Research
From original ground breaking discoveries, to the development of new and revolutionary technologies, to the decoding of the stock market, physicists have revolutionized the way we live our lives. Our professors and our graduates are an important part of this chain. Many of our professors have also been recognized as superb teachers and have been widely recognized as world-class researchers in their respective fields of expertise.
The research conducted by the professors in the Department of Physics is concentrated in several sub-specialties, including the physics of biological and complex systems, condensed matter physics, photonics, and the physics of geomaterials. Depending upon their choice of program, undergraduate students will have the opportunity to take courses and participate in research projects in these specialized areas.
Research areas
Biophysics
Visit the dedicated Biophysics website for more detailed information about our research efforts.
» Take a virtual tour of our biophysics labs!
Some areas of expertise:
Biomolecular Assemblies
Design of artificial proteins, synthesis of biomaterials, multiscale modeling of cell mechanics (James Harden)
Cellular biophysics
Biosensors for single cell studies (Michel Godin); Cellular mechanical response using simultaneous optical and atomic force microscopy techniques (Andrew Pelling)
Medical biophotonics
Optical techniques for the non-invasive assessment of biological systems; optical models of the eye; monitoring of systemic diseases through the human eye (Réjean Munger)
Membrane biophysics
Bilayer rupture; mechanosensitive channels; vesicle dynamics (Béla Joós)
Single-Molecule Biophysics
Force Spectroscopy, molecular interactions, solid-state nanopores (Vincent Tabard-Cossa)
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics
Biosensing technologies within micro/nano-fluidic environments (Michel Godin, Vincent Tabard-Cossa); Micro and nano-fluidic bioanalytical devices; simulation of biofilm growth; neurochip devices (Christophe Py, Gary W. Slater)
Neurophysics
Information processing in the brain; nonlinear dynamics (André Longtin)
Systems Biology
Stochasticity in gene regulation; dynamics of regulatory networks (Mads Kaern)
Condensed Matter Physics
Some areas of expertise:
Geochemical Physics of the Environment
Lake sediment structure and evolution (Ivan L’Heureux); nonlinear processes in geochemical systems; pattern formation in rocks and minerals; dynamics of magmatic flow (Ivan L’Heureux)
High Pressure Physics
Modeling of molecular systems under extreme conditions ; dense gas hydrates ; high pressure-high temperature synthesis of potentially ultra-hard materials; use of synchrotron radiation to probe materials (Serge Desgreniers)
Microstructural Science
Carbon nanotubes and nanotube devices; growth and optical properties of semiconductor nanostructures; Electronic and optical properties of semiconductor quantum dots; nano-spintronics with quantum dots; quantum information and computation; modeling of mechanical properties of materials; ab initio calculations (Sylvain Charbonneau, Kuiying Chen, Simon Fafard, Paul Finnie, Pawel Hawrylak, John Tse, Robin Williams, Jacob Krich)
Novel Alloys
Electronic and magnetic properties of quasicrystals, metallic glasses and complex crystalline alloys (Zbigniew M. Stadnik)
Photovoltaics
Theories of electron transport and device modelling in novel high-efficiency photovoltaics (Jacob Krich, Karin Hinzer, Henry Schriemer); Nonradiative recombination in semiconductor materials (Jacob Krich); Multijunction solar cell characterization and deployment (Karin Hinzer, Henry Schriemer).
Polymer Physics
Theory of electrophoresis for conjugated and branched molecules ; micro- and nano-fluidic bioanalytical devices; theory and simulation of isolated polymer collisions; simulation of biofilm growth; diffusion on a lattice with obstacles (Gary W. Slater)
Quantum materials
Strongly correlated materials; Bose-Einstein condensation of exciton-polaritons; low-dimensional semiconductors (Jean-Michel Ménard)
Soft Condensed Matter
Experimental and computational study of aging and dynamics in soft glassy materials (James Harden, Béla Joós); Microrheology of soft materials (James Harden); Highly entropic inhomogeneous materials and biological membranes; physical properties of these materials under stress (Béla Joós)
Surface Physics
Surface morphology of crystalline solids on the nanometer scale; kinetics of surface roughening and annealing; reaction kinetics on surfaces (Javier Giorgi, Peter Piercy)
Photonics
Some areas of expertise:
Visit the Centre for Research in Photonics webpage for more detailed information regarding our research efforts.
Laser Applications
Frequency stabilized near-infrared lasers ; precision measurements (Andrzej Czajkowski)
Medical biophotonics
Optical techniques for the non-invasive assessment of biological systems; optical models of the eye; monitoring of systemic diseases through the human eye (Réjean Munger)
Nanophotonics and Quantum Nonlinear Optics
Slow and fast light: quantum imaging; quantum communication using orbital angular momentum states of light; nanophotonics including metamaterials and photonic crystal structures; Quantum Information in Integrated Optics, Quantum Metrology, Sources of Entangled and Single Photons, Fundamental Issues in Quantum Physics, Quantum Optics (Robert Boyd, Jeff Lundeen)
Optical Sensing
Theory and instrumentation for distributed fiber sensing of structural health properties in large infrastructures (Xiaoyi Bao, Liang Chen)
Electrophotonics
Fabrication of Bragg Gratings in Waveguides ; UV and ultrafast IR photosensitivity; phase mask design; Bragg grating structures; fused biconic tapered coupler devices; photonics and material sciences applications; photonic applications of quantum dots; ultrafast spectroscopy (Stephen Mihailov, Sylvain Raymond, Henry Schriemer, K. Hinzer, Jean-Michel Ménard)
Fiber Optics
Fiber communication impairments ; Brillouin effect for optical routing; ultrafast fiber lasers; nonlinear effects in micro-structured fibers (Xiaoyi Bao , Liang Chen, Ping Lu, Jean-Michel Ménard)
Laser Matter Interaction
Strong field atomic and molecular physics; laser processing of matter on sub-micron scale (Thomas Brabec , Ravi Bhardwaj, Lora Ramunno)
Attosecond Physics
Generation and measurement of ultra-short high intensity optical and electron pulse; molecular photonics (Thomas Brabec, Ravi Bhardwaj, Paul Corkum, Albert Stolow, David Villeneuve)