Physics
The Discipline of Physics at IIT Palakkad started functioning from August 2015, and is currently engaged in teaching and research in the forefront of experimental and theoretical physics. In July 2017, the Discipline started its dedicated PhD program. The research interests and expertise of the members of the Discipline cover a wide range of areas. From August 2019, the Masters program in Physics has been initiated. To know more about the activities of the Discipline, courses offered, current research directions of the members, and ongoing research projects, browse the Discipline of Physics Webpage.
The Discipline of Physics at IIT Palakkad engages in research in the forefront of experimental and theoretical physics. The research interests and expertise of the members of the Discipline cover a wide range of areas.
Astrophysics: Dr. Projjwal Banerjee
Experimental Biophysics: Dr. Bibhu Ranjan Sarangi
Experimental Condensed Matter Physics: Dr. Jayakumar Balakrishnan, Dr. Soham Manni, Dr. Moumita Nandi
High Energy Physics and String Theory: Dr. Prithvi Narayan P.
Statistical Physics: Dr. Vishwas Venkatesh
Quantum Physics: Dr. Kusum Dhochak, Dr. Uma Divakaran, Dr. Amit Kumar Pal
Programs
Masters Program in Physics: The Discipline of Physics at IIT Palakkad runs a two-years Masters programme in Physics that started in August, 2019. It offers advanced theoretical as well as experimental training in Physics to students interested to pursue a career in science and technology. Along with the core courses in Physics, the programme includes a set of elective courses designed specifically in accordance with the current world-wide trends of research in different streams in Physics. It also provides opportunity to the students to take up, as a part of the course, short-term as well as extended projects on contemporary topics in different areas of the subject so that they can have a flavour of cutting edge research.
PhD Program in Physics: The members of the Discipline of Physics at IIT Palakkad are engaged in cutting edge research in different domains of Physics, both theoretical as well as experimental. The Ph.D programme offered by the Discipline of Physics started in July 2017, and currently includes 15 Research Scholars pursuing research in several state-of-the-art topics. The currently available research topics are Astrophysics, Experimental Biophysics, Condensed Matter Physics (Theory and Experiments), Theoretical Soft Matter and Statistical Physics, High Energy Physics and String Theory, Quantum Phase Transitions, and Quantum Information Theory. See the Discipline of Physics Webpage for more details about the research pursued at the Discipline.
Teaching Labs (BTech and MSc Lab)
The Department has at present a teaching Physics laboratory to cater the needs of undergraduate/graduate students and is equipped with experimental setups that can boast of the latest technology. The M.Sc. Physics laboratories are categorized by different themes, namely, Mechanics, Electromagnetism, Thermal Physics, Atomic Physics and Spectroscopy, and Electronics and Instrumentation. The M.Sc. Physics laboratory houses state of the art experimental setups such as Eddy Current Pendulum, Thomson Tube, Michelson Interferometer, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectrometer, Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) Spectrometer, Liquid Nitrogen Cryostat, Scanning Tunneling Microscope, Epifluorescence microscope and Polarizing Microscope. Currently there are three technical staff in the Physics laboratory to manage experimental setups and assist students in experiments.
Research Labs
For conducting advanced research, IIT Palakkad has set-up different central facilities namely Chandra High-Performance Computing Cluster, Central Instrumentation Facility (CIF) and Central Micro Fabrication Facility (CMFF), Central facilities in Materials and Manufacturing, and Data Mining. This facility houses state-of-the-art equipments like XRD, SEM with e-beam lithography attachment, Mask Aligner, Raman spectrophotometer, 12 T VTI (base temp: 300mK), Sputtering system, Glovebox, Furnaces (tube and box, arc melting etc) of different working temperature ranges.
Events
The Discipline hosts regular research seminars and colloquia in order to expose the students to the state-of-the-art in research topics. Also, a series of in-house seminars on topics of interest to the Discipline members are conducted. For details on the upcoming research seminars and colloquia, visit our Discipline of Physics Webpage.
