Introduction

Astronomy & Astrophysics

• Daily Picture
• American Astronomical Society

Atomic, Molecular
& Optical Physics

• Atoms, Molecules,&Light
  National Academy Press

Condensed Matter &
Materials Physics

Particle Physics

Nuclear Physics

Space Physics

Facilities

• High Performance Computing
• Electron Microscopy

Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

Condensed matter physics explores systems at length scales larger than atoms by searching for simple and unifying explanations of intricate phenomena observed in liquid and solid state matter. In such systems, a plethora of quantum and classical behaviors (such as metallic and insulating states, superconductivity, superfluidity, magnetic long-range order, phases in liquid crystals, ...) emerge as a collective effect of a huge number of elementary particles brought together. Such emergent phenomena are usually impossible to deconstruct downward to the level of fundamental laws governing individual particles. Modern condensed matter research embraces both quantum systems (such as electrons in solids at low temperature and quantum fluids of helium atoms) and soft condensed matter (liquid crystals, polymers, and biological structures such as DNA, biomembranes and biomolecules).

Experimental efforts at the University of Delaware are directed toward diverse condensed matter systems: ranging from basic research on superfluids in disordered media, table-top cosmological experiments in liquid helium, nonequilibrium dynamics of granular systems, freezing and melting in small particles and phase separation in porous media, to technologically highly relevant studies of the magnetic and structural properties of nanocomposite systems that make possible engineering of new generation of metamaterials. Within our condensed matter and materials physics program there is also a shared interest in thin films and multi-layered structures, which can display a wide variety of novel magnetic, superconducting and optoelectronic properties. Transport measurements dealing with currents and their noise, as an important experimental probe in solid state physics, are exploited to study magnetic multilayers which have become indispensable in current and future information storage technologies.

Condensed matter theorists at UD are investigating a wide spectrum of fundamental problems in classical and quantum many-body systems. In the quantum realm at low temperatures, the focus is on Bose-Einstein condensation and superfluidity in quantum fluids and atom traps; elementary excitations in liquid Helium using input from neutron scattering experiments; quantum transport of charges and spins in mesoscopic and nanoelectronic structures; spintronics and spintronic devices; quantum (wave) chaos; interplay of disorder, quantum coherence, and strong electronic correlations; and quantum information science. On the classical side of the border, we are focusing on the dynamics of complex systems, such as glasses and granular materials. A combination of analytical and numerical methods appears to be the most advantageous route toward a thorough understanding of both quantum hard matter, soft classical matter, and complex systems. Significant computational resources (from workstations to supercomputing Beowulf clusters) and expertise (from serial to parallel algorithms) are employed daily by UD theorists.