The paper deals with progress in the field of preparation of preforms for drawing of optical fibres by the MCVD method. ''Groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication'' were appreciated in 2009 by the Nobel prize for K. C. Kao and this paper comes from experience acquired in this field. Attention is focused namely at novel materials and fiber structures and their preparation in the field of special optical fibers for fiber amplifiers, lasers and sensors. and Článek se zabývá pokroky v oblasti přípravy preforem pro tažení optických vláken metodou MCVD. Vychází z historických poznatků při přípravě telekomunikačních vláken, které přispěly k významnému pokroku v oboru, za jehož rozvoj získal K. C. Kao v roce 2009 Nobelovu cenu. Pozornost je soustředěna zejména na nové materiály a vláknové struktury a postupy jejich přípravy z oblasti speciálních vláken pro vláknové zesilovače, lasery a sensory.
An essential part of the ESFRI roadmap to foster the European science in the field of large laser systems, the project ELI-Beamlines is to be built in the Czech Republic. The project has been submitted by the Institute of Physics to the European Commision and it is expected to be financed from the structural funds just due. The facility, which consists of several laser beamlines delivering a very high power density (up to 1023 W/cm2) on the target in a repetitive regime, should be ready by 2015. A smaller sister-project HiLASE should support the ELI-Beamlines by providing high average power repetitive ns lasers as an intermediate pumping element of the ELI laser chains, but, at the same time, of interest for various laser assisted technologies. and Karel Rohlena.