Soft Condensed Matter Physics

This research group includes acoustic and low temperature physics studies such as theoretical investigations into the superfluid phase transition of liquid helium and search for the phenomenon of sonoluminescence in cryogenic liquids, such as alcohols, liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen.

The discovery of X-ray diffraction from crystals by van Laue, William Bragg, and Lawrence Bragg nearly a century ago opened up a new era for visualizing the arrangement of atoms in three dimensions. X-ray crystallography has since made revolutionary impacts in physics, chemistry, materials sciences, biology and medicine, and a number of Nobel prizes has been awarded to this field. UCLA's Coherent Imaging Group focuses on these investigations.

In experimental physical chemistry and soft matter physics, researchers design and fabricate novel colloidal architectures and study their physical properties. Our group specializes in making advanced uniform dispersions of solid particulates and liquid droplets. We have an active research program in microrheology, nanoemulsions, light and neutron scattering, microfluidics, and custom-shaped particle dispersions.