About the Department

The Department of Nuclear Physics was established in the year 1969 with Prof. V. Devanathan (retired) as founder Head of the Department. Well known for his contribution to Theoretical Nuclear Physics, he is the author of eight books in Nuclear Physics and Quantum Mechanics.

With the advent of magnetic materials, superconductivity and Nanoscience in the late ’80s and ’90s, the department geared up its research, under the headship of late Prof .T. Nagarajan, in the field of condensed matter physics/ Materials Science using the established nuclear probe techniques  ‘One dimensional/ Two Dimensional angular correlation in positron annihilation, positron lifetime measurements and Mossbauer spectroscopy’ to study the properties of materials, in addition to the other characterization facilities like XRD, VSM, and TGA-DTA created with special assistance from UGC & DST. 

At present, the department has five faculty working in the state of the art research areas of Spintronics, Magnetic Materials, Photonics, Laser Materials Processing, Photocatalytic, Thermoelectric, Energy Materials,  Radiation safety and Ion-implantation based Material modification, Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy, Computational Electromagnetism, Quantum Dots and Solar Cells, Computational Materials Science, by using the facilities already available, facilities created under FIST level I, through individual faculty projects, and in collaboration with national institutes.

The research output of the department has led to more than 250 publications in peer-reviewed International Journals, in the last five years.

The Department offers M.Sc. Physics since 1977, M.Phil. Physics and Ph.D.(broadly in Physical Sciences/ Materials Sciences). In PG, all the core papers in physics are taught in addition to the Special Papers in Nuclear Physics. The curriculam is designed to clear the NET/SLET in Physics and the students learn advanced experimental techniques during their course and project work exposing themselves to state of the art research areas.

The department has a separate Library and Computer centre with COMSOL Multi physics modules and Band Theory software.

Objective

To impart quality teaching and research to produce manpower with knowledge, conceptual understanding, analyticals and experimental skills, helpful for societal improvement.

Mission

Quality Teaching and Research

Vision

Outstanding teaching & fundamental research for future through individual and collaborative efforts

The department has well established PG and research laboratories, both in experiment and computation

Students undergo summer internship in leading institutes in and around Chennai/ country as part of their curriculum (IGCAR, IIT-M, Anna University, MATSCIENCE, CSIR, PRL, IPR, IUCAA, IISC, TIFR etc.)

Study tour to IGCAR and MAPS, kalpakkam and Astronomical observatories/stations is arranged periodically

The department provides classrooms for free NET coaching classes on sundays. Eminent teachers (in service/ retired) from University of Madras, Pondicherry University, IGCAR-Kalpakkam, MATSCIENCE contribute to teaching and problem solving exercises. 

The department is involved in conducting Summer Training Programme in Physics in association with the Science City and Academy of Sciences, Chennai every year, for more than two decades, to impart awareness in research among rural area college students of Tamilnadu. Students get an opportunity to interact with leading teachers and scientists which provoke their interest to enter into the teaching and research stream, as understood through their performance in national and state level competitive examinations, and joining leading state/central/foreign Universities and Institutions.  

Students are encoraged to organise intercollegiate competition to improve interaction, confidence and organisational skills..