Faculty Interests

Prospective undergraduate research assistants should contact faculty in the research area in which they are interested.

Astronomy & Astrophysics
Atomic, Molecular, Optical & Plasma Physics
Condensed Matter Materials Physics & Nanotechnology
High Energy Physics
Other Research Areas

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Kevin Lee

klee@unl.edu

Instructional Technology in Astronomy Education, Computer Simulations

Kam-Ching Leung (emeritus)

kleung2@unl.edu

Very close binary systems; contact and near contact systems.

Atomic, Molecular, Optical & Plasma Physics

Quantum optics; vacuum field interaction with atoms and electrons; decoherence in matter interferometry; field emission of electrons; storage and slowing of light; slow sound and phononic band gaps; relativistic dynamics of a charged sphere.

Paul Burrow (emeritus)

pburrow@unl.edu

Low-energy electron scattering processes in gases, in particular, temporary negative ion formation and dissociative attachment.

Martin Centurion

martin.centurion@unl.edu

Ultrafast science: diffractive imaging of isolated molecules with atomic resolution, ultrafast photo-induced chemical reactions, controlling molecules with laser pulses, atoms and molecules in intense laser fields; experimental methods: time-resolved electron diffraction, electron deflectometry, femtosecond optical measurements.

Ilya Fabrikant

ifabrikant@unl.edu

Theory of electron-atom and electron-molecule collisions; electron attachment to molecules and clusters; Rydberg atom collisions; photodetachment of negative ions in external fields.

Matthias Fuchs

mfuchs@unl.edu

Ultrafast and high-field X-ray science; next-generation X-ray Source; X-ray free-electron lasers, nonlinear QED.

Timothy Gay

tgay@unl.edu

Polarized electron collisions with atoms and molecules; development of polarized electron sources and electron polarimeters; neutrino mass measurements; polarized photoionization of molecules.

Duane H. Jaecks (emeritus)

djaecks1@unl.edu

Experimental measurement of electron motion and distributions in atoms formed in ion collisions and photoionization; study of correlated motion of massive particles.

Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap

marcelngoko@unl.edu

Strong-field and Attosecond Science: controlling ultrafast correlated atomic and molecular processes with ultrashort laser pulses, atoms and molecules in intense laser pulses with arbitrarily polarization, photodetachment of negative ions in external fields, theory of electron-atom collisions; theoretical quantum and classical methods: TDSE and TD-DFT toolboxes, J-matrix method, R-matrix method, perturbation theory analysis, time-frequency analysis.

Bradley Shadwick

shadwick@unl.edu

Theory of intense laser-plasma interactions with applications to plasma based particle accelerators; plasma kinetic theory; reduced plasma models; Hamiltonian structure; large-scale computation; and advanced numerical algorithms.

Cornelis (Kees) Uiterwaal

cuiterwaal2@unl.edu

Femtosecond laser processes; optical vortices; photoionization in ultrashort and intense laser pulses; ion mass spectrometry; electron spectroscopy.

Donald Umstadter

donald.umstadter@unl.edu

Nonlinear optics of high-intensity laser light in relativistic plasmas, with applications to compact particle accelerators and ultra-short duration x-ray sources; high energy density physics and extreme states of matter.

Condensed Matter/Materials Physics & Nanotechnology

Shireen Adenwalla

sadenwalla@unl.edu

Novel interactions in Thin film magnetic systems; interactions at ferroelectric/ferromagnetic interfaces; Boron based semiconductors and neutron detection applications; using biological templates for patterned media.

Kirill Belashchenko

belashchenko@unl.edu

Computational magnetism, quantum spin transport and spin torques from first principles, electronic properties of magnetic materials, alloy theory.

Christian Binek

cbinek@unl.edu

Magnetic heterostructures; molecular beam epitaxy; extrinsically controlled exchange bias & spintronic applications; fundamental aspects of thermodynamics studied with magnetic model systems.

Peter Dowben

pdowben@unl.edu

Electronic (band) structure across electronic phase transitions in reduced dimensionality.

Stephen Ducharme

sducharme1@unl.edu

Fundamental and applied studies of organic ferroelectrics; nanoscale ferroelectricity; thin film ellipsometry; pyroelectric and piezoelectric properties of materials; nanoscience education and outreach; introductory physics for life sciences (IPLS); student-centered physics instruction based on sound research.

Alexei Gruverman

alexei_gruverman@unl.edu

Fundamental studies of nanoscale physical phenomena in electronic and polar materials by means of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques; research involves application of SPM for nanoscale studies of static and dynamic properties of ferroic domains, scaling behavior of ferroelectric-based devices, electronic properties of polar surfaces, SPM-assisted methods for fabrication of nanostructures and SPM studies of electromechanical and mechanical properties of biocompatible materials and biological systems.

Xia Hong

xia.hong@unl.edu

Epitaxial growth and nanofabrication of complex oxide heterostructures; transport studies of nanoscale and low dimensional electron systems.

Sitaram Jaswal (emeritus)

jaswal@unl.edu

Atomic and electrical structure of metallic compounds and glasses; magnetic properties of solids; surfaces; interfaces; nanostructures.

Roger Kirby (emeritus)

rkirby@unl.edu

Magnetism in nanostructured materials; magnetization reversal processes; magneto-optical measurements.

Alexey Kovalev

alexey.kovalev@unl.edu

Theoretical condensed-matter physics; spintronics; spin-dependent transport; quantum information processing.

Sy-Hwang Liou

sliou@unl.edu

Magnetic domain imaging; magnetic nanostructured materials and complex oxides.

David Sellmyer

dsellmyer@unl.edu

Nanoscale magnetic materials; self-assembled dots; extremely high density recording media; nanostructured high-energy product magnetic materials.

Sellmyer remembered for impacts in research, on students.

Evgeny Tsymbal

tsymbal@unl.edu

Computational studies of magnetic, ferroelectric and transport properties of nanoscale materials and structures: magnetoelectric interfaces, magnetic and ferroelectric tunnel junctions, complex oxide materials.