Department Profile Department of Physics The Department of Physics at IIT Kanpur has continually been striving for excellence in teaching and research, since the inception of the institute and has established itself as one of the reputed departments in the country. The research activities of the Department encompass practically all major sub-disciplines of Physics. An overview of the academic programs, areas of research, infra-structure and facilities established in the Department over the years, is given below. Academic Programmes The Department provides basic Physics foundation through lecture and laboratory courses to the students of the B.Tech. programme of IIT Kanpur. It starts with two courses at the core level followed by a number of professional courses which the students can choose. The Department offers a unique 5-year integrated M.Sc. Programme for students admitted through the JEE. This program trains future physicists with hands-on experience on Engineering and technical skills in addition to offering them one of the most rigorous Physics curricula in the world. The program provides the students a wide perspective and training outside their chosen field. The Department also runs a highly successful two year M.Sc. program. Students with Bachelor's degree in physics are admitted to this program. The Department also has a vibrant Ph.D. program with specialization in many areas of experimental and theoretical Physics. Currently, 45 research scholars are engaged in doctoral research. The Physics Department plans to start a dual degree (M.Sc./Ph.D.) Program from July 2001. The Senate has already approved this program. The students to the Dual Degree Program will be admitted after B.Sc. They will be given M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees at the time of graduation. This program will benefit from our strong tradition in teaching and frontline research. The Department of Physics also participates in teaching and research in the interdisciplinary programs of Material Science, Laser Technology and Nuclear Engineering. The Physics Department has currently a faculty strength of 28. Research Disciplines Some of the Research disciplines are listed here: Electronic Structure of Ordered and Disordered Solids, Disordered Systems, Strongly Correlated Systems, Magnetism and Superconductivity, Soft-matter, Nano-structured Materials, Non-linear Dynamics, Chaos and Turbulence, Diffusion and Percolation on Random Networks, Driven Non-equilibrium Systems, Statistical Physics, Density Functional Theory, Particle Physics, Field Theory, String Theory, Quantum Gravity, Cosmology, Foundation of Quantum Mechanics, Laser Physics, Laser Spectroscopy, Non-linear Optics, Laser Plasma Studies, Medical Application of Lasers, Experimental Nuclear Physics, Computational Physics. In Condensed Matter, theoretical work is being carried out in the areas of Disordered electronic systems, electronic structures, metal-insulator transition, nanostructures, porous silicon, quantum Hall effect, quantum magnetism, semiconductor physics, superconductivity, Computational Physics, correlated electron systems, Josephson junction arrays, molecular dynamics, parallel computation and weather prediction. Studies of Complex dynamical systems, porous media, soft and biomaterials, neural and immune networks, fluids and MHD turbulence are being performed by theoreticians working in the field of statistical physics. The experimental research in condensed matter focuses on Amorphous semiconductors, DLTS, porous silicon, diamond like carbon films, superionic conductors, superconductors including high Tc superconductors, Low-temperature physics, magnetic thin film multilayers and bulk materials, nanostructures, liquid crystals, structural and electronic phase transitions in layered materials. The main areas of activity of the Field Theory and Particle Physics group of the department are the Chern-Simons theory, collider physics, general theory of relativity and cosmology, foundation of quantum mechanics, QCD and Quark-Gluon plasma, renormalization theory, string theory, standard model, supersymmetry. The Laser Physics and Spectroscopy group is involved in research in Non-linear optics, laser Raman spectroscopy, diamond like carbon and carbon clusters from laser ablation, laser plasma interactions, medical applications, Doppler-free spectroscopy and quantum optics. The Nuclear Physics group is engaged in the application of Rutherford back scattering, channelling, heavy ion irradiation, positron annihilation and Mossbauer spectroscopy to materials research. The salient activities of the various research laboratories are described below: Amorphous Semiconductors Laboratory Thin layers of amorphous and nanocrystalline (porous) silicon, diamond like carbon and chalcogenide glasses are prepared by various techniques, e.g., plasma CVD, hot filament CVD, electrodeposition, oxy-acetaline flame and vacuum evaporation, and are thoroughly characterized structurally, optically and electrically. Sub-gap optical absorption, electrical conductivity and thermopower measurements are used to obtain information about the potential fluctuations present in them. Of particular interest is the stability of these materials upon exposure to light, high energy ions and thermal quenching, and the changes such perturbations produce in their electronic structure.
Condensed Matter Low Dimensional Laboratory This laboratory is set up to study magnetic, superconducting and structural behaviour of ultra thin films and artificial superlattices of a variety of transition metal oxides. Unlike in ordinary metals, the highly correlated nature of electronic transport, the occurrence of high temperature superconductivity and exotic magnetism in this class of materials make them interesting from the fundamental physics as well as technology viewpoints. The physics of these systems becomes much more interesting when one or more dimensions of the sample are made smaller than the relevant correlation length. The examples of such synthetic structures are ultra thin films, superlattices and thin wires. The laboratory has state of the art pulsed laser facility for deposition of the films and superlattices. Precision x-ray scattering experiments are performed to characterize the crystallographic structure and periodicity of the films. Measurements of magnetic flux dynamics, non-equilibrium superconductivity, metal insulator transition and the effects of strong electric and magnetic fields on charge transport are studied down to liquid helium temperatures. Accelerator-based Research Laboratory A 2-MeV Van de Graaff accelerator which can accelerate ions of hydrogen, helium and heavier gaseous species like nitrogen, argon, krypton, xenon is available.Other facilities are thin film preparation by electron-beam and thermal evaporation, DC plasma source of hydrogen and deuterium ion implantation, Rutherford back scattering (RBS), elastic recoil detection, channelling and ion irradiation at temperatures from 80K to 650K. Using these facilities research problems in the areas of ion-beam mixing, interfacial interaction, diffusion, elemental analysis, location of impurities in crystalline matrix, ion-induced epitaxy, are being investigated. Nuclear Spectroscopy-based Research Laboratory Facilities for Transmission Mossbauer Spectroscopy from 10K to 1000K, Conversion electron Mossbauer spectroscopy at room temperature and positron annihilation lifetime Spectroscopy are available. Using these facilities investigations are being carried out on nanophase magnetic materials, magnetic multilayer films prepared by electrodeposition and e-beam evaporation and phase equilibria of binary and ternary alloys. Apart from these geophysical problems such as meteorites, natural glasses and extinction boundaries like K/T boundary are being studied. Low Temperature Laboratory The measurement facilities existing in this laboratory include Vibrating Sample Magnetometer, Cahn Balance, Superconducting Magnets, Specific heat apparatus using relaxation technique. Resistivity (DC and low frequency AC), Magnetoresistance upto to tesla, Hall effect upto 2 Tesla, Tunneling conductance both AC and DC, and Thermopower using DC differential Technique. All measurements could be made down to 1.2k and are interfaced with PC. The areas of work include studies on band diagrams and magnetism in Ni-rich NiFeCr/V alloys, compositional phase transitions in Fe-rich FeNiCr alloys and magnetic phase diagram of cu- Mn binary alloys,. Studies of magnetism, resistivity and specific heat, in amorphous alloys are also pursued. Electron tunneling and transport studies on transition metal oxides are being carried out. Recently work on electrical transport and magnetic properties of FeCr multilayers showing gaint magnetoresistance (GMR) has been taken up. Ion-beam irradiated magnetic multilayers are also being investigated. Extension of the existing facilities to higher magnetic fields (20 tesla) and lower temperatures (30 millikelvin with dilution refrigerators) are envisaged. Laboratory for Physics of Electronic and Photonic Materials Defect Engineering to tune useful properties for devices, study of localised states in electronic and optoelectronic materials, specially in silicon and III-V compounds and their alloys are some of the investigations being carried out in this laboratory. Specific issues being addressed are defects in GaAs, semi-insulating GaAs and AlGaAs and relations between defect, disorder and localised states in damage created by MeV ions. This is being done through electrical characterization methods. Laboratory for Physics of Amorphous, Polycrystalline and Novel Electronic Materials Some recent studies carried out in this laboratory are listed here: (i) growth and char-acterization of diamond like carbon (DLC), (ii) development of Spectroscopic ellipsometer for optical characterization of thin films and hetero-structures. (iii) growth and study of polycrystalline silicons for Thin film Transitor (TFT) applications (iv) growth and characterization of porous silicon using a variety of physical, optical, and electrical methods. Laser Raman & Biomedical Applications Laboratory Laser-induced fluorescence and Raman spectroscopic techniques are being used to study tissue interaction of light with bio-molecules and intrinsic molecules in human tissue systems. The aim of the research is to use minimally invasive optical methods to diagnose disease. Another important aspect of the research is to study light propagation in human tissues, which is again important for clinical applications, where light is delivered to and collected from the tissue with fiber-optic probes.
Characterization studies of different crystals, ceramics, semiconductor materials using Raman Spectro-scopy are routinely performed. Major equipment include, 5 and 15W Ar+ lasers, dye laser, laser micro-Raman spectrometer, CCD camera, closed-cycle cryostat etc. Solid State Ionics Laboratory Solid State Ionics (SSI) Laboratory has state-of-art facilities for the synthesis of superionic conductors (SICs) which are of interest due to their unique physical properties. These have potential for application in energy storage devices, e.g., high performance batteries suitable for auto-traction, load-levelling, space and defence equipment. The SSI Lab is well equipped for carrying out studies in (i) impedance analysis _ two/four probe conductivity, dielectric constant and loss, thermopower, etc. over wide temperature (10-1500K) and frequency (5 Hz-13 MHz) range; (ii) fabrication and testing of solid state cells/batteries. Laboratory for High Resolution Spectroscopy and Non-linear Optics Doppler broadening is the dominant line broadening mechanism in the spectra of low-pressure vapours. In order to see the natural profile of spectral lines, it is necessary to eliminate Doppler and other sources of line broadening. In this laboratory, the Velocity Selective Optical Pumping technique is used to record natural profile of spectral lines down to a few MHz. Such high resolution has been acheived for the first time in this country. These studies find applications in some emerging areas of Atomic Physics such as Laser Cooling of atoms and Quantum computers. Saturable absorbers are potentially important systems for non-linear optical device applications, such as real time Holography, Optical Phase Conjugation, Optical Switches, etc. Saturable absorbers are characterized by unusually high optical non-linearties which can be realized at relatively low optical powers. Studies focus on the formation and decay of Laser Induced Gratings, Optical Phase Conjugation, Two Beam Coupling and Multi-wave Mixing in dye doped glasses. The laboratory is equipped with 4 and 18 Watt Argon ion lasers, narrow band (~1 MHz) tunable dye lasers, vibration isolation tables, extensive optics, data acquisition and processing systems, etc. Laboratory for Laser-Plasma Interaction Study The group works in the broad area of fundamental laser physics and application of laser ablated plasmas. Several applications of laser ablated plasmas are being actively pursued. The characteristic correlat-ion of thin films deposited by laser ablation plasma with various spectro-scopic, ion probe and fast photography tech-niques with temporal resolution of few ns is being routinely em-ployed. The formation of shock in laser ablated plasmas in ambient gas and expansion of laser ablated plasmas in the magnetic field to simulate conditions of astrophysical plasmas are being studied. Theoretical modeling of laser induced breakdown and multiphoton processes in various gases is being carried out using standard code and Monte-Carlo technique. The facilities include Nd:YAG Nano-sec laser, Nd:YAG pico-sec laser, ICCD-camera with Nano-sec pulse generator, Monochromator (0.5m, 0.25m), Box-car Averager, Oscilloscope (500 MHz and 100 MHz), Turbo-Molecular pump, Diffusion pump with chamber, Dye laser, and Excimer laser.
Central and Technical Facilities The Department of Physics also maintains the following central facilities: * Liquid Helium and Liquid Nitrogen Facility (Helium liquefier, Nitrogen liquefier, 20 ltr./hr. Closed-cycle helium refrigerators) * Central Nuclear Facility (2 MeV Van de Graaff accelerator, Rutherford backscattering (RBS) and elastic recoil detection (ERD), set ups for elemental analysis and depth profiling, ion channeling facility, MeV heavy ion beams for surface and interface engineering, e-beam system for thin film deposition, positron lifetime spectrometer, Mossbauer spectro-meter equipped with closed cycle cryostat).
* EPR Facility (VARIAN make EPR machine model E-109 operating in the X-band. The department also supports a fully equipped Mechanical Workshop, an Electronics Shop, a Technical Optics Shop and a Central Computational Facility.
For additional information, please contact: Dr. K.K. Sharma Head, Department of Physics Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Kanpur 208 016 Telephone: (0512) 597563 e-mail: kksh@iitk.ac.in
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