Research Fields and Facilities
The physics graduate program at Â鶹AV provides a breadth of coverage in physics, which includes the different specialties of our faculty covering a variety of topics and research interests. We offer graduate education towards a Ph.D. degree in experimental and theoretical research specialties including , atomic and optical physics, plasma physics and turbulence, biophysics and pattern formation, and quantum field theory and string theory.
Research in the department has been recognized and sponsored by funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the American Chemical Society, Research Corporation, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The facilities and equipment available for experimental research are of high quality and enable each research group to remain competitive in its area.
Facilities available to the graduate students include:
- Atomic force microscope
- Electrochemical deposition system
- Class 1000 soft-curtain clean room
- Vibrating Sample Magnetometer
- AJA UHV sputtering system film deposition
- Karl Suss MJB-3 mask aligner
- X-ray diffractometer
- Various tunable pulsed and CW laser systems
- ​Two ultrahigh vacuum systems for laser cooling and trapping
- High vacuum plasma chamber
- 10kV pulse power plasma source
- Access to the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory and the Advance Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Access to the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment (SSX) at Swarthmore College and the Large Plasma Device (LAPD), a large-scale NSF-sponsored plasma physics experiment user facility at UCLA
- Machine and Instrument shop
- Extensive information technology and library resources