Physics research index

Learn about the research expertise of our Physics staff in the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences.

Baptiste Auguié

  • Optical properties of nanostructures (nano-optics, plasmonics)
  • Design, characterisation and modelling of optical sensors based on thin-film multilayers and nanoparticles
  • Circular dichroism and optical activity
  • Electromagnetic modelling
  • Link to our group website: http://nano-optics.ac.nz/

Stephen Curran

  • Radio astronomy - the star-forming reservoir in the Universe via hydrogen absorption
  • The application of machine learning techniques to classify the most distant galaxies
  • The effect of the supermassive black hole on its host galaxy
  • Linking the star-forming gas abundance to the star formation history
  • The values of the fundamental constants of nature at large look-back times
  • Spectroscopic surveys with the Square Kilometre Array and its precursors

Petrik Galvosas

  • NMR in porous material
  • Hardware and methodology of NMR
  • NMR imaging methodologies for materials science
  • Soft matter and NMR Rheology
  • NMR methods in environmental science and biology
  • Medical device technologies

Michele Governale

  • Theory of charge and spin transport in nanostructures (nanoelectronics and spintronics)
  • Time-dependent transport in nanoscale systems
  • Hybrid superconductor-normal systems
  • Strongly correlated electrons

Malcolm Ingham

  • Electrical and electromagnetic techniques in geophysics
  • Electrical resistivity and the structure of volcanic and geothermal regions
  • Modelling the geomagnetic field through polarity reversals
  • Development of techniques for measuring the physical properties of sea ice
  • DC resistivity for detection of saline intrusion in coastal aquifers

John Lekner

  • Theory of propagation, polarization and reflection of focused laser beams
  • Energy, momentum and angular momentum of electromagnetic and acoustic pulses
  • Theory of reflection of electromagnetic, acoustic and particle waves
  • Optical properties of anisotropic and chiral media
  • Viscous fluid flow, with and without slip
  • Quantum wavepackets: propagation in free space and in force fields

Eric Le Ru

  • Optical properties of metals at the nano-scale (nano-plasmonics) - theory and applications
  • Electromagnetic modelling
  • Optics-based sensors and surface enhanced spectroscopies (Raman and fluorescence)

Franck Natali

  • Materials science - metals and semiconductors
  • Catalyst materials - Hydrogen and Ammonia
  • Epitaxial growth - thin films and low dimensional structures
  • Magnetic devices

Tulasi Parashar

Yvette Perrott

  • Clusters of galaxies
  • Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect
  • Radio astronomy
  • Bayesian analysis

Natalie Plank

  • Electronic device physics of carbon nanotubes and semiconducting nanowires
  • Electronic biosensors
  • Interfacing of carbon nanotubes with biological receptors - mechanisms and applications
  • Cleanroom fabrication techniques for new materials

Ben Ruck

  • Experimental condensed matter physics: thin films of novel materials
  • Materials for spintronics
  • Dilute magnetic semiconductors
  • Rare-earth nitrides
  • Preparation of perovskite superconductors and ruthenate perovskites
  • Novel conducting materials: measurement and modelling of electronic properties

Krista Steenbergen

  • Electronic structure and molecular dynamics modelling, designing novel materials and capturing material properties.
  • Changing dimensionality, to discover how material properties change from 3D to 2D to 1D
  • Temperature and pressure, exploring how materials react to varying (sometimes severe) thermodynamic conditions

Joe Trodahl

  • Magnetic semiconductors—Rare-earth nitrides
  • Transport and optical properties of metals and semiconductors
  • Raman spectroscopy of semiconductors and ferroelectric oxides
  • Coupled ferroelectric/ferromagnetic device

Gillian Turner

  • Geomagnetism, palaeomagnetism, and environmental physics
  • Geomagnetism secular variation, excursions and polarity reversals
  • Natural magnetic minerals and magnetization processes

Grant Williams

  • Advanced materials for radiation dosimetry
  • Copper and iron-based superconductors
  • Topological insulators
  • Strongly correlated materials
  • The physics of nanostructures and nanoparticles
  • Thermoelectrics
  • Non-linear optics

Uli Zuelicke

  • Theoretical condensed-matter physics
  • Electronic properties of semiconductor nano-structures
  • Unconventional materials (for example, graphene and topological insulators)
  • Quantum-state engineering with ultra-cold atom gases