Research in applied physics (including materials science) covers the interfaces of physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. A large portion of research involves condensed matter physics.

• Biophysics
• Electronic and Magnetic Systems and Devices
• Materials Science
• Oceans, Atmospheres, and Geophysics
• Optics, Electromagnetics, and Light-Matter Interactions
• Soft Condensed Matter
• Surface and Interface Science
• Theory and Simulation

Areas of Focus

• Study of complex materials found in tissues and cells using microheological techniques
• Rheological measurements on cross-linked polymer gels that resemble biopolymer networks
• Mechanical testing of entangled actin networks
• Use of nanopores in solid-state membranes as single-molecule detectors for DNA and other biopolymers
• Theoretical research in the statistical mechanics of biopolymers
• Pattern formation during the growth of tissue

Researchers

Areas of Focus

• Investigation of electron and hole transport in novel materials, nanostructures (dots and wires), devices using microscopy techniques
• Nanowire synthesis techniques and nanoscale assembly/characterization of matter
• Superconducting phenomena
• Ultra-sensitive microwave detectors
• Arrays of magnetic bubbles
• Casmir forces and their control in nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS)
• Molecular scale sensors capable of detecting single atoms
• Rapid single molecule DNA sequencing

Researchers

Areas of Focus

• Creation of materials and assemblies and new devices using new materials
• Phase-, composition-, and morphology selection in materials formation (and how this differs from nanophase materials)
• Properties of materials in thin film form compared with those in the bulk
• Principles and mechanisms involved in the development of stress in thin-film deposition

Researchers

Research Groups/Labs

• Auguste Biomaterials Lab
• Materials Science Group
  
• Narayanamurti Research Group
• Vlassak Research Group

Areas of Focus

• Kinetics and thermodynamics of crystal nucleation in small aqueous aerosol particles
• Development of new lasers for atmospheric spectroscopy
• Material science and theoretical mechanics of crack propagation in geophysics
• Physics and dynamics of the oceans, atmosphere, climate and climate change

Researchers

Areas of Focus

• New coherent light sources based on the quantum cascade laser (compact injection parametric oscillators, Raman injection lasers, and nanostructured semiconductor lasers designed using band-gap engineering, and ultra-short pulses in mid-infrared range)

• Photonic crystals (injection surface plasmon micro-lasers based on artificial defects and nonlinear optical effects)
• Optics with cold atoms and Bose–Einstein condensates, including slow light and stopped light. Conversion of light to matter and new paradigms for quantum control

• Quantum optics/quantum computation
• Microfabricated optical tweezers
• Surface plasmons/optical antennas
• Light generation in engineered semiconductors (e.g. nanowires,
• Quantum dots, quantum cascade lasers)
• Manipulation of nano-scale objects using guided waves 

Researchers

Areas of Focus

Researchers

Areas of Focus

• Investigation of the atomic structure of interfaces by diffraction and imaging techniques
• Interfacial thermodynamics quantities and their related phenomena of crystal nucelation and growth
• Study of mechanical strength
• Development of new nanostructures, sensors, and catalysts

Researchers

Areas of Focus

• Electronic and band-structure theory research on III-IV and II-VI compounds, magnetic semiconductors, superlattices and nanostructures, and first principles calculations of surfaces, interfaces, defects, and high-pressure phases
• Statistical mechanics of collective phenomena, including the study of flux line motion in high-temperature superconductors and phase transitions (in particular, the melting, the behavior of sheet polymers, charge density waves and biophysics)
• Investigation on electronics in semiconductor heterostructures, low-dimensional antiferromagnets, fractional statistics, inhomogeneous systems, and particles interacting with electromagnetic fields and turbulent fluids and in suspensions
• Theory and simulation of the ocean, atmosphere and climate dynamics, understanding natural and human-induced climate change.

Researchers