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Three Achievements of IOP Win the 2018 National Science and Technology Award

Date:08-01-2019 Print

The National Science and Technology Award Conference was held at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on January 8. It presented awards to science and technology professionals and organizations that have made outstanding contribution to China's scientific and technological advances, economic and social development, and modernization of national defense. Party and state leaders attended the conference and presented awards to the winning scientists. Three achievements made by Institute of Physics (IOP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) won related awards. Among them, the experimental findings of the quantum anomalous hall effect jointly achieved by IOP and Tsinghua University won the first prize of National Natural Science Award, the achievement of high contrast amplification and precision control of femtosecond pulse laser won the second prize of National Technology Invention Award, and the achievement of first-principles research on Berry phase effect in solid materials achieved jointly by IOP and Beijing Institute of Technology won the second prize of National Natural Science Award.

The experimental findings of the quantum anomalous hall effect won the first prize of National Natural Science Award. Awardees include Xue Qikun (Tsinghua University), Wang Yayu (Tsinghua University), He Ke (IOP, CAS), Ma Xucun (IOP, CAS) and Lyu Li (IOP, CAS).

Among the five awardees, CAS Academician Xue, Prof. He, Prof. Ma and Prof. Lyu have studied and worked in IOP for a long time. This achievement was a major breakthrough in fundamental and frontier research. It was completed by China's teams of scientists through their close collaborations, persistent explorations and hard efforts of many years. It was the third time for IOP research teams to win the first prize of National Natural Science Award. Previously, two first prizes of National Natural Science Award were won in 1989 and 2013 respectively for discovering oxide superconductors at liquid nitrogen temperature and for discovering iron-based high-temperature superconductors above 40K as well as the research on fundamental physical properties.

The achievement of high contrast amplification and precision control of femtosecond pulse laser won the second prize of National Technology Invention Award. Awardees include Wei Zhiyi (IOP, CAS), Wang Zhaohua (IOP, CAS), Han Hainian (IOP, CAS), Liu Cheng (IOP, CAS), Teng Hao (IOP, CAS) and Tian Jinrong (IOP, CAS).

This project focuses on the frontier area of ultra-short pulse laser in the field of laser technology. Major inventions and innovation include the development of the amplification technology combining femtosecond double chirped-pulse amplification and parametric amplification to generate the maximum laser peak power compared with other similar research; the invention of an innovative femtosecond laser synchronization technology to obtain results with main parameters better than other similar research; development of the high-SNR carrier envelope phase measurement technology to achieve the optical frequency comb with main performance indexes better than other schemes. These achievements have led to important applications in strong-field physics, quantum entanglement communication and other research fields, as well as the development of a series of femtosecond laser products.

The achievement of first-principles research on Berry phase effect in solid materials won the second prize of National Natural Science Award. Awardees include Yao Yugui (Beijing Institute of Technology), Liu Chengcheng (Beijing Institute of Technology) and Feng Wanxiang (IOP, CAS).

The project took the lead in utilizing the first-principles method in the research of anomalous Hall effect and revealed the importance of the intrinsic mechanism of the anomalous Hall effect which overturned the traditional cognition and was later verified by experiments. It also proposed, for the first time, that silylene, germanene and stanene are 2D topological insulators. Relevant theoretical models proposed in consequence have been named after. Meanwhile, it developed a first-principles computing method for topological invariants. The project has deepened people's understanding towards the novel quantum transport phenomena and topological state in real materials and promoted progress in this field.

The 2018 National Science and Technology Award honored 278 projects and 7 science and technology experts. Two experts won the Highest National Award of Science and Technology; 38 projects were granted with the National Natural Science Award: one first prize and 37 second prizes; 67 projects were granted with the National Technology Invention Award: four first prizes and 63 second prizes; 173 projects were granted with the National Science and Technology Progress Award: two grand prizes, 23 first prizes (including 3 for innovative teams) and 148 second prizes. Additionally, five foreign scientists won the China International Science and Technology Cooperation Award.