Applied Physics
Plasma physics and fusion energy
In experimental plasma physics, research is being conducted on:
- Equilibrium, stability, and transport in fusion plasmas: high-beta tokamaks, spherical tokamaks, and levitated dipoles
- Magnetospheric physics: trapped particle instabilities and stochastic particle motion
- Confinement of toroidal nonneutral plasmas
- Plasma source operation and heating techniques
- Development of new plasma measurement techniques
The results from our fusion science experiments are used as a basis for collaboration with large national and international experiments. For example, our recent demonstration of active feedback control of high-temperature plasma instability is guiding research on NSTX at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, on the DIII-D tokamak at General Atomics, and for the design of the next generation burning plasma experiment, ITER. In theoretical plasma physics, research is conducted in the fluid theory of plasma equilibrium and stability, active control of MHD instabilities, the kinetic theory of transport, and the development of techniques based on the theory of general coordinates and dynamical systems. The work is applied to magnetic fusion, non-neutral and space plasmas.
- Advanced fusion confinement
- MHD stability
- Plasma diagnostics
- Space plasmas
- Transport in planetary magnetospheres
- Plasma processing of semiconductors
Optical and laser physics
Active areas of research include
inelastic light scattering in nanomaterials, optical diagnostics of film processing, new laser
systems, nonlinear optics, ultrafast optoelectronics, photonic
switching, optical physics of surfaces, laser-induced crystallization,
and photon integrated circuits.
- Nonlinear optics
- Laser diagnostics/processing
- Laser interactions with matter
- Ultrafast optoelectronics
- Photon integrated circuits
Solid-state physics
Research in solid-state physics covers nanoscience and
nanoparticles, electronic transport and inelastic light scattering in
low-dimensional correlated electron systems, fractional quantum Hall
effect, heterostructure physics and applications, molecular beam
epitaxy, grain boundaries and interfaces, nucleation in thin films, molecular electronics, nanostructure analysis and electronic structure calculation. Research opportunities also exist within the
interdisciplinary NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, which focuses on complex films composed of nanocrystals, the NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, which focuses on electron transport in molecular nanostructures, and the DOE Energy Frontier Research Center, which focuses on conversion of sunlight into electricity in nanometer-sized thin films.
- Low-dimensional electron systems
- Nanocrystals and nanostructures
- Surface photophysics
- Semiconductor devices
- Molecular beam epitaxy
- Semiconductors at high pressures
- Laser materials processing
- Optical spectroscopy of solids
- Quantum structures