Today, the group of Ultrafast Photonics was granted with 15 millions core-hours for the preparation of quantum simulations based on the method of time-dependent density functional theory.

This computational time will be essentially meant to run the Octopus code (TDDFT) in collaboration with Prof. François Courvoisier (FemtoST, Besançon, France) and Dr. Peter Juergens (Max Born Institute, Berlin, Germany).

Another collaboration with CSIC Madrid has also started around TDDFT and will also be part of this project.

Visitors of the Marie Curie RISE “ATLANTIC” networking action are also entitled to get computational during their visit.

While great science lies ahead, we also hope to fetch funding for improving our people’s conditions very soon.

Czech Republic is organizing lots of opportunities for young talents. The Talent competition is one of them.

During two weeks, Filip Neubauer (from the high school of Stepanska, Praha) joined the group and had possibility to work on some of our datasets using machine learning.

It was great to interact with one of the new talents of this country and hope to see Filip coming back to us very soon!

• Linked-In profile of Filip Neubauer
• High-school Stepanska, Prague
• Talent Academy Program

On September 18th 2023, we received the visit of Prof. Kazuhiro Yabana from the Institute of Computational Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan.

The visit started with an overview of the Hilase Centre activities, introduced by Sanin Zulić, International Business Development Manager of HiLASE.

Prof. Yabana then presented a seminar titled “Time-dependent density functional theory for extremely nonlinear optics”, where features of the massively parallel simulation code “SALMON” was presented.

The talk was followed by an overview of activities of the department of Scientific Laser Applications (SLA) by Prof. Nadezhda M. Bulgakova, leader of the SLA department.

It was supplemented by a presentation of the quantum simulation activities of the Hilase Centre by Dr. Thibault JY Derrien, leader of the group of Ultrafast Photonics,

The visit was concluded by a tour of the femtosecond laboratory of the SLA department.

Prof. Yabana and the Hilase Centre are members of the Marie Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange “ATLANTIC” network.

(Website of the Marie Curie RISE network “ATLANTIC”) (in English).

(Prof. Yabana, member of the “ATLANTIC” project) (in Japanese).

Our usage of high performance computers, mostly machines of the Top500 charts, started in 2008.

1. Since 2019: Top500 Karolina (IT4I.cz), thanks to IT4I-OPEN calls
2. 2023: Sunrise (ELI beamlines, Czech Republic)
3. 2022: Eclipse (ELI beamlines, Czech Republic)
4. 2020 – 2023: Navigator (University of Cumbria, Portugal) thanks to PRACE DECI calls
5. 2019: Barbora (IT4I.cz), thanks to IT4I-OPEN calls
6. 2016: Top500 Salomon (IT4I.cz), thanks to IT4I-OPEN calls
7. 2019 – 2020: Top500 Prometheus (Cyfronet, Poland) thanks to PRACE DECI calls
8. 2018 – 2019: first user of Top500 Draco (MPCDF, Germany)
9. 2016 – 2018: Top500 EOS (Fritz Haber Institute, Germany)
10. 2010 – 2012: Top500 Jade (CINES.fr, France)

Since 2016, our main usage is to run the Octopus TDDFT simulation code for preparing predictions of light interaction with solid materials.

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With the arrival of a quantum computer in the Czech Republic (IT4I/LUMI-Q), it is necessary to start training on quantum simulation techniques.

For this purpose, BIATRI2 server is now equipped with Qiskit Nature (the version dedicated to solving problems of natural sciences) and PySCF.

Bridging between Octopus TDDFT and Qiskit is currently under study.

Our PRACE DECI project finished in May 2023.
Our IT4I-OPEN project is finishing on July 23rd 2023.
Next call would provide computational time from end September 2023.
Our main bridge ELI beamlines is no longer able to cover up due to technical issues.

Any solution for bridging this difficult period is welcome.

Edit: we are in discussion with ELI beamlines to try getting computer time there.

Edit2: project to IT4I has been submitted in collaboration with Max Born Institute and with FemtoST (Besançon, France) and should provide super-computing time for the end of September.

From July 1st, the group of Ultrafast Photonics is funded by the Center of Excellent – Teaming Project of HiLASE Centre, until end of Dec 2023. After that date, FTEs of the group will decrease from 2.15 to 0.7 based on institutional funds. In the context of decrease of national budget investment into research by 50% in 2023 and 10% in 2024 (while cumulated inflation on the period 2017-2023 has been of 50%), the future of the research group has to rely on multiple applications for public funding and on attracting funds from private sector as well.

The group is open to any proposition that would improve conditions of work. Spinning-off for several activities is envisioned (e.g., nanostructuring, predictions for light-matter interaction, high-power computation).

A PhD student from University of Cuyo (Mendoza, Argentina) was hosted 2 months by the HiLASE Centre, Prague, thanks to the Marie Curie networking action “Research and Innovation Staff Exchange” named “ATLANTIC”.

Andres was hosted in the group of “Ultrafast Photonics” of HiLASE and worked on the first-principle optical response of solids. It was a great opportunity to exchange with students from the Czech Republic and to visit the laboratory of assoc. prof. Kovaricek (University of Chemical Technologies).

Andrés plans to join for a second trip this winter, shortly before the end of the “ATLANTIC” project.

Dr. Thibault J.-Y. Derrien, the Leader of the Group of Ultrafast Photonics (Department of Scientific Laser Applications)attended the “Workshop on Frontiers in Excited State Electronic Structure Methods: from Spectroscopy to Photochemistry”, held at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste (Italy) from May 16^th to May 19^th. The workshop gathered the researchers of the field of the first-principle modeling chemistry community.

Dr. Derrien presented results of his group on the excitation of solids upon excitation by intense laser light, developed in the context of the WP1-WP2 of the project BIATRI: No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000445 and WP3-WP5 of Marie Curie RISE ATLANTIC project No. 823897 (www.atlantic-rise.eu).

The Workshop provided an excellent opportunity to meet several members of the theoretical network in the frames of the project “ATLANTIC” of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) (Horizon 2020) who also attended the workshop:

– Dr. Carlos Bustamante (now hosted by Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg),
– Prof. Cristian Sanchez (University of Cuyo, Argentina) and his PhD student Andrés I. Bertoni.
– Prof. Damian Scherliz (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina),
– Prof. Jorge Kohanoff (Queen’s University of Belfast, North Ireland, and Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain).