The NL-3 Laboratory is a part of the Institute of High Pressure Physics (IHPP), also known as "Unipress".

IHPP PAS was founded in 1972 by the Polish Academy of Sciences. Although the original focus of IHPP PAS was on high-pressure studies of semiconductors, the present field of research activities also covers ceramics, HTc superconductors, hydrogen storage, biological materials (high-pressure studies of protein folding, and high pressure food processing) and the plasticity of metals (hydroextrusion). The common axis of these studies is the use of high pressure, both as a research tool (a perturbation like temperature or magnetic field) and also as a technological method (high-pressure sintering, high-pressure growth of crystals). For more than 30 years, IHPP PAS scientists have worked intensively on the physics and technology of gallium nitride (GaN) and related semiconductors. This research led to the creation of a unique technology of high nitrogen pressure solution (HNPS) growth of GaN crystals with a record low dislocation density (10² cm^-2). This has paved the way to construction of blue/violet laser diodes by using crystals as substrates for growing epitaxial structures of (AlGaIn)N with exceptional structural and optical quality. Both the Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) and Metal-Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE) nitride technology has been developed at IHPP PAS together with the laser-processing laboratory.

Other GaN crystallization methods that are developed at IHPP PAS are ammonothermal and halide vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE). Work on ammonothermal growth started in the 1990s and the results were implemented by Ammono company which has recently been acquired by IHPP PAS and became part of the Crystal Growth Laboratory. The HVPE technology was implemented to IHPP PAS at the beginning of 21st century by Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands. Today, the highest structural quality HVPE-GaN crystals are grown in the Crystal Growth Laboratory at IHPP PAS.

Part of the Crystal Growth Laboratory is a theoretical group with a long-term experience in calculations and modelling of nitride semiconductors. This group cooperates closely with the experimental one supporting the development of crystal growth as well as investigating different properties of GaN. The performed calculations illustrate both the surface and the bulk of the semiconductors.

The laboratories of IHPP PAS are located in Stanisławów Pierwszy, Strużańska 8, in Celestynów-Lasek and in Warsaw, at Sokołowska 29/37 and Prymasa Tysiąclecia 98. Currently there are more than 250 employees at IHPP PAS, including more than 100 scientific positions and 30 PhD students. Figure shows the four mentioned facilities of IHPP PAS.