Impactful research is central to the culture of our Physics department with many of our staff actively engaged in both theoretical and applied research, industry projects, and working closely not only with colleagues across the University's science and engineering departments, but with collaborators across the globe.

Being an expanding Department of Physics, we have implemented a structure of flexible/mobile interacting research groups.

We continue to develop our experimental labs and facilities and carefully recruit new staff with expertise complementary to our strategic research directions. This development directly supports the delivery of University strategies - namely, ‘Investing in our staff’, ‘Growing capacity and influence’ and ‘Raising standards and aspirations’. Our research in the Department is organised around the following themes:
  • Condensed matter and materials physics
  • Medical and biological physics
  • Quantum and complexity physics
Building on our traditional strength in fundamental physics, we are addressing the UK Grand Challenges summarised in the HM Government Industrial Strategy. Our most significant contributions impact the areas “AI & Data Economy” and “Clean growth” through our research and innovations in 2D and van der Waals materials, novel devices for energy harvesting, spintronics, high-frequency electronics, novel computing and artificial intelligence. 

Condensed matter and materials physics is the branch of physics that studies the properties of the large collections of atoms that compose both natural and synthetic materials.  This branch of physics has many practical applications and is currently producing many advances in fundamental physics.

Research taking place at Loughborough includes:

  • Theory of strongly correlated electron systems
  • Neuromorphic devices
  • High-frequency solid-state physics
  • Two-dimensional and van der Waals systems

Physical processes govern all aspects of life in the universe, including life itself. This theme is interdisciplinary, physicists within the department collaborate with mathematicians, biologists, chemists, clinicians and more to improve our understanding of the behaviour of living organisms and to improve patient care with novel technologies.

Our research includes:

  • Modelling for medicine and biology
  • Ultra-sensitive superconducting magnetic sensors
  • Portable gamma imaging for nuclear medicine
  • Soft matter systems

Physics has the tools for investigating extremely complex systems, finding their most general properties and making detailed predictions about their behaviour. This creates the grounds for both the development of future technologies, and the understanding of most complicated natural phenomena.

Complexity physics

The Department has a long-standing expertise in modelling complex (chaotic and stochastic) dynamical phenomena in solid state and condensed matter physics, economy (econophysics), human behaviour (psychophysics), complex network dynamics, brain physics, artificial intelligence among many other mathematically challenging phenomena. We have an ongoing collaboration with the Loughborough School of Business and Economics on modelling price dynamics and collective behaviour of economic agents, with School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences and Salk Institute for Biological Studies on modelling physiological and psychophysical experiments and now working on extending our research towards geological, populational, ecological, and environmental research.

Quantum engineering

The fabrication and control of macroscopic artificial quantum coherent structures, such as quantum bits (qubits), quantum computational devices and simulators, quantum sensors and quantum metamaterials, have achieved significant progress over the last 20 years. The fundamental impossibility of a direct modelling of such systems with classical means requires developing new approaches to their design, characterization, and optimization, which constitute an emerging discipline of quantum engineering. The development of this discipline will play the decisive role in the Second Quantum Revolution.

Our research groups are flexible and strongly engage in enhanced cross-communication and collaboration between the five Departments of the School, namely, between Physics, Chemistry, Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science and the Mathematics Education Centre. We have several Interdisciplinary Research Centres involving staff and PhD students from all five Science departments encouraging interdisciplinary research:

Centre for the Science of Materials

Centre for Analytical Science

Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical Modelling

Interdisciplinary Science Centre from Laboratory to Fabrication (Lab2Fab)