Initially stemmed from a simple application of nuclear radiations to the determination of crystal structure the research on the condensed matter is now one of the leading scientific themes realized at IFJ PAN. Experiments on particular systems often involve large scale facilities, like neutron and synchrotron radiation sources, but not less important are the works carried out at our own premises with the use of the continuously developing equipment of our laboratories. Worth mentioning is the laboratory of scanning tunnelling and atomic force microscopy, laboratory of thin layers, adiabatic calorimetry, infrared spectroscopy and the NMR laboratory.
The research subjects range from metals, alloys and semiconductors to mesogens, organic glass formers, and molecular magnets. Structural and dynamical properties of important classes of materials, such as semiconductors, minerals and artificial nanostructures are modelled and designed with the use of advanced theoretical and computational methods.