Condensed Matter Physics

Boggess, Flatté, Goree, Prineas, Pryor, Schweitzer, Smirl, Wohlgenannt

Condensed Matter Physics includes solid-state physics and the study of liquids and soft materials. As the largest field within physics, it includes a wide range of topics such as semiconductors, metals, magnets, superconductors, polymers, and biological systems. Our theorists and experimentalists explore quantum-mechanical phenomena including: semiconductor spintronics and optoelectronics, superconductivity, magnetism, and strong light-matter coupling; and they explore soft-condensed-matter topics such as the melting phase transition and colloidal crystals. Students attend a weekly Materials Physics/Solid State Physics seminar.		Image gallery
Our department has recently expanded its size in the area of condensed matter. We now have more than eleven labs filled with state-of-the-art equipment, and we offer students a wide range of thesis projects. Our theoretical group frequently publishes joint papers with our experimentalists. We give numerous invited talks at national and international conferences. Specialized courses are offered bi-annually, including Semiconductor Physics, Solid State Physics, Quantum Electronics, Laser Principles, and Nonlinear Optics. Students give talks at national and international meetings. There is a particularly wide job market for students trained in this area, with excellent opportunities in industry, government labs, and academia. Our strong research collaboration with industrial partners aids students in finding jobs.

• Ultrafast nonlinear optical techniques used to study semiconductor nanostructures
• Experimental techniques allow measureming electron dynamics on a time scale of 0.1 picosecond
• Facilities include ultrafast lasers, cryogenic capabilities, photon-counting equipment, and magneto-optical instrumentation located in 2000 sq ft of laboratory space
• Students also interact with other group members, including a postdoctoral scholar, graduate students and undergraduates
• In most years, grant support is available for multiple RA stipends and student travel to conferences

• 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++
• Computing facilities dedicated to the group include a high-speed 60-processor linux cluster
• Placement opportunities for graduate students include industry participants in our research
• In most years, grant support is available for multiple RA stipends and student travel to conferences

• 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 aircraft and the International Space Station
• Facilities include two labs with vacuum chambers, lasers, and optical diagnostics
• Students also interact with: group members including two/three 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; one is now a professor
• In most years, grant support is available for multiple RA stipends and student travel to conferences

• Topics include: light-matter coupling in semiconductor nano-structures; and dynamics of excitons, i.e., bound states of a hole and an electron
• Molecular beam epitaxial growth of II-V compound semiconductor layered structures
• Facilities include two labs, with two molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) machines equipped to grow II-V semiconductors
• Students also interact with other members of the Optical Science and Technology Center, and collaborators at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Germany
• Placement opportunities gained from learning MBE II-V growth and ultrafast spectroscopy include industry, government labs, and academia
• In most years, grant support is available for multiple RA stipends and student travel to conferences

• 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
• Computer facilities include a 50 processor UNIX cluster
• In most years grant support is available for RA stipends and student travel to conferences

• 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

• 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
• In most years, grant support is available for multiple RA stipends and student travel to conferences

• Optical and transport (of electrical current) properties of organic semiconductors, interaction with light, electric and magnetic fields
• Superconductivity and spintronics
• Facilities include a new laboratory under construction beginning in 2002; various equipments 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
• In most years, grant support is available for multiple RA stipends and student travel to conferences