Thomas Boggess, Experimental semiconductor physics

• Ultrafast nonlinear optical techniques used to study semiconductor nanostructures
• Topics of interest include carrier energy and spin relaxation, recombination, and transport
• Facilities include ultrafast lasers, cryogenic capabilities, photon-counting equipment, and magneto-optical instrumentation located in 2000 sq ft of laboratory space

  Michael Flatté, Theoretical superconductor and
  semiconductor physics

• Properties of impurities in high-temperature superconductors
• High-speed semiconductor magneto-electronics
• Member of multi-university research initiative on high-speed semiconductor magneto-electronics (with Caltech, Cornell, U. Illinois, and UC Santa Barbara)
• Students also interact with other group members, including postdocs and other students, and with members of experimental groups at Iowa
• Students develop skills including analytical and numerical techniques and programming C++
• Placement opportunities for graduate students include industry participants in our research

  John Goree, Experimental soft condensed matter

• The melting phase transition, phonon spectra, nonlinear waves in lattices
• Interdisciplinary work with plasma physics; we use dusty plasmas, which form into crystals similar to colloidal crystals
• Experiments are performed in our labs and on the International Space Station
• Facilities include two labs with vacuum chambers, lasers, and optical diagnostics
• Students also interact with: group members including postdocs; other faculty and research scientists; collaborators in Germany and other countries
• Students develop skills including design, construction, and operation of: vacuum, electronic, optical, and laser systems; programming in various languages; image analysis
• Previous assistants found employment in the semiconductor industry and as academic postdocs

  Maxim Khodas, Theoretical condensed matter physics

• Theory of two-dimensional electron gas in high mobility samples, strongly correlated systems, transport properties of electron systems driven out of equilibrium, and spin transport in semiconductors
• Students develop skills in C and Fortran programming

  John Prineas, Experimental semiconductor physics

• Research and development of antimonide III-V compound semiconductor materials, including Ga(Al)InAsSb bulk alloys and quantum wells, InAs/Ga(In)Sb superlattices, and core-shell nanowhiskers
• Facilities include a molecular beam epitaxy lab equipped to grow III-V semiconductors, and an optical spectroscopy lab; regular use of user facilities: Microfabrication Laboratory and the Central Microscopy Research Facility
• Placement opportunities include industry, government labs, and academia

  Craig Pryor, Condensed matter theoretical physics

• Electronic, optical, and spin-related properties of semiconductor nanostructures
• Applications to nanoelectronic and optoelectronic devices, quantum computation, and THz sources
• Member of multi-university research program on quantum computation with UC Santa Barbara and Stanford
• Students develop skills in numerical methods and C++ programming

  John Schweitzer, Experimental and theoretical condensed
  matter physics

• Structural, electronic, and magnetic phase transition; materials synthesis and characterization of ternary transition-metal sulfides
• Facilities include: single-crystal and powder x-ray diffractometers for crystal structure determination; SQUID magnetometer for AC and DC magnetic property measurements; instruments to measure resistivity and Hall effect
• Emeritus professor

  Arthur Smirl, Experimental semiconductor and
  nanostructure physics

• Optical techniques used to study scattering and to control carrier transport with femtosecond temporal resolution and nanometer spatial resolution
• Research has potential applications in electronics, optoelectronics, terahertz wave generation, data storage, optical switching and quantum computation
• Five laboratories (5,000 sq. ft.) including femtosecond lasers
• Students gain experience in quantum mechanics, solid-state physics and optics

  Markus Wohlgenannt, Experimental condensed matter physics

• Optical and transport (of electrical current) properties of organic semiconductors, interaction with light, electric and magnetic fields
• Superconductivity and spintronics
• Facilities include various equipment for thin film deposition, fabrication of diodes and transistors, optical experiments, crystal growth
• Students participate in worldwide collaborations with experimental and theory groups in semiconducting organics, chemistry and electrical engineering departments
• Placement opportunities gained from learning include semiconductor or fiber optics industry, government labs, and academia