School of Physics
Department of Physics
DST-FIST and UGC-SAP Sponsored Department
The Department of Physics was originally established in 1976 as a unit of the Autonomous Post-Graduate Centre of the University of Madras at Tiruchirappalli (the present Khajamalai Campus) and became the part of Bharathidasan University in 1982 with Prof. P. K. Ponnuswamy (the former Vice-Chancellor of University of Madras and Madurai-Kamaraj University) as the founder Head of the department. Since its inception, the Department has shown a strong commitment towards research and teaching. In a short span of time, the Department established itself as Centres of Excellence for research in the areas of Biophysics, Nonlinear Dynamics and Crystallography. In recognition of the S. S. Bhatnagar’s prize (the nation’s highest pride for science) awarded to Prof. M. Lakshmanan (the former Head, and at present Professor of Eminence and SERB Distinguished Fellow) for his excellent contribution in the field of Nonlinear Dynamics at the international level, the University has created the Centre for Nonlinear Dynamics in the year 1990. The Department of Physics is under the umbrella of School of Physics since 2005. The Department of Physics is recognized by UGC-SAP (DRS-II), DST-FIST (level - I, Phase 2.0) and RUSA (R & I), Government of India.
In the course of time, the department has augmented its research horizon in other areas such as complex systems, Bose - Einstein condensation, Computational Physics, Nonlinear Resonances, Crystal Growth and Thin Films, Superconductivity, Magnetism, Nanosicence and Nanotechnology, Nonlinear Optics and Nano-Photonics. In order to expand the research in emerging areas, the university has created specialized research centres in high pressure studies, and nanoscience and nanotechnology within the Department of Physics in 2008. The Department has state of the art infrastructure for computational and experimental research facilities for conducting cutting edge research in both theoretical and experimental physics.
Besides good international reputation and excellence in research, the department is offering M.Sc and M.Phil programmes in Physics. The department also offers Ph.D programme in Physics, Materials Science and Nanotechnology to train young graduate students towards research in frontier topics.