About the Institute

Physics studies in the Moldavian branch of the Academy of Sciences of the former USSR has its origins in the Department of Physics and Mathematics (set up in 1957, under the guidance of T. Malinowski, the future academician of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova - ASM) and in the Laboratory of Physics and Chemistry of Semiconductors (set up in 1960, under the guidance of S. Radautsan, also the future academician of the ASM).

Technical sciences were shaped within the Division of Electrification of Agriculture (set up in 1955, first director - dr. N. Romanenko) of the Moldavian branch the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, later transformed into the Department of Energetical Cybernetics (set up in 1958, director - G. Chaly, the future corresponding member of ASM). On the basis of this one, when the ASM was established, the Institute of Power Engineering and Automation was set up (1961, director - academician B. Lazarenko), that was later reorganized into the Institute for Electrophysical Problems (1963).

The Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) was inaugurated in 1964, resulting from a merger of physical laboratories of the Institute of Physics and Mathematics and technical laboratories of the Institute for Electrophysical Problems. The first director of the Institute was academician Boris Lazarenko, the laureate of the URSS State Prize, vice – president of the ASM, the founder of the Experimental Plant of the ASM and of the Specialized Bureau of Design and Technology in Solid State Electronics. In the 1970s-1980s the Experimental Plant was a monopoly in the Soviet Union in the field of Electrical Discharge Machining systems, which at that time was developed exclusively by the IAP.

In the 1990s, certain departments of the Institute decided to jointly form two independent research centres, namely:

• the Centre - International Laboratory of Superconductivity and Solid State Electronics
• the Centre of Optoelectronics,

that together with the IAP (with its Materials Science Centre, the Electrophysical Studies Centre and the Theoretical Physics Centre) and also the Specialized Bureau of Design and Technology in Solid-State Electronics represented physical-technical profile of the ASM.

In the 2006, the Centre of Optoelectronics and two laboratories of the Centre - International Laboratory of Superconductivity and Solid State Electronics joined the IAP again.

Since 2018 the Institute of Applied Physics has a new founder, moving from the jurisdiction of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of the Republic of Moldova, and from 2021 under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education and Research.

Within more than 40 years of its existence, the IAP, being the only scientific physical institution in the Republic of Moldova, has made a major input in the advancement of science and in the development of various aspects of the republican economy.

The Institute is known to the foregn scientific comunity for its fundamental and applied investigations. Several scientific schools have been founded since its establishmen in such fields as: Crystallography (acad. T. Malinowski), Electrochemistry (acad. Yu. Petrov), Physics of Semiconducting Materials (acad. S. Radautsan), Kinetical Physics (acad. V. Kowarski), Physics of Noncrystalline Materials (acad. A. Andriesh). Today the Institute is proud to have acad. S. Moskalenko and acad. V. Moskalenko as the heads of the schools of Solid State Theory and of Nuclear Physics; acad. M. Bologa as the head of the school of Intensification of Heat- and Mass-Transfer, acad. A. Simashkevich - an authority in investigations of II-VI semiconducting materials and of heterojunctions based on those, acad. L. Kulyiuk - an authority in investigations of laser spectroscopy and semiconductor physics, acad. E.Arushanov - an authority in investigations of semiconducting materials for photovoltaics, corr.mem. A. Dukusar - an authority in investigations of electrophysical and electrochemical treatment of materials.

The main research areas of the Institute are:

• Fundamental and applied research into physics and physico-chemistry of condensed matter: crystalline, noncrystalline and nanostructured materials, of atoms and nuclei; electronics and quantum optics, design of high technologies and multifunctional electronic, optoelectronic and photonic devices.
• Fundamental and experimental research into using electricity as a catalyst in heat and mass transfer, in cavitation, in electro-floatation and electro-plasmolysis; modification of surfaces of materials by electro-physical and electrochemical methods; development of high technologies and up-to-date techniques.
• Theoretical study of quantum technologies in artificial or real atomic and opto/nanomechanical systems, respectively, the investigation of quantum coherence or quantum interference, quantum inseparability and control of quantum dissipasions.

The accreditation profile 2017-2022 (Accreditation Certificate):

• Condensed matter physics, physics of atoms and nuclei, photonics, materials science, electrotechnologies.

Scientific potential (on 01.01.2020):

Currently the Institute employs 217 persons, among them - 153 researchers, 5 ASM Full Members, 1 ASM Corresponding Member, 19 Dr.Sci. holders, 82 Ph.D. holders, 53 young scientists (under 35).