Postgraduate Studies
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Current Research Interests
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Admission (MPhil/MSc/PhD)
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Postgraduate Programmes
Current Research Interests
EXPERIMENTAL
Physics of Thin Films
Thin films of various oxides and nitrides are prepared using facing-target sputtering techniques. Current research topics include epitaxial growth, colossal magnetoresistance and metastable phases. (H.K. Wong)
Plasmonics
Study of metal nanoparticles and their interactions with metals and semiconductors. Study of surface plasmons by various far-field and near-field optical techniques. (D.H.C. Ong, J.F. Wang)
Undercooled Liquids, Glass Formation and Nanostructures
Work is focused on novel materials, nucleation problem, glass and nanostructure formation, physical properties of liquid in its stable and metastable regime and microstructures of undercooled semiconductors and metals. (H.W. Kui)
Optical Properties of Semiconductors
Spectroscopic methods are used to probe the electronic structures of semiconductors. Artificially structured materials are prepared and their novel optical properties studied. (S.K. Hark, D.H.C. Ong)
Materials: Synthesis, Characterization, and Engineering
(a) Metal matrix composites: Aluminium metal matrix composites are synthesized by using appropriate internal and external oxidation techniques. The microstructures and properties of composites are studied. (b) Ceramic matrix composites: Chemical synthesis techniques are employed to produce various fine ceramic powders which are used to make new ceramic matrix composites. (c) Fabrication and characterization of 1-D and 2-D nanostructured materials. (d) Biomorphic materials: conversion of bio-organic materials to carbon-based composites and functional ceramics. Synthesis of catalysts by a bimorphic approach. (D.H.L. Ng)
Surface Science and Materials Characterization
Surface analysis and structure analysis using XPS, UPS, SIMS, AES/SEM/EBIC, TEM and Raman. (Q. Li)
Surface Science and Nano Science
Metal and semiconductor surfaces, and nano structures fabricated on surface. Focus is on their atomic and electronic structures and their surface dynamics. The major techniques are scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy at low temperature or variable temperatures. (K.D. Wang, X.D. Xiao)
Functional Nanomaterials and Their Electronic Structures
Research focus on designing low-dimensional functional nanostructures, with emphasis on their microstructure/ electronic structures and the corresponding mechanical, magnetic, electrical, and optical properties. (S.K. Hark, Q. Li)
Fluid Turbulence
Study of fluid turbulence, in particular convective thermal turbulence. Main focus are heat transport, flow dynamics, energy and entropy cascades, and coherent structures. (K.Q. Xia, S.Q. Zhou)
Nonlinear Optics
Investigation of nonlinear optical properties of molecules using hyper-Rayleigh scattering. All-optical poling of glassy polymers. Nonlinear optical properties of organic materials and polymers. (K.Y. Wong)
Optics and Lasers
Mie scattering from emulsion droplets is being studied. Photorefractive effect in selected ferroelectric crystals: two-wave coupling, self-pumped phase conjugation, and spatial soliton experiments are being conducted. Nonlinear optical phenomena in liquid crystals including two-wave mixing, self-phase modulation, and self-focusing are investigated. (W.K. Lee)
Nanostructures
Study of photonic materials in nano-scale. Artificial structures are fabricated to confine photons and electrons. Random lasers. (D.H.C. Ong)
Neutrino Oscillation Experiment
The project aims at measuring the θ
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mixing angle of neutrino, using neutrinos from the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant. A satellite laboratory at the Aberdeen Tunnel has been setup to study the cosmic rays background. (M.C. Chu)
Fluid and Complex Fluids Experiment
Study of liquid drop impacting on solid substrate and novel structures in colloidad and emulsion systems. The main techniques are high-speed photography and confocal microscopy. (L. Xu)
THEORETICAL
Condensed Matter Physics
Magnetic and electronic properties of disordered photonic crystals, density functional theory, geophysical systems, kinetic glass transition of amorphous materials, physics of nonlinear composites, plasmonics, dynamic ER effects in complex fluids, quantum spin systems, interacting electron-phonon systems, fermion systems, nonlinear optical properties of conjugated organic molecules and semiconductor nanostructures, bosons in confining potentials, spin dynamics in semiconductor nanostructures. (S.J. Gu, P.M. Hui, H.Q. Lin, R.B. Liu, C.F. Lo, J.T.K. Wan, K.Y. Wong, K.W. Yu)
Optics
Laser interaction with micrometer-sized droplets, open and dissipative systems, generalized Jaynes-Cummings models, interaction between photons and quantum dots, squeezed states, quantum optics. (C.K. Law, P.T. Leung, R.B. Liu, C.F. Lo, L.G. Wang)
Turbulence and Complex Systems
Scaling and intermittency, statistics and coherent structures. Drag reduction by polymers. Effect of polymers on heat transport. Glass transition. (E.S.C. Ching)
Gravitational Waves
Quasinormal modes of gravitating systems, late-time behavior of gravitational waves. Frequency spectrum of gravitational waves, inversion of the internal structure of neutron stars. (P.T. Leung, L.M. Lin, W.M. Suen, K. Young)
Sonoluminescence
Hydrodynamics, optical emission, plasma spectroscopy. (P.T. Leung)
Relativity and Astrophysics
Cosmology. Relativistic astrophysics, neutrino astrophysics. (M.C. Chu, P.T. Leung, L.M. Lin, W.M. Suen)
Quantum Information and Quantum Physics
Investigation of entanglement in many-body systems; quantification of entanglement, entanglement manipulation, quantum measurement decoherence. (S.J. Gu, C.K. Law, H.Q. Lin, R.B. Liu, L.G. Wang)
Computational Physics
Active research has been devoted to computational studies of quantum and classical systems. For quantum systems, research projects include phase separation in highly correlated systems, superconductivity and magnetism in two-dimensional triangular lattice, issues in quantum Monte Carlo simulations, magnetic properties of transition metals and quantum entanglement and quantum phase transition. For classical systems, substantial efforts have been devoted to soft condensed matter physics. Projects include correlation effects in colloidal suspensions, electrorheological fluids and biological cell suspensions. Useful tools for investigation include molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo methods. (H.Q. Lin and K.W. Yu)
Quantitative Finance
Option pricing, risky bond pricing, financial risk modeling. (C.F. Lo)
Other Theoretical Projects
Include quasinormal modes, dissipative quantum systems, method of complex scaling, data compression in information science, agent-based models of complex systems, physics of complex networks, dynamical processes in complex networks, S matrix calculation of the scattering of light by an atom near an absorption edge, interpretation of EM radiation by non-inertial observers, supersymmetric quantum mechanics, geometric phases, study of quantum anharmonic oscillators by state-dependent diagonalization, Lie algebraic approach to quantum systems, nonlinear stochastic systems, forces between biomolecules. (K.M. Cheng, P.M. Hui, P.T. Leung, H.Q. Lin, C.F. Lo, K.M. Pang, S.S. Tong, J.T.K. Wan, K. Young, K.W. Yu)
