Research - Condensed matter physics is mainly concerned with the properties of matter in the solid state. Much modern research focuses on the properties of artificial materials in which atoms are put together in new ways either at the atomic level or on nanometer length scales. Many properties of solids are associated with the quantum motion of electrons from atom to atom. Many of the most robust and dramatic properties are due to the grouping of many electrons into a rigid macroscopic degree of freedom that occurs, for example, in superconductors and magnets. Problems currently being examined include the electrical transport properties of carbon nanotube `quantum wires`, transport and magnetic properties of thin films of ferromagnets, magnetic properties of materials in non-equilibrium structures, magnetization reversal in nanometer scale magnets, coherence effects in light-absorption in semiconductors with self-assembled quantum dots, scanning electron microscopy, high-sensitivity magnetometry ....effects in light-absorption in semiconductors with self-assembled.

The group has eight faculty, six postdoctoral fellows, and approximately twenty graduate students and runs two active seminar series.