Department of Physics Research

The Physics department is conducting research in solid state, semiconductor and polymer physics; atomic, molecular and applied nuclear physics, accelerator based materials physics and nuclear magnetic resonance, and theoretical phyiscs in quantum, statistical and computational physics and non-linear dynamtics, including applications to biomediacal phenomena.

Housed in the Physics Building, the General Academic Building, the Science Research Building, and Discovery Park, the laboratories associated with these programs include ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling, microscopy, atomic force microscopy, near field optical microscopy, micro Raman, photoluminescence spectroscopy, static and dynamic laser light scattering, rheological characterization, UV-visible spectroscopy, and ultrafast optical spectroscopy facilities.

A prime interest in theoretical physics lies in applying quantum theory to many-particle systems.  Mathematical problems involving Green's functions, Feynman diagrams, canonical tranformations and gauge theory are being investigated.  These and other methods are being applied to solids, quantum fluids and nuclei.  Plasma confinement schemes are also being investigated using computational techniques.

Department of Physics Research Facilities:

Ion Beam Modification and Analysis Laboratory Provides four electrostatic accelerators and ancillary equipment to support studies of material modification and analysis by ion beams.
Polymer Gels and Hydrogels Research Laboratory Addresses the investigation and development of the unique properties of gel materials.
Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Research Laboratory Includes instrumentation permitting examination of nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes with simgle atom resolution.
Sputter-Initiated Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy Laboratory (SIRIS) Serves as a testing ground for analyzing materials through selected resonant ionization of sputtered neutral particles.
Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Nanophotonics Laboratory A laser-based laboratory where femtosecond pulses illuminate the subtleties of nanostructures and other exotic materials.
Monroe Robotic Observatory An array of small aperture telescopes search for exoplanets.
Center for Nonlinear Science Research organization whose research focus is phenomena-driven rather than discipline-driven and, therefore, spans traditional disciplines such as physics, mathematics, biology, and economics.  Their emphasis is on the development of new analytic and computational techniques to assist in the understanding of complex (nonlinear) phenomena.

Electronic Structure and the Physics of Materials (ERMES)

Research activities are focused on the application of ab initio elEctRonic structure techniques to the theoretical study of important aspects of the physics of computational MatErialS using high performance simulations, such as: materials and processes for energy and environment applications, nano-catalysis, molecular electronics at the nanoscale and quantum electronic and thermal transport in molecules and molecular materials; design of novel electronic devices; physics and chemistry at interfaces and surfaces; theoretical developments of ab initio DFT-based methods and multiscale computational techniques. 

http://ermes.unt.edu