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Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics Nonlinear Optics and Photonics Soft Condensed Matter and Complex Fluids
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CURRENT
RESEARCH AREAS
Many opportunities are available for research in physics. Undergraduate student research is arranged informally as early as the sophomore (or occasionally freshman) year at the initiation of the student or formally as a senior research project. Several undergraduates typically receive support for summer research under the auspices of the REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) program. Graduate students complete a small research project (Physics 491) during the summer following their second semester, and then undertake a larger, thesis project. Following is a description of current faculty research projects that may involve undergraduates, REU students, or graduate students.
CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS (top) Areas of interest include the optical and electronic properties of defects in semiconductors and insulators, quantum phenomena in semiconductor devices, collective dynamics of disordered solids, structural phase transitions in ferroelectrics and superconducting crystals. Physics of nano devices. (Dierolf, Fowler, Licini, Rotkin, Stavola, Toulouse) ATOMIC, MOLECULAR, and OPTICAL PHYSICS (top) Research topics include atomic and molecular spectroscopy and collision processes. Recent work has addressed velocity-changing collisions, diffusion, energy-pooling collisions, charge exchange, fine structure mixing, light-induced drift and radiation trapping. (Huennekens, Hickman) NONLINEAR OPTICS AND PHOTONICS (top) Research topics include nonlinear light-matter interaction that enable the control of light with light, four-wave mixing, phase conjugation, resonant Brillioun scattering, ferroelectric domain patterning for quasi phase matching, waveguides, photonic crystals, holey and other specialty fibers, and the application of photonics to biological systems. (Biaggio, Toulouse) PLASMA PHYSICS (top) Computational studies of magnetically confined toroidal plasmas address anomalous thermal and particle transport, large scale instabilities, and radiofrequency heating. Laboratory studies address collisional and collisionless phenomena of supercritical laser-produced plasmas. (Kritz, Bateman) ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS (top) Current research involves observational studies to understand the formation and evolution of stars. Particular areas of interest are young open clusters, binary stars, X-ray binaries and pulsars, the formation of disks in Be stars, and the origin of magnetic fields in massive stars. (DeLeo, McClusky, McSwain) STATISTICAL PHYSICS (top)Investigation is underway of nonequilibrium fluctuations in gases, chaotic transitions and 1/f dynamics, light-scattering spectroscopy, colloidal suspensions, the nonlinear dynamics of granular particles, and pattern formation in nonequilibrium dissipative systems, including the kinetics of phase transitions and spatiotemporal chaos. (Kim, Gunton) SOFT CONDENSED MATTER AND COMPLEX FLUIDS (top)Polymers in aqueous solutions, colloidal suspensions, and surfactant solutions are investigated using techniques such as "laser tweezers," video-enhanced microscopy, and laser light scattering. Areas of interest include the structures of polymers at liquid-solid interfaces and micro-rheology of confined macromolecules. Recent work addresses systems of biological significance. (Gunton, Ou-Yang, Vavylonis) BIOPHYSICS (top)Current research topics include both experimental and theoretical studies of living matter. Kinetics of crystallization of globular and membrane proteins. Cell mechanics, cell signaling, and cell-cell communication. Dynamics of the cytoskeleton during cell division and cell motion. Laser tweezers, Raman scattering, photoluminescence, advanced 3-D optical imaging techniques and computational image analysis are integrated for investigating structural and dynamical properties. (Gunton, Ou-Yang, Vavylonis) COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS (top)Several of the above areas involve the use of state-of-the-art computers to address large-scale computational problems. Areas of interest include atom-atom collisions, simulations of tokamak plasmas, the statistical behavior of ensembles of many particles, the calculation of electronic wave functions for molecules and solids, and the multi-scale modeling of nano-bio systems. (Gunton, Kritz, Hickman, Rotkin)
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