2011-2012 Bulletin – PDF - SEAS Bulletin - Columbia University

techniques based on the theory of
general coordinates and dynamical
systems. The work is applied to
magnetic fusion, non-neutral and space
plasmas.
Optical and laser physics. Active areas
of research include inelastic light scattering
in nanomaterials, optical diagnostics
of film processing, new laser systems,
nonlinear optics, ultrafast optoelectronics,
photonic switching, optical physics
of surfaces, laser-induced crystallization,
and photon integrated circuits.
Solid-state physics. Research in
solid-state physics covers nanoscience
and nanoparticles, electronic transport
and inelastic light scattering in lowdimensional
correlated electron
systems, fractional quantum Hall
effect, heterostructure physics and
applications, molecular beam epitaxy,
grain boundaries and interfaces,
nucleation in thin films, molecular
electronics, nanostructure analysis,
and electronic structure calculations.
Research opportunities also exist within
the interdisciplinary NSF Materials
Research Science and Engineering
Center, which focuses on complex films
composed of nanocrystals; the NSF
Nanoscale Science and Engineering
Center, which focuses on electron
transport in molecular nanostructures;
and the DOE Energy Frontier Research
Center, which focuses on conversion
of sunlight into electricity in nanometersized
thin films.
Applied mathematics. Current research
encompasses analytical and numerical
analysis of deterministic and stochastic
partial differential equations, large-scale
scientific computation, fluid dynamics,
dynamical systems and chaos, as
well as applications to various fields of
physics and biology. The applications
to physics include condensed-matter
physics, plasma physics, nonlinear
optics, medical imaging, and the earth
sciences, notably atmospheric, oceanic,
and climate science, and solid earth
geophysics (see below). The applications
to biology include cellular biophysics,
machine learning, and functional
genomics, including collaborations with
Columbia’s Center for Computational
Biology and Bioinformatics (C2B2),
the Center for Computational Learning
Systems (CCLS), the NIH-funded
Center for Multiscale Analysis of Genetic
and Cellular Networks (MAGNet),
and the NIH-funded Nanomedicine
Center for Mechanobiology. Extensive
collaborations exist with national climate
research centers (the Geophysical Fluid
Dynamics Laboratory and the National
Center for Atmospheric Research) and
with national laboratories of the U.S.
Department of Energy, custodians of the
nation’s most powerful supercomputers.
Atmospheric, oceanic, and earth
physics. Current research focuses on
the dynamics of the atmosphere and the
ocean, climate modeling, cloud physics,
radiation transfer, remote sensing,
geophysical/geological fluid dynamics,
geochemistry. The department engages
in ongoing research and instruction with
the NASA Goddard Institute for Space
Studies and the Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory. Five faculty members share
appointments with the Department of
Earth and Environmental Sciences.
In addition to the faculty and
graduate students, many others
participate in these projects, including
full-time research faculty, faculty and
students from other departments, and
visiting scientists.
Laboratory Facilities in Applied
Physics and Applied Mathematics
The Plasma Physics Laboratory,
founded in 1961, is one of the leading
university laboratories for the study of
plasma physics in the United States.
There are four experimental facilities.
The Columbia High-Beta Tokamak
(HBT-EP) supports the national program
to develop controlled fusion energy.
It utilizes high voltage, pulsed power
systems, and laser and magnetic
diagnostics to study the properties
of high-beta plasmas and the use
of feedback stabilization to increase
the achievable beta. A collaborative
program with the Princeton Plasma
Physics Laboratory and the DIII-D
tokamak group at General Atomics is
studying the properties of high-beta
plasmas in order to maximize fusion
power production in these large, neutral
beam-heated tokamaks and spherical
tori. The plasma physics group and MIT
have jointly constructed the Levitated
Dipole Experiment (LDX), a large plasma
confinement experiment incorporating
a levitated superconducting ring. The
Columbia Nonneutral Torus (CNT)
is an experiment devoted to the first
study of non-neutral plasmas confined
on magnetic surfaces. The Columbia
Linear Machine (CLM) is a continuously
operating, linear mirror device for the
study of collisionless plasma instabilities,
plasma, transport, and feedback
stabilization. Columbia’s Collisionless
Terrella Experiment investigates plasma
transport in magneto-spheric geometry
and the generation of strong plasma
flow from nonlinear electrostatic
potentials.
Experimental research in solid-state
physics and laser physics is conducted
within the department and also in
association with the Columbia Center for
Integrated Science and Engineering and
the School of Mines. Facilities include
laser processing and spectroscopic
apparatus, ultrahigh vacuum chambers
for surface analysis, picosecond and
femtosecond lasers, a molecular beam
epitaxy machine, and a clean room that
includes photo-lithography and thin film
fabrication systems. Within this field,
the Laser Diagnostics and Solid-State
Physics Laboratory conducts studies
in laser spectroscopy of nanomaterials
and semiconductor thin films, and laser
diagnostics of thin film processing.
The Laser Lab focuses on the study
of materials under high pressure, laser
surface chemical processing, and new
semiconductor structures. Research
is also conducted in the shared
characterization laboratories and clean
room operated by the NSF Nanoscale
Science and Engineering Center.
The department maintains an
extensive network of workstations and
desktop computers. The department
has recently acquired a SiCortex
supercomputer with 1,458 cores, which
is used for a wide range of departmental
computational activities. The research
of the Plasma Lab is supported by
a dedicated data acquisition/data
analysis system, and the applied math
group has access to a Beowulf cluster.
Through the Internet, researchers in
the department are currently using
supercomputing facilities at the National
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engineering 2011–2012