M.
S. and Ph. D. degrees are granted in
all active research areas of the Department. Students are encouraged to
seek an advisor during the first
semester at IUPUI. They are required to start their research project
during their third semester.
The areas of strength of the department include Experimental and Computational Biological Physics; Experimental and Theoretical Optics and Quantum Optics; Scanning Probe Microscopy; Experimental and Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics;
and Physics Education Research.
-Experimental
Biological
Physics:
Work in progress involves
the use of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) to study structure-function
relationships in biological macromolecules(Rao),
and to study protein structure and dynamics (Kemple).
Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (Kemple)
is applied to investigate the
effect of free radicals in biological processes. Solid state NMR is
used to study biological membranes (Wassall).
The structure and function of biological membranes is also investigated
by X-ray scattering and ion transport (Petrache).
-Computational Biological
Physics:
Research is performed using computer modeling and
simulations of the physical properties of biological macromolecules (Betancourt), and elementary
processes in biological systems (Rader).
There is also ongoing work in modeling the response of
cells to cryopreservation (Kleinhans)
and modeling membrane channels (Petrache).
-Experimental and
Theoretical Optics and Quantum Optics:
Main research
topics include laser physics and nonlinear optics (Vemuri), biomedical optics (Vemuri), and the investigation of
non-classical states of light, encryption, and
quantum entanglement (Ou).
-Scanning Probe
Microscopy:
New techniques are developed to investigate soft
materials with Atomic Force Microscopy and Near-field Scanning Optical
Microscopy and to place limits on hypothetical new forces (Decca).
-Experimental Condensed
Matter Physics:
Work is done in the fabrication and characterization of magnetic
nanostructured material, with the goal of building spintronic
devices (Cheng). The optical properties
of quantum dots are also investigated in our Department (Decca).
-Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics:
Study of strongly correlated systems with focus on Bose-Einstein
condensation in semiconductors, quantum Hall effects, and their
application to quantum computing.
(Joglekar)
-Physics Education
Research:
This field focuses on efforts to develop
and assess effective new methods of instruction in physics (Gavrin)
Our Department also hosts the Nuclear
Magnetic Resonance Center and is
a co-host of the School of Science Nanoscale
Imaging Center
