Department of Physics

The Department of Physics covers, from the Bachelor's to the Master's degree, fundamental physics, theoretical physics, materials physics, radiation physics and energy physics; it also offers Master's degrees in medical physics and nanophysics. Students join the department after the Matter Sciences common core, through the second-year Physics pathway.

What we teach

Five Bachelor's specialisations (fundamental, theoretical, materials, radiation and energy physics) lead to Master's degrees in materials physics, medical physics, energy physics and renewable energies, nanophysics and theoretical physics. Teaching is completed by a wide range of practical work.

Practical work

• Mechanics
• Optics
• Electronics and electricity
• Nuclear physics
• Waves and vibrations
• Thermodynamics
• Metallurgy
• X-ray diffraction
• Raman and infrared spectroscopy

Our research areas

• Materials, thin films and interfaces: oxides and semiconductors (ZnO, chalcogenides), thin-film transistors, quantum dots, ceramics, microstructure and defects, phase transformations, surface treatment, crystallography.
• Energy and heat transfer: solar thermal and photovoltaic energy, photocatalysis and TiO2-based solar cells, heat transfer, nanofluids, solar water purification, thermodynamics.
• Theoretical and mathematical physics: gravitation and cosmology, black holes, noncommutative theories and quantum gravity, particle and subatomic physics, quantum mechanics, spectral theory.
• Medical physics and applications to the life sciences.

Fields of interest

• Renewable energies
• Industry
• Medicine
• Pharmacology

Our strengths

• Laboratories and a research unit covering materials, energy and theoretical physics alike.
• Characterisation tools used in teaching as well as in research: X-ray diffraction, Raman and infrared spectroscopy.
• A large scientific output, widely cited in international journals (see “The department in figures”).
• Career opportunities in education, the metallurgical industry, renewable energies, medical instrumentation and the pharmaceutical industry.

Fields of the research projects (2024 information sheet)

• Energy physics
• Materials physics
• Theoretical physics
• Medical physics