Research in condensed matter physics covers a wide range of topics that include experimental studies of wide bandgap semiconductors and the nonlinear optics of organic solids along with theoretical studies of layered materials, defects in strongly correlated materials, and topological physics.
Experiment: Activities span from molecular materials, organic and inorganic semiconductors, wide bandgap semiconductors, point defects, and rare earth doping. The Stavola group uses reaction chemistry of hydrogen-containing defects in wide-bandgap semiconductors to determine the fundamental properties of hydrogen impurities in a technologically important class of materials that finds application in flat-panel displays, transparent electrical contacts, and high-power electronics. The Biaggio group uses lasers to study light-matter interaction or new photonics materials with interesting nonlinear optical properties, and fluorescence dynamics and pump and probe experiments to investigate exciton dynamics in molecular crystals and organic semiconductors, including singlet exciton fission and triplet exciton fusion. The Dierolf group looks at point defects in insulating materials with ferroelectric domain walls and other dopants; excitation processes of rare earth in wide band gap semiconductors, formation dynamics of single crystals in glass.
Theory: Theoretical work in the Ekuma and Roy groups spans over topics such as two-dimensional layered materials and their hybrids, heterostructures, and interfaces; Electronic and related properties of bulk semiconductors and insulators; Impurities and defects in materials including their interplay in strongly correlated materials/systems; The physics of carrier localization in model systems and real materials; Topological condensed matter physics, superconductivity, classical and quantum phase transition in strongly correlated and disordered systems, and field theory.
