Research

The department strongly values active research by the faculty and the involvement of students at all levels. We believe that research is essential not only for the advancement of science and the well-being of our society, but also improves the quality of our teaching and prepares students to contribute with their knowledge and abilities to the community. Research allows infusing new developments and tools into the curriculum. By contributing to research in close contact with faculty, students learn to apply these tools to concrete problems.

Interested in our research? Below is a short description of the research activities of the department and the list of publications. You will find more details on the personal web pages of our faculty. You are also encouraged to contact them directly!

Student Opportunities

The department offers numerous opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to be involved in the research of its faculty. Students are encouraged to participate in our research, thereby finding an opportunity to increase and apply their knowledge.

For specific projects and information on how to integrate a group, students are invited and most welcome to contact directly the faculty. If you wish some preliminary guidance or don't find what you want, contact our undergraduate and graduate advisors.

Interested in participating in our undergraduate research program or doing a Master's thesis? Contact us!

Research Activities

The expertise of our faculty covers a broad range of topics. Current research activities are in the areas of condensed matter physics and materials science, few body and nuclear physics, high energy and particle physics, quantum theory.

Experimental research is mostly applied and performed in magnetism and superconductivity. Some research in biophysics has also been initiated recently. Among the themes of interest to the experimental faculty are: Physical properties of oxides and perovskites, current-limiting processes in superconductors, formation and growth of protein aggregates, magnetic nano-devices for bio-engineering, physical properties of magnetic-superconducting hybrid ultra-thin films, the exchange-bias effect, physical properties of organic semiconductors, phthalocyanine, near field optical microscopy, plasmonics in nanoparticles.

Theoretical research is being done on a variety of topics among which: unification theory of interactions (supersymmetry, supergravity theories), electroweak interactions model, CP violation, higher-dimensional theories, mathematical physics tools in the framework of elementary particle physics, fundamental quantum theory and quantum gravity, properties of dense matter in Neutron stars, quantum scattering theory, computational methods for the resolution of Fadeev equations and applications to the description of three-body systems in atomic, nuclear and particle physics, polymer and membrane physics with a close link to the art of Origami, physical properties of magnetic-superconducting hybrid structures, description of crystallization processes in thin films, electronic properties and screening of the Coulomb interaction in layered materials.

Publication list:

More information can be obtained on the publication list below and on the profile and personal pages of the faculty. The following lists the scientific publications of the faculty. It is updated approximately every six months. Former years are found in the archive below. The complete list of publications of a faculty member can be found on his/her home page .

2007 - 2008 in pdf file

archive in pdf file

Funding:

We gratefully acknowledge the following organizations and foundations for their support of our research:

Internal grants: California State University, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (CNSM), Scholarly and Creative Activity Committee (SCAC).

External grants: Air-Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), National Science Foundation (NSF), Research Corporation, Spencer Foundation.

Resources:

Experimental: High-Vacuum Multi-Target Sputtering Machine, Magneto-Optical Kerr Effect (MOKE), Quick-dipper Resistance Measurement Probe, Physical Properties Measurement System (PPMS -including a Vibrating Sample Magnetometer -VSM-, AC Susceptibility and transport measurement, Magnetic torque measurement, and horizontal rotator for angular dependence measurement), Scanning Laser Microscope (SLM) with electromagnet, Agilent 428A Precision LCR Meter, Multimode Nanoscope III Scanning Probe Microscope system (including Atomic Force Microscope -AFM-, Magnetic Force Microscope -MFM-, and Electric Field Microscope -EFM), Alternating Gradient Magnetometer, Semiconductor Probe Station, Pulsed NMR Spectrometer.

Computational: Altix 350, MacPro quad- and 8-core, iMac laboratories, computational tools (Maple, Mathematica, Matlab, etc.), Density functional theory (DFT) programs, Student offices with up-to-date computer facilities.