Today the Donetsk Institute for Physics and Engineering named after O.O. Galkin of the NAS of Ukraine is the largest scientific academic institution of Donetsk region. The Institute is engaged in fundamental, experimental and theoretical researches on studying magnetic, electronic, superconducting, resonance, optical, mechanical, properties of a substance, its crystalline and atomic structure as well as in designing instruments and equipment of industrial, research and medical purpose. In particular, the Institute activities include unique experiments aimed at studying the influence of superhigh (more than a hundred thousand atmospheres) pressure, superstrong magnetic fields which are half a million times higher than the magnetic field of the Earth and of superlow, close to the absolute zero, temperatures on properties and physical state of a substance.
A weighty contribution made by scientists of the Institute to the development of domestic and world science has been rewarded with prizes and medals, including 7 Ukrainian State Prizes in Science and Engineering, 5 prizes named after outstanding scientists of the NAS of Ukraine and others.
Among the latest results which deepen the knowledge in structure of a matter open new phenomena of the nature, lay the physical foundation of new technologies and machineries the following is worth noting:
- in nanocrystalline cobaltite La0.8Ca0.2CoO3 the size effect of the unit-cell volume increase has been revealed under nanoparticle size decrease with a simultaneous decrease in the temperature of ferromagnetic state origination together with spontaneous magnetization;
- development of a phenomenological theory based on the Preisakh model of hysteretic response of magnetic materials to describe general regularities in magnetic and magnetoresistive properties of doped lanthanum manganites within a unified approach;
- spin-fluctuation character of superconductivity in iron-containing superconducting pnictide FeSeTe subjected to high hydrostatic pressure has been demonstrated by the methods of Andreyev spectroscopy;
- it has been determined that the self-organization processes in the system of oxide nanoparticles are realized, under heating and high pressure, through cooperative crystallization, oriented addition and cross-linking at the expense of oxygen-vacancy exchange;
- a laboratory model has been for the first time designed and constructed for methanol fuel cell with the beta-alumina based ceramic hydrogen electrolyte characterized by the reduced crossover of hydrogen and effective fuel consumption.
At the Institute, the post-graduate and doctorate courses are training highly qualified personnel for research and educational institutions of Ukraine. The Institute keeps broad scientific, research-and-production and economic contacts with institutions of CIS and foreign countries.