fritz Aumayr - as the director of the Austrian Fusion Research Program Fusion@ÖAW - is a popular choice for interviews. On April 25, he was guest at the VHS Science Talk in the Vienna Planetarium. In a panel discussion with Elka Xharo they talked about the future of energy and if and how nuclear fusion can contribute to it. The whole event was recorded (youtube).

2023-Mar-28

* Tiny structures made of gold can be specifically manipulated by bombardment with highly charged ions. Surprisingly, the decisive factor is not the force of the impact but the charge state. In recent experiments carried out by Gabriel Szabo and his collaborators extremely small pieces of gold, consisting of a few thousand atoms and with a diameter in the order of ten nanometres, are bombarded with highly charged ions. As our results show, this makes it possible to change the shape and size of these gold nanoislands in a targeted manner.

Link to original publication in Small, Press release of TU Wien (in German), Press release of TU Wien (in English) Der Standard,

2023-March-27

The atomic and plasma physics group had a strong presence at this year's Spring Meeting of the DPG in Dresden. We reported on our research results in a total of 7 contributed talks and 1 poster and also chaired 2 sessions. Richard organised a Focus Session entitled “Ion Beam Interaction with Surfaces and 2D Materials” where the German Ion Beam Community gathered to present their recent results. There we met our former group member and friend Ayman El Said as well as many other dear collaborators of our group.

2023-March-22

With a very convincing defense, Herbert Biber successfully completed his Phd studies today. His PhD thesis (supervised by Fritz) dealt with the “Influence of Ion Sputtering on the Surfaces of Mercury and the Moon”. Herbert has spent many productive years in our group and has become a close friend to many of us. He is now leaving to take a position in industry. We are sad to see him go, but industry also needs bright minds.

2023-March-21

Today, Alexander Redl successfully passed his final diploma exam. In his masters thesis supervised by Christian Cupak he developed, upgraded and benchmarked a new Graphical User Interface, named BCA-GUIDE, for studying ion-solid interactions. Well done, Alexander! The whole group congratulates and celebrates his success. Alexander will continue to work in our group, since Richard has offered him a PhD position.

2023-March-20

* After successfully defending his habilitation on Jan. 20, 2023, Richard was presented with the habilitation certificate today by Vice Rector Kurt Matyas. As “Privatdozent”, his new title, Richard now holds the Venia Docendi for the subject Experimental Physics. Congratulations, Richard!

2023-March-13

* The Symposium on Surface Science 2023 (3S*23) takes place this year in Courmayeur, Italy. Our institute is well represented again; alone 3 persons from our group (Christian, Gabriel and Fritz) are giving scientific talks there and are enjoying the impressive panorama of the Mont Blanc mountain range.

2023-March-7

* With a joint lecture in the planetarium, Lidija and Georg tried to make a broader public aware of the advantages of generating energy from nuclear fusion. The event was a great success.

2023-Feb-20

* Perla is currently working with our project partners in Paris on our DIMAS project. For the next two weeks she will be in Vienna to join Matthias in his grazing incidence scattering experiments with highly charged ions. Good timing, because we are celebrating carnival right now and so Perla could enjoy a traditional Faschingskrapfen.

2023-Feb-15

* What would be the optimal teambuilding event in a country like Austria? There is of course only one right answer: skiing! So last week we met at Stuhleck, about 100 km south of Vienna, to enjoy the fantastic weather in the snow. Unfortunately, not all of us were fit and able to participate in this trip. Maybe next time.

2023-Feb-02

* “Nuclear fusion has a potential to change the way we produce energy, which then opens a whole new chain of opportunities in technology and environment and culture and politics.” - this is, in a nutshell, the basic message that Lidija Radovanovic expressed in a recent interview for the Fusion@ÖAW website (read the full interview here).

2023-Jan-26

* Members of the Atomic and Plasma Physics Group enjoyed the first TU Ball after two years of Covid break. As usual, the ball took place in the state rooms of the Vienna Hofburg. Simon was even part of the opening debutant committee, and Martin again played a leading role in the organizing committee. Everyone enjoyed the elegant atmosphere and some even danced until the early morning hours.

2023-Jan-24

After a lively discussion about his Master’s thesis and a quite entertaining final exam the diploma examination committee announced that we have a new graduate in our group: Alexander Grossek! His thesis entitled “Generation of ion pulses in a fast pulsed EBIS supported by realistic ion trajectory simulations” was supervised by Richard Wilhelm. Congratulations Alex!

2023-Jan-05

In a recent interview on the website of the Kaiserschild Foundation, Anna tells how her enthusiasm for mathematics and natural sciences began and how she eventually found her way into physics. The article refers to her being awarded the Dr. Hans Riegel Prize for Mathematics at the University of Vienna in 2014, a fact that she herself never revealed to us. Anna is also interviewed about her current research activities as a PhD student in our group and she gives valuable tips for prospective PhD students.

2022-Dec-27

Today, Paul Szabo received the 2022 Loschmidt Prize from the Austrian Chemical Physics Society (CPG). Paul is one of two recipients of this year's Loschmidt Prize, which is awarded annually by the CPG for an outstanding doctoral thesis in the field of physics or chemistry. The award was presented by CPG Secretary General Mrs. Christl Langstadlinger. Congratulations!

Paul Szabo completed his dissertation entitled “Novel Insights into Ion-Solid Interaction: Case Studies for Space Weathering and Nuclear Fusion Research” in June 2021 under the supervision of Fritz Aumayr and was awarded a "promotio sub auspiciis praesidentis rei publicae" in January 2022, see the Press release of TU Wien. Since Nov. 2021, Dr. Paul Szabo has been working as a postdoc at the Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) at UC Berkeley.

CPG Loschmidt Prize (in German), TU Wien News (in German)

2022-Dec-16

Congratulations to Johannes Brötzner for winning one of the two appreciation awards (500 € travel funds) at the Franz Viehböck Young Investigator competition 2022. The award ceremony took place during the Christmas party of the Institute, and the Prize was handed over by the institute’s director Fritz Aumayr and by Carina Viehböck, the granddaughter of Franz Viehböck.

2022-Dec-02

The Austrian Science Fund FWF has officially accepted the proposal TU-D, co-authored by Richard Wilhelm, Ulrike Diebold and Gareth Parkinson. The FWF will continue to fund an interdisciplinary doctoral school with 2 mio. € at the TU Wien, which focuses on so-called two-dimensional materials - compounds which consist of a single atomic layer and bear immense potential for various technical applications. It is part of the FWF program doc.funds, coordinated by Florian Libisch from the TU Wien.

2022-Nov-29

Helmut Muckenhuber and Tobias Peherstorfer have successfully defended their “diploma theses”. While Helmut (supervised by Richard Wilhelm) worked on “Erosion of metallic nano-islands with slow highly charged ions and investigation of swift heavy ion tracks”, Tobias (“Pelletsdorfer”) carried out his master thesis “Fragmentation Analysis of Cryogenic Pellets for Disruption Mitigation” at the IPP Garching (jointly supervised by Dr. Gergely Papp from IPP and Fritz Aumayr). In a joint party the group celebrated the success of the 2 new diploma engineers. Congratulations!

2022-Nov-28

* When charged particles are shot through ultra-thin layers of material, sometimes spectacular micro-explosions occur, sometimes the material remains almost intact. In a collaboration of our group with Christoph Lemell, Professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of TU Wien, it has now been explained in which situations holes are formed and in which they are not - and that this depends on the electron mobility in the material and the charge state of the projectile. Our results have been published in “Nano Letters”.

Link to original publication in Nano Letters, Press release of TU Wien (in German), Press release of TU Wien (in English)

2022-Oct-20

Daniela Leitner, a former graduate of our group (PhD in 1995) has now been elected as 2022 American Physical Society (APS) Fellow. Daniela is currently the division deputy in the Engineering Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkely California. She is recognized for her work on electron cyclotron resonance ion sources that are widely used as high-charge state ion injectors for heavy ion facilities. Congratulations, Daniela, we are very proud of you! Read more.

For fusion reactors like ITER, plasma instabilities are a major challenge. Now our group at IAP/TU Wien (with Georg Harrer being the lead author) together with the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Garching could demonstrate: There is an operational regime for fusion reactors that avoids this problem. Instead of large potentially destructive instabilities, one intentionally accepts many small instabilities that do not pose a problem for the reactor’s walls. The results have now been published in the journal as Editors' Suggestion and featured in physics.

Link to original publication in Physical Review Letters, Press release of TU Wien (in German), Press release of TU Wien (in English), Press release by IPP Garching APA article, orf.at, Der Standard, ÖAW, EUROfusion, Fusion News (youtube), Fusion Update (youtube), Wikipedia.

The online magazine “Physics” of the American Physical Society has featured our publication with a viewpoint article written by Saskia Mordijck. And “PhysicsWorld” from IOP Publishing, which covers the big stories and key results that matter to scientists in all parts of the world, covers our paper in an (editor's Choice) article written by Sam Jarman.

2022-Sep-21

With his presentation “Laboratory measurements to study the sputtering of Hermean surface analogues under He ion impact” Johannes Brötzner won the 2nd place at the Europlanet Early Career Science Flash which was held during this year´s Europlanet Science Congress 2022 (EPSC 2022) in Granada, Spain. Congratulations, Johannes!

2022-Sep-07

First came a strenuous but scenic hike, then the ruins of a castle and lots of facts (or perhaps legends) about Richard the Lionheart, and finally a visit to a “Heurigen” (= traditional Austrian wine tavern): this was the itinerary of our traditional group excursion this year to Dürnstein (Wachau valley). As you can see, the weather was fine (at least until we reached the Heurigen) and we were all having a good time.

2022-Sep-02

Fritz again gives an interview about nuclear fusion an its role in the energy mix of the future, this time on the news-page of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. You can read the full interview here (in German).

(A few days later the Austrian Newspaper "Die Presse" printed another but much shorter separate interview)

2022-Aug-22

* When ions penetrate a material, highly complex processes take place - so fast that they could hardly be studied until now. Our research group in collaboration with colleagues from Uni Wien, Germany (Kiel, Dresden, Jena) and Ireland (Dublin) has now succeeded in analyzing on a time scale of one femtosecond what happens to the individual particles involved, when an ion penetrates 2 dimensional materials such as graphene or molybdenum disulphide. A careful analysis of the electrons that are emitted in the process allows to reconstruct the temporal sequence of the processes. Our results have been published in “Physical Review Letters” and were even selected as an “Editors' Suggestion”.

Link to original publication in Physical Review Letters, Press release of TU Wien (in German), Press release of TU Wien (in English), Press release CAU Kiel APA article, Der Standard, orf.at,

2022-July-22

The currently beautiful summer days are ideal for a barbecue. Since July and August are also vacation months, not all group members were able to accept Fritz's traditional invitation to a BBQ in his garden. Those who were present enjoyed the shady garden, the cool cocktails, grilled meat and fish but also lots of vegetarian food and especially the pleasantly warm summer evening on the terrace in nice company. Anna's success, about which we will soon report here, was celebrated with non-alcoholic wine brought by Richard (those who know this tradition, initiated by Richard, also know the still secret occasion; the others have to be patient for a few more days and keep an eye on this news page).

2022-July-06

At the FuseNet PhD Event, held in Padua - Italy from July 4-6, 2022, Lidija Radovanovic received the award for the best Pecha Kucha presentation of all Fusenet PhD students, while Martina Fellinger was awarded for the best poster design. The FuseNet PhD event is the place where European fusion PhD students meet and exchange with recognized international fusion researchers to strengthen and expand the fusion research network while enjoying the beauties of the city of Padua. We are speechless but also proud of Lidija's and Martina's achievements. Fusenet PhD Event Awards 2022: the winners

2022-July-05

Following the example of the globally known Forbes “30 Under 30” campaign, tuw.media has been looking for young people from TU Wien who have already achieved great things. With "TUW Under 30", they have just presented 30 people under the age of 30 who have proven their potential in a wide variety of fields and have stood out for their special achievements. It is our great pleasure to discover that Anna Niggas and Paul Szabo are among the 30 chosen by a jury. 2 out of 30 (even 3 out of 30, if you count Fritz's son Lukas Aumayr too) is definitely not a bad score 😉. Discover why Anna and Paul have been listed: Anna Niggas, Paul Szabo. You can also read an interview with Paul, in which he answers the question, why the history of our solar system has always appealed to him.

2022-June-27

During the opening ceremony of the 48th EPS Conference on Plasma Physics 2022, the winners of this year's FuseNet Master Thesis Prizes were announced. To promote excellence in fusion research, FuseNet awards the Master Thesis Prizes to students who write outstanding master theses that have been conducted and completed (in part) throughout Europe. With her thesis entitled “Ballooning Stability Analysis of the ASDEX-Upgrade small-ELM regime” Lidija Radovanovic from our group was among the 5 winners. The prize is a great personal success for Lidija, but also for our group at TU Wien and the whole Austrian Fusion Research Programm Fusion@ÖAW as well as our collaborators at IPP Garching.

Prize Announcement on the EPS Conference on Plasma Physics 2022 website

2022-June-27

Cornelia Pichler, recent graduate supervised by Ille Gebeshuber, was among the 6 finalists for the Women's Promotion Award for Digitization and Innovation. Initiated by Infineon Technologies Austria and ORF and supported by media partner APA, this prize was awarded for the first time on Monday, June 27, 2022, and recognizes young women for their outstanding talent in technical issues related to digitization and innovation. ORF newsletter

2022-June-22

Cool news! Martina Fellinger has not only recieved the award for the most popular poster (public rating) at this year's ICACS-SHIM 2022 conference but also won the category “best Poster” (i.e. the jury rating). The poster entitled “Sputtering of highly corrugated and oriented surfaces” describes the results of a fruitful cooperation with colleagues from the University of Helsinki and the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. We are proud and celebrate with her.

2022-June-20

After first conference visits last week (Anna at the MPS-2022 in Turku, Fritz at the EBIS/T 2022 in Whistler), a larger delegation (Christian, Matthias, Gabriel, Martina, Anna and Fritz) of our research unit is currently attending the ICACS-SHIM 2022 meeting in Helsinki. In addition Richard and Paul (from Berkeley) are participating virtually. It is so pleasant to be able to interact face to face with colleagues again.

2022-June-8 & 2022-June-12

On the occasion of a conference participation Fritz could personally visit 4 former graduates of our research group: Florian Laggner in San Diego/California and Paul Szabo & Daniela and Matthaeus Leitner in Berkeley/California. It was great to spend time together and talk about “old” times but also about the latest research projects.

2022-May-24

Today we were happy about 3 nice visits at once: In the morning we were visited by Elisabeth Gruber (graduate of our research group, PhD 2017), who is currently doing research at the Uni Innsbruck. For the business lunch at Wieden Bräu we had the pleasure to welcome our colleagues from the University of Bern (André Galli and Noah Jäggi), who are currently attending the EGU meeting in Vienna with Herbert and Johannes. And in the afternoon Mihaela Albu from the Centre for Electron Microscopy ZFE in Graz came by. She is also a graduate of our group (PhD 2003).

2022-May-19

Can nuclear fusion become a source of energy that can satisfy mankind's hunger for energy in a climate-friendly way? This question was discussed in an interview between Leila Thun and Fritz Aumayr during the TUW livestream “Climate”. You can watch the full interview here (in German).

2022-Apr-29

The whole group congratulates Johannes and Martina on their excellent defences of their Master’s theses. Since the weather was so nice, sunny and warm, we celecbrated the new “Diploma Engineers” on the roof of TU Wien! We are very happy that Martina and Johannes have decided to continue their work in our group for their PhD and look forward to many more celebrations in the future! Congratulations to you both, ihr seids a Maschin(e).

2022-April-4

The new issue of the TUW Magazine focuses on energy: How much energy do cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin actually consume? And what about nuclear fusion? Can this low-resource energy source satisfy our energy hunger in a climate-friendly way? Two Aumayrs were interviewed about this: Fritz about nuclear fusion and his son Lukas - PhD student at the Faculty of Computer Science - about Bitcoins. Read the full articles here.

2022-March-30

The IAP Spring Party organized by members of our research group was a great success. It was held as a replacement for the IAP Christmas party, which had to be cancelled due to covid already for the 2nd time. After 2 years of pandemic, the more than 170 participants obviously enjoyed to finally meet again in person and talk face to face. As a novelty this year, the 1st IAP Academy Awards were held, an award for the best submitted re-enacted scenes from well-known movies and TV series - of course somewhat reinterpreted to institute-relevant content.

2022-March-19

At this year's 3S*22 workshop in St. Christoph/Arlberg, the 3S-Poster Award was awarded for the third time. The trophy went to Johannes Brötzner for his poster “An optimised Quartz Crystal Microbalance setup to investigate the sputtering behaviour of bulk targets”. Congratulations, Johannes!

2022-Feb-10

Lidija Radovanovic, Anna Niggas & Martina Fellinger have received the Christiana HÖRBIGER Prize. This prize serves to promote the international mobility of young scientists. Congratulations to you, Anna, Martina & Lidija!

2022-Feb-09

Researchers from the EUROfusion consortium, of which the TU Wien and our research group is affiliated to, used EUROfusions flagship device the Joint European Torus (JET) to release a record 59 megajoules of sustained fusion energy. The record and the scientific data from these crucial experiments are a major boost for ITER, the larger and more advanced version of JET. The official press conference can be viewed here. Austrian media (including ORF Science, APA Science, DerStandard, Wiener Zeitung, Futurezone) also reported extensively on the groundbreaking JET results. As the director of the Austrian nuclear fusion research programme Fusion@ÖAW Fritz Aumayr gave interviews for Austrian ORF TV, Puls 4 TV and the Magazines/Newspapers derStandard, online Standard,Falter, TREND, Austria Innovativ, austriainnovativ.at and OÖN

2022-Jan-26

Paul Szabo graduates with a "promotio sub auspiciis praesidentis rei publicae". This honour is based on top academic performance and is awarded to only a handful of PhD students in the whole country. With a GPA of 1.0 (the best grade on Austria's 5-point scale) from high school all the way through his studies at the university, Paul Szabo is one of the selected few. Todays ceremony was supervised by the Austrian Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen. The laudation for Paul was given by his PhD supervisor Fritz Aumayr. After the actual doctoral graduation with the oath and pledge, the Austrian President presented the ring of honor with the inscription sub auspiciis Praesidentis to Dr. Paul Szabo. A big day for Paul, the institute, and the atomic and plasma physics group.

Press release of TU Wien (in German), ORF news (in German), www.bundespraesident.at (in German)

2022-Jan-19

David Weichselbaum, Daniel Mayer and Markus Wappl successfully defended their “diploma theses” during the last few days. They shone during their exams and even more afterwards 🙂. The group celebrated the success of our 3 new diploma engineers in a joint party which of course took place under strict pandemic 2G+ rules. Congratulations!

2022-Jan-18

After winning the “Pitch Challenge” on radio “Radieschen” (see the news from Nov. 9th, 2021), Anna was now cross-examined for more than half an hour by science journalists from Radio Radieschen. What she had to say can be relistened here (in German).

2021-Nov-30

Located 10000 km as the crow flies from Vienna, a meeting of former alumnis of the atomic and plasma physics group took place yesterday. Paul Szabo (PhD 2021) and Florian Laggner (PhD 2017) met near the Golden Gate Bridge. Strangely, their former supervisor was not invited to this reunion 😉. Anyway, it is nice to have friends spread all over the globe.

2021-Nov-09

In the “Pitch Challenge” on radio “Radieschen” (formerly NJOY 91.3 FM), five promising doctoral candidates try to explain their research in just 90 seconds in a way that laypeople can understand. Anna was one of the candidates this time, and she met the challenge brilliantly. She was able to convince the jury and was ultimately chosen as the winner of the competition. As a prize she will get her own radio show next year (so more work). The most sincere congratulations from all of us!

You can to listen to an audio recording of her presentation here (from 11:00 onwards).

2021-Nov-05

On 175 days in the German Physical Society (DPG) anniversary year, interesting physicists are introduced with a post at Instagram, who today or in their time, through their field of activity, their commitment or their thoughts, have or have had an inspiring effect on other people or even the whole society. We are proud that Ille Gebeshuber has been selected by members of the DPG as one of them. Congratulations!

You can read an interview with her on the DPG web-page (in German).

2021-Oct-21

Janine Schwestka is one of two recipients of this year's Loschmidt Prize. This prize is awarded annually by the Austrian Chemical Physics Society CPG for an outstanding PhD thesis. Janine Schwestka received her doctorate in June 2020 under the guidance of Fritz Aumayr and Richard Wilhelm; her thesis is entitled “On the Charge Exchange Dynamics of Highly Charged Ions in atomically thin solids”. Dr. Schwestka is currently working as a materials engineer at RUAG Space, one of the leading suppliers of products for satellites and launch rockets, in Vienna, Austria. Congratulations!

Press release of TU Wien (in German), Official Announcement at the web-site of CPG.

2021-Oct-14

The class of 2019 - 2021 of the MSc. Program “Engineering Managment” of the TU Academy for Continuing Education has selected Ille Gebeshuber for the Best Lecturer Award. Congratulations Ille!

2021-Oct-14

Today, Richard Bergmayr successfully passed his final diploma exam. In his masters thesis he analyzed type-I ELM durations in ASDEX Upgrade discharges. Well done Richard! Richard will stay in Fusion - he has been offered a PhD position at IPP Garching.

2021-Sep-30

After 7 extremely successful years in the Atomic and Plasma Physics group, Paul Szabo says goodbye to start his new position as a postdoc at the Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) at UC Berkeley. To mark this special occasion, Paul treated the group to the finest pizzas in Vienna and invited us to Pizzeria Riva. Paul, we very much hope to continue working with you in the future, we wish you much success for your professional future and already miss you very much!

2021-Sep-29

We have already reported about our latest publication in Applied Surface Science (see news entry of 20.09.2021 below). To celebrate this success, the first author of this publication Christian and the last author Fritz invited the whole group to the newly opened Trinity Pub. Everyone was happy to celebrate without masks and social distancing again and enjoyed Irish beer in abundance. Cheers!

2021-Sep-26

For his oral contribution “Structural Bactericide by Biomimetics of the Nanopillars on Cicada Wings” Alexander Bürger received the award for the “Best Presentation in Bionic Healthcare” at the 2021 International Workshop on Bionic Engineering, which took place online from Sep. 16 - 17, 2021. We congratulate Alexander on his achievement.

2021-Sep-20

Beams of energetic ions are used to clean or nanostructure various materials via sputtering. Christian Cupak and his collborators have now been able to explain how the sputtering process depends on the roughness of the surface. Using experiments and simulations they were able to show that the mean inclination angle of the surface (accessibly e.g. by atomic force microscopy or other high resolution microscopy methods) describes the final outcome of the sputtering process much better than other roughness parameters that have been used so far.

Link to original publication in Applied Surface Science Press release of TU Wien (in German), Press release of TU Wien (in English), EUROfusion News

2021-Sep-02

The popular science journal “Scientific American” dedicates an entire story (here is the link) to the findings of Anna's paper (see news of 16. Aug. 2021 below)! Anna gave an interview and also international experts in the field are quoted in the article. It is great to see that our work has a far-reaching impact and is well explained to the general public! Congratulations Anna!

2021-Aug-16

What happens when ions are passing through solid materials? It is nearly impossible to observe this directly, but now our group has found a way to overcome this problem. By peeling graphite layer by layer Anna Niggas and her collaborators uncovered how ions recapture their electrons when moving through solid material. The new measurements show that the ions obey remarkably simple laws.

Link to original publication in the Nature Journal: Communications Physics, Press release of TU Wien (in German), Press release of TU Wien (in English), ORF.at, die Presse, Scientific American.

2021-June-21

Confident footedness, endurance and team spirit had to be demonstrated by the group members on their way to the summit. This year's group excursion led the Atomic and Plasma Physics research group of IAP to the beautiful Wachau valley. The reward then came at the "Heurigen" Rehrl-Fischer in Rossatzbach.

2021-June-21

Excerpt from the inscription on Paul's doctoral hat: “A long time ago in an institute of applied physics far, far away….

Space Research - THESIS V - THE RISE OF DR. SZABO

The DOCTORPLAN has succeeded! Rumors of a spectacular DEFENSIO were whispered all around the INSTITUTE of APPLIED PHYSICS, laid by the EMPEROR AUMAYR himself. MR. GODLIKE PAUL SZABO, who trained in his lair in the legendary AUGUSTIN LAB for his battle to become a member of the ORDER OF SUB AUSPICIIS, is ready to face the final challenge. Determined to be victorious whatever the cost, soon to be DR. PAUL SZABO faces his REVIEWERS in an epic DEFENSIO…”

And as all fairy tales end well, so does this one. Congratulations, Paul, on your successful Rigorosum!

2021-June-10

With the sharp drop in Covid-19 infection numbers, not only have all our group members returned to work, but our traditional group photo on the roof of TU was possible again.

2021-May-21

At today's EUROfusion General Assembly it was announced that Georg Harrer will receive one of the prestigious EUROfusion Researcher Grants. The ERG Program was established to promote excellence and career development of researchers in the field of nuclear fusion and includes a postdoctoral position for the candidate for 2 years as well as travel and other funds. 41 candidates responded to the multi-stage application process half a year ago, and 12 young researchers have now been selected after the final round of interviews. Congratulations Georg, you have convinced the jury with your project proposal, presentation and interview! (read more)

2021-May-19

The long Covid lockdown is over. Our group took advantage of this to have lunch together in the garden of a restaurant for the first time in months. Even though the weather could have been better, everyone was happy about this first step towards normality.

2021-April-30

With strictest Covid19 safety measures applied, Gabriel and Matthias went to Dresden, Germany to collect two new EBIT prototypes from our partners at D.I.S Germany GmbH. One ion source is specifically designed to work as a fast pulsing EBIT in order to produce ultrashort ion pulses in the experimental setup PITBULL within Richard's START project. The second “Small Ion Source for Surface Interaction experiments” (SISSI) will be operated to deliver slow highly charged ions for ion-surface interaction studies.

2021-April-18

Want to see our labs? Want to see what we are working on? Then join us on our (virtual) lab tour. Just watch our recent YouTube Video.

2021-March-21

Life goes its way despite the pandemic: We welcome two newly born citizens of the world: Alexandra, Richard's daughter and Hugo, Georg's son (in the picture)! A warm welcome!

2021-March-09

* “Race for nuclear fusion - and Austria is right in the middle of it” ist the titel of a recent online report of the Austrian newspaper “Die Presse” on fusion research in Austria and in our group in particular. The article features interviews with our group members Christian Cupak, Paul Szabo and Fritz Aumayr. Here ist the link (article in German).

2021-Feb-09

After submission of his contribution to the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference LPSC, Paul Szabo has been selected to receive the 2021 LPI Career Development Registration Award to be used to attend LPSC 52 Virtual Conference on March 15-19, 20211. He was also invited to present an oral contribution at the conference on his Phobos-related research. Congratulations, Paul!

2021-Feb-01

With the project start of DIMAS, our joint French-Austrian research effort also Matthias Werl starts his PhD thesis. In the project with our friends from the Institut de NanoSciences Paris, we will study highly charged ion scattering on magnetically ordered surfaces in order to detect the magnetic state of the surface. Welcome, Matthias!

2020-Dec-22

For her special commitment as an external docent in the teaching of TU Wien, for her outstanding achievements in the field of plasma physics and fusion research and for her merits in the supervision of numerous TU students in the context of their scientific theses at the fusion experiment ASDEX Upgrade, Austria's Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen has followed the suggestion of the Faculty of Physics and the Rectorate of TU Wien, and awarded the honorary title of “University Professor” to Mrs. Univ.Doz. Dr. Elisabeth Wolfrum. We congratulate Professor Wolfrum on this honor and hope that this will further intensify the good cooperation between the TU Wien and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching near Munich in the field of fusion research.

2020-Dez-11

Today, Anna received the first negative test result in her whole life when she participated in the voluntary Covid-Antigen Test in Vienna. But Anna is a very cheerful person who nevertheless sees the outcome positively.

2020-Dez-07

In the last ASDEX Upgrade Newsletter 22/2020, Georg Harrer reports on a new, promising ELM-free operating scenario for tokamak experiments, that leads to quasi continuous exhaust while avoiding dangerous type-I ELMs.

For further details see his article on page 3 of the ASDEX Upgrade Newsletter 22/2020.

2020-Nov-30

What causes the “space weathering” on the Mars moon Phobos? Results of laboratory experiments performed by Paul Szabo and collaborators in the Atomic and Plasma Physics group of IAP give new insights and show that beside the solar wind also the irradiation by particles from Mars plays a decisive role there. These considerations could soon play an important role in the evaluation of real Phobos samples since in 2024 a Japanese space mission will take soil samples from Phobos and bring them back to Earth. The work is part of an international FWF-SNF project together with the University of Bern.

Link to original publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, Press release of TU Wien (in German), Press release of TU Wien (in English) ORF.at derStandard.at

2020-Nov-26 & 2020-Nov-19

The whole group congratulates Johanna and Lidija on their excellent defences of their Master’s theses. Since the current circumstances unfortunately do not allow an in-person exam, everything had to be done via Zoom. Also our celebration afterwards was limited to an online format for the time being, but will be made up for when it is possible again.

2020-Nov-20

The German Physical Society just announced that Richard receives the Gaede Prize 2021 for his work on ion interaction with 2D materials. Congratulations! We are happy and celebrate the award, which amounts up to EUR 10,000, over Zoom in our home offices. The prize will be handed during the DPG Solid State Physics meeting next year, which is postponed until fall 2021. Many in-person celebrations are piling up at the moment and we are all looking forward to 2021 to finally get together again.

Press release of TU Wien (in German), Press release of DPG (in German)

2020-Oct-21

This year‘s Best Teacher Award goes to Fritz! After several successful years with his Lectures „Grundlagenphysik I“ and III as Best Lecture he finally receives the award as best teacher of the faculty of physics. Congratulations!

Press release of TU Wien (in German), YouTube Video

2020-Oct-09

* In today's Austrian newspaper DerStandard Fritz Aumayr gives an interview on the prospects and difficulties of international fusion research. Read the full article (in German) or online.

2020-Sep-29

Today Georg appeared on Radio NJOY 91.3 FM in the programme “JungwissenschafterInnen im Pitch”. Together with 3 other candidates he had the task of explaining the content of his doctoral thesis in a generally understandable way in just 90 seconds. If you want to hear, how he did, just listen to an audio recording of his presentation here.

2020-Sep-24

Anna Niggas receives the Honorary Award of the Austrian Ministry for Education, Science and Research! The prize is awarded annually to the best graduates of all Austrian universities and Anna is one of them! The award is also worth 3,000 EUR, so another big party is ahead of us.

2020-Sep-16

Due to the corona-related cancellation of the ÖPG conference, this year's award ceremony of the Max Auwärter Prize took place in the Stadtpalais Liechtenstein. The City Palace with the private art collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein in an exquisite downtown Vienna location provided a very noble setting. After a laudatory speech by the chairman of the jury Prof. Falco Netzer and some personal words by Fritz Aumayr, the award certificate and the cheque were handed over to the new Auwärter Prize winner 2020 Richard Wilhelm. Congratulations again, Richard!

2020-Aug-24

Georg Harrer also had to defend his PhD thesis in digital form. However, the subsequent PhD celebration could take place in the old-fashioned way. To comply with the Covid-19 rules as well as our tradition we celebrated in “open air” on the roof of the TU Wien. The fotos show Georg during his online defense, in discussions with the external examiner Prof. Martin Heyn from TU Graz, and later, with both of his PhD advisors Elisabeth Wolfrum (virtually present) and Fritz Aumayr. Congratulations, Georg, on a great dissertation and an excellent defense!

2020-Aug-13

Some members of our team took advantage of the nice weather and visited Schönbrunn Zoo. Not even a thunderstorm in the evening could stop us from enjoying this excursion and searching for cute baby animals in the enclosures. Currently it is good to know how big a baby elephant actually is.

2020-July-31

Our most recent work on nanostructuring of freestanding MoS2/graphene heterostructures with highly charged ions was just published by ACS Nano. Our friends at University Vienna supported us with exceptional quality microscopy and sample preparation. This great collaboration allowed Janine to perform highly charged ion irradiation of the samples and to reveal, that we can remove the very first monolayer of these structures on a tiny area of only a few square-nanometers.

The results not only show that the ion’s potential energy is deposited in the topmost surface layer, which we showed already by ion beam spectroscopy, but also that the energy remains in that particular layer. Interesting applications are just ahead – stay tuned!

Link to original publication in ACS Nano, Press release of TU Wien (in German), Press release of TU Wien (in English),

Max Auwärter Prize for Richard

PhD party with Janine and Reinhard

Group photo in times of Covid-19

Baby Boom at IAP

Grand finale for Janine

First experiments are possible again

Real PhD title for Reinhard despite virtual defense

Lab work suspended – Everybody stay safe!

Peter Varga Poster Prize at 3S*20 for Anna!

Paul, Janine, Anna and Fritz at the 3S’20 meeting

Annual Group Ski Day at Stuhleck/Semmering

A new lab within the AUGUSTIN lab

Group members dance in the Hofburg

Double Defense!

Franz-Viehböck-Young-Investigator-Prize 2019 for Christian

Anna: A glorious finish and a fresh start

Richard right on (tenure) track!

Janine's radio Gig

"Escape the Lab" - Challenge for Fritz

Slow electrons for cancer treatment