International Workshop on Topological Structures in Ferroic Materials (TOPO 2019)
Prague–Průhonice, Czech Republic
June 16–20, 2019
The International Workshop on Topological Structures in Ferroic Materials has been established as an ad hoc meeting held in 2015 at the University of New South Wales in Sydney as a reaction of the ferroelectric community to the rising attention towards topological defects like magnetic vortices, Bloch walls, Skyrmions or Merons and to the rising interest in various topological concepts such as winding numbers or homotopy groups. Cross-disciplinary dimension of the workshop with a significant attendance by experts outside of the ferroelectric community turned out to be extremely stimulating and resulted in subsequent fruitful meetings in Dresden (2016), Leeds (2017) and Natal (2018). The fifth TOPO meeting in Prague 2019 was aiming to continue in the same mission - we tried to bring together the forefront science experts as well as young scientists interested in topological aspects of magnetic, superconducting, ferroelectric as well as liquid crystal matter, and mutually benefit from the beauty of the existing unifying scientific perspective.
The Hotel Floret, Květnové náměstí 391, 252 43 Průhonice, is located at the outskirts of Prague, approx. 15 km southeast from the Prague city centre. The facilities are located in a peaceful area close to the Průhonice Chateau with an extensive park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Průhonice Park was founded in 1885 by the Count Arnošt Emanuel Silva–Tarouca. His lifelong work resulted in a masterpiece of garden landscape architecture of worldwide importance. In an unparallelled way he combined native and introduced exotic tree species. At the time of its foundation, the park became an entrance gate for newly introduced plants to Bohemia, as well as to the whole Europe. The park spreads across the area of 211 ha in a valley of the Botič Stream. Apart from the chateau, there is a neo-renaissance country house and a small medieval church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary.
Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, is well known for its historical monuments, classical architecture and rich cultural heritage that continues today in many theaters, concert halls, opera houses and galleries. Come and discover this wonderful city and walk in the footsteps not only of Franz Kafka and Antonin Dvorak but also of Tycho de Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Bernard Bolzano, Christian Doppler, Albert Einstein, Jaroslav Heyrovsky, Vladimir Prelog and others.
Prague has 1.3 million inhabitants living on approximately 500 square kilometers. The historical city center is a designated UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage area which stretches over more than 8 square kilometers. Charles University in Prague, founded in 1348, is the oldest university in Central Europe.
The dominant feature of the city is Prague Castle with its gothic St. Vitus Cathedral. The castle, formerly the seat of Czech kings since 1087, became the seat of the president in 1918. The Lesser Town below the castle boasts a profusion of intimate corners and character restaurants blended with splendid aristocratic palaces and charming gardens. The 14th century Charles Bridge, the most remarkable promenade site in Prague, connects Lesser Town with the Old Town, amazing network of twisting medieval lanes. The Old Town City Hall in the Old Town Square houses the oldest working Astronomical Clock in the world (1410). At every hour, a presentation of four figures and statues of 12 Apostles starts. Between the Old Town Square and the river bank, remains of unique 13th century Jewish Town offer mysterious spiritual atmosphere. Due to hilly landscape over double-bent river valley, the elevated sites such as the Castle offer magnificent views over the city's “one hundred spires”.
Photographs courtesy of CzechTourism agency and fungus2.
The program started on Sunday evening, 16th June, the lectures started on Monday morning, 17th June, and finished on Thursday early afternoon, 20th June.
| 18:00–20:00 | Get together event |
| 8:25–8:30 | Opening |
| 8:30–9:10 | T. Jungwirth Crystal symmetries and transport phenomena in antiferromagnets |
| 9:10–9:30 | L. Smejkal Electronic Structure of Crystal Hall Antiferromagnets |
| 9:30–9:50 | J. Mackel Topological defects in ferroics: Searching for skyrmions in magnetic thin films and ferroelectric single crystals |
| 9:50–10:30 | P. Zubko Nanoscale domains in metal-ferroelectric heterostructures |
| 10:30–11:00 | Coffee break |
| 11:00–11:40 | F. Araoka Electrical-frustration induced topological defects in nematics: topological defect array and dynamic solitons |
| 11:40–12:20 | A. Saxena Merons, skyrmions and tubular structures in chiral magnets and liquid crystals |
| 12:20–13:00 | P. Jizba TUTORIAL 1: Introduction to homotopy theory |
| 13:00–14:30 | LUNCH |
| 14:30–15:00 | P. Jizba TUTORIAL 2 : Introduction to solitons and instantons |
| 15:00–15:40 | M. G. Vergniory Introducing Topological Quantum Chemistry for materials search and applications |
| 15:40–16:00 | K. Shapovalov Bistable interfacial polarization and ferroelectricity in SrTiO3 |
| 16:00–16:30 | M. Mochizuki Microwave-driven dynamics of magnetic skyrmions |
| 16:30–17:00 | Coffee break |
| 17:00–17:40 | B. Braun Dynamical skyrmions and emergent electromagnetism of moving monopoles in nanostructures |
| 17:40–18:20 | S. Kralj Classical nematic liquid crystal analogues of Majorana particles |
| 18:20–18:50 | H. N. Lee Interfacial control of noncollinear spin strucures in 3d-5d quantum heterostructures |
| 18:50–19:00 | group photo |
| 19:00–20:20 | DINNER |
| 20:20–21:00 | I. I. Smalyukh Knotland |
| 8:30–9:10 | C. Pfleiderer Topological magnetic order far from equilibrium |
| 9:10–9:50 | J. Seidel Topological structures as nanoscale functional elements |
| 9:50–10:30 | A. Grunebohm Functional bubble domains in ferroelectric superlattices |
| 10:30–11:00 | Coffee break |
| 11:00–11:40 | R. Rivers Testing causality in defect production in annular junctions and superconductors |
| 11:40–12:20 | C. A. Heikes The interplay of polar structure, superconductivity, and topology in Weyl semimetal MoTe2 |
| 12:20–13:00 | F. N. Rybakov Hopfions in magnets and superconductors |
| 13:00–14:30 | LUNCH |
| 14:30–14:40 | Short introduction of poster contributions |
| 14:40–15:10 | V. P. Kravchuk Nonlinear dynamics of skyrmion strings |
| 15:10–15:50 | O. Gomonay Antiferromagnetic skyrmion: spin eigen-modes and current-induced dynamics |
| 15:50–16:30 | M. Klaui Topological dynamics - ultrafast spin manipulation for novel memory and thermal diffusion for unconventional logic devices |
| 16:30–17:00 | Coffee break |
| 17:00–17:40 | I. Kezsmarki Switching between Neel- and Bloch-type skyrmions in lacunar spinels |
| 17:40–18:00 | R. L. Dally Probing skyrmion dynamics with SANS in GaV4S8 |
| 18:00–18:20 | S. Ghara Conducting domain walls in the orbital-order driven polar state of lacunar spinels |
| 18:20–19:00 | T. Ono Vanishing skyrmion Hall effect in ferrimagnet |
| 19:00–20:20 | DINNER AND ADVISORY BOARD MEETING |
| 20:20–21:00 | L. Eng Identifying the novel Skyrmion phase in Cu2OSeO3 by Magnetic-Force-Microscopy |
| 8:30–9:10 | A. Loidl MnCr2S4: a multiferroic spin supersolid |
| 9:10–9:50 | S. M. Griffin Doubling up the topological order in hexagonal manganites |
| 9:50–10:30 | S. Coh Phonons with angular momentum in systems with broken symmetries |
| 10:30–11:00 | Coffee break |
| 11:00–11:40 | C. Lichtensteiger Tuning of the depolarization field, built-in voltage and nanodomain structure in ferroelectric thin films |
| 11:40–12:00 | B. Kirbus Real-time and in-situ probing of first- and second-order phase transitions of BaTiO3 domain walls through 3D Cherenkov SHG |
| 12:00–12:20 | C. Weymann Domain configuration and microstructure in ferroelectric ultrathin films |
| 12:20–13:00 | S. Cherifi Hertel SHG imaging of nontrivial polarization textures at and close to ferroelectric domain walls |
| 13:00–14:30 | LUNCH |
| 14:30–15:10 | E. K. H. Salje Domain glass phenomena |
| 15:10–15:50 | W. Schranz Dynamic phase transitions in ferroelastic systems with randomly pinned domain walls |
| 15:50–16:30 | M. Stengel New functionalities from gradients: Flexoelectricity and more |
| 16:30–17:00 | Coffee break |
| 17:00–17:40 | T. W. Noh Ferroelectrically tunable magnetic skyrmions in ultrathin oxide heterostructures |
| 17:40–18:10 | V. Ya. Shur Growth of dendrite domains and superfast domain shape transformation in ferroelectrics |
| 18:10–18:30 | A. R. Akhmatkhanov Transition from 2D to 1D domain growth in KTP with surface dielectric layer |
| 18:30–19:00 | G. Catalan Metal-insulator phase boundaries in VO2 films |
| 19:00–20:20 | DINNER |
| 20:20–21:00 | L.Q. Chen Computational Understanding and Prediction of Polar States in Ferroelectric Heterostructures Using Phase-field Method |
| 7:30–9:00 | Bus transfer to the city centre (departures 7:30 and 8:15) |
| 9:00–9:20 | A. Cano Multiferroic Fe langasite materials and their emergent magnetic textures |
| 9:20–9:50 | V. A. Stoica Optical creation of a supercrystal with three-dimensional nanoscale periodicity |
| 9:50–10:10 | W. Peng Relaxor-like ferroelectricity in BaTiO3 films via epitaxial symmetry engineering |
| 10:10–10:50 | I. Lukyanchuk Topology of ferroelectrics at the nanoscale: negative and super-capacitance, multivalued logic, and knotting |
| 10:50–11:10 | Coffee break |
| 11:10–11:50 | O. A. Tretiakov Magnetic bimerons as skyrmion analogues in in-plane magnets |
| 11:50–12:30 | H. Wen Ultrafast structural dynamics of ferroelectric domains and vortices |
| 12:30–12:50 | M. A. P. Goncalves Second-principles studies of topological textures in ferroelectrics |
| 12:50–13:30 | R. Ramesh Observation of room temperature polar skyrmions |
| 13:30 | LUNCH |
The organizers would like to thank the participants for their contributions and warm atmosphere of the meeting. There were 84 participants from 18 countries at the TOPO 2019 workshop:
Abstract submission has been closed.
Standard facilities were available for oral presentations:
For your presentation, you can use either your own notebook or the conference one. If you intend to use the conference notebook, please provide your presentation file well in advance on a storage medium (USB flash disk). On the conference notebook, the following presentation file formats are supported:
The poster boards were 80 cm wide and 110 cm high. Pins were available on site.
There was no dedicated poster session, all posters were hanged during the whole event.
The important dates regarding the Workshop organization were as follows:
| Abstract submission: | April 26, 2019 |
| Acceptance notification: | April 30, 2019 |
| Registration deadline: | May 5, 2019 |
| Payment deadline: | May 10, 2019 |
| Workshop: | June 16–20, 2019 |
Vaclav Havel Airport Prague handles flights of most European carriers, including low-cost ones, as well as some overseas flights. To find the most appropriate flight without the need of visiting individual carrier websites, you may try a global travel search site such as http://www.skyscanner.net/.
The The Hotel Floret, Květnové náměstí 391, 252 43 Průhonice, is located at the outskirts of Prague, approx. 15 km southeast from the Prague city centre.
The route by taxi takes approximately 40 min. There are two official taxi providers from the airport, see https://www.prg.aero/en/taxi for contact details. The cost should be around 1200 CZK (45 EUR).
Alternatively, you can call a taxi of your choice by phone or use Uber or Bold (Taxify) but keep in mind that only the two official providers can use the taxi rank in front of the main building. Short-term parking lots are convenient for meeting alternative taxis: one is located directly in front of Terminal 2 Departures (2nd floor, use lift or escalators), another in front of Terminal 1 Departures at a distance about 30 m from the main building (behind the official taxi rank and a bus stop).
It takes typically 80 minutes and you have to change three times. The total cost is 40 CZK (1.50 EUR), a 40 CZK ticket can be bought from a ticket-vending machine or at the public transport information desk at the airport. The ticket should be validated on entering the first carriage. More information can be found at https://www.prg.aero/en/public-transport-buses.
You can find a connection at http://spojeni.dpp.cz/ConnForm.aspx?cl=E5. This is an example of the found connection data:
Bus stops are located in front of each terminal. You take a bus 119 till the end stop (Nádraží Veleslavín) where you change to green metro A. At the Muzeum station you change to red metro C. At the Opatov station, you take a bus 363 or 385.
At the Opatov station (metro red line C), after leaving the platform and climbing up the stairs, keep on the right-hand side.
Before you reach the exit from the building, turn right and use the escalator.
Continue to the bus platform.
Use the bus 363 or 385.
In the buses serving Prague outskirts, passengers are obliged to board through the front door and display a valid ticket to the bus driver.
Be careful NOT to get off the bus too early – the right stop is the 5th one in Průhonice (including one request stop where the bus does not always stop).
From the bus stop Průhonice, follow the way to Hotel Floret or Parkhotel:
Bus timetables Opatov—Průhonice:
Průhonice is located along the Exit 6 of the principal highway D1 connecting Prague and Brno. To reach the Floret hotel parking, use the map below. At the gate, collect a ticket. Before checking out, ask the organizers or at the hotel reception desk for instructions.
The program on Thursday, 20 June was organized in Kaiserštejnský Palace, Malostranské náměstí 23/37, Prague 1, a baroque building from 1714. The venue is in the very centre of Prague so that the transport will be considerably simpler. A taxi to the airport will cost around 500 CZK (20 EUR). Green metro line A, Malostranská station, is within walking distance. After getting off at Nádraží Veleslavín, you take a bus 119 which terminates at the airport. The ticket cost is 32 CZK (1.20 EUR).
Czech Republic is part of the Schengen Area within the EU. The participants who are subject to visa obligation should contact the Czech Embassy or Consulate.
In the case of visa obligation, please let us know as soon as possible so that our invitation letter can reach you well in time by conventional mail.
Czech Crown (CZK; koruna in the Czech language) is the local currency. The approximate exchange rate is as follows:
| 1 Euro: | 26 CZK |
| 1 US Dollar: | 23 CZK |
| 1 Pound Sterling: | 29 CZK |
Electrical outlets are 230 V, 50 Hz, French E-type plugs and sockets are used.
Jirka Hlinka
Institute of Physics, CAS
Na Slovance 2, 182 21 Prague 8, Czech Republic
Tel.: +420 2 6605 2154
Fax: +420 2 8689 0527
e-mail:
Jan Pokorny
Institute of Physics, CAS
Na Slovance 2, 182 21 Prague 8, Czech Republic
Tel.: +420 2 6605 2654
Fax: +420 2 8689 0527
e-mail:
website: http://palata.fzu.cz/topo2019/