Research excellence
The Department of Applied Physics is recognised for its research excellence through numerous national and international external funding awards.
Our research focuses on Materials physics, Quantum technology, Soft & living matter, and Advanced energy solutions. Topics extend from fundamental research to important applications. Department of Applied Physics educates future generations of research and development professionals, data specialists, technology experts, inventors, and scientists for industry and society.
The department hosts the Academy of Finland Centres of Excellence Quantum Technology Finland (QTF, 2018-2025) and Life Inspired Hybrid Materials (LIBER, 2022-2029). Further quantum technologies are facilitated by the national quantum institute – InstituteQ, coordinated by the department since 2021.
The department is a major user of the national research infrastructure OtaNano that provides fabrication, characterisation and measurement equipment and facilities for students, scientists and high-tech businesses. The Nanomicroscopy Center and the Low Temperature Laboratory of OtaNano are critical assets for our researchers. We extensively utilise and contribute to the development of the national and international cloud and supercomputing resources and databases.
The Department of Applied Physics is recognised for its research excellence through numerous national and international external funding awards.
Researchers at the Department of Applied Physics produce almost 400 international refereed journal articles annually, of which over 10% are in high impact journals
InstituteQ coordinates quantum technology research, education and innovation across Finland
The Olli V. Lounasmaa Memorial Prize is awarded once every four years to scientists who have made outstanding contributions to advances in low temperature physics and related fields.
OtaNano is Finland's national research infrastructure for micro-, nano-, and quantum technologies
Science-IT provides infrastructure for high-level computational research at Aalto University and is coordinated by the School of Science.
Read more about the experimental equipment used by research groups at the Department of Applied Physics.
Aalto Research & Teaching Infrastructure booking system
Approximately 25 Masters of Science and 30 Doctors of Science graduate annually from the Department of Applied Physics.
The Diversity Team of the Department of Applied Physics aims to build an inclusive, diverse and welcoming work environment
Physics brown bag seminars highlight exciting new results arising from the physics community at Aalto.
Aalto Quantum Physics seminars are hosted at the Department of Applied Physics at Aalto University, and feature both local and international speakers on a variety of topics in quantum physics.
The Aalto Physics Colloquium is a high-level colloquium series covering all branches of physics at Aalto University. We invite prestigious physicists from around the world to tell us about their research.
The colloquium will present novel developments in the field of atomic manipulation with scanning probe techniques and atomically designed quantum matter. This Colloquium series will start on May 4th, and run once a week, preliminary until the end of June.
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The research group focuses on active matter, non-equilibrium systems and fluids and colloids in EM fields.
We focus on the experimental study of nanostructures, where the precise nature and location of every atom matters.
The CSM group applies statistical physics to a wide variety of cross-disciplinary topics
CEST is developing electronic structure and machine learning methods and applying them to computational materials science problems.
Correlated Quantum Materials Group (CQM)
The Fusion and Plasma Physics group at Aalto University investigates plasma phenomena in magnetically confined fusion plasma physics both experimentally and by computer simulations. The overall goal is to create a new, clean and virtually unlimited energy source.
The Living Matter research group is located at the Department of Applied Physics at Aalto University. We develop our own experimental and analytical tools to probe the dynamics and flow in soft, living, and fluid materials.
In the µKI group, we study systems thermally active still in microkelvin range of temperatures.
Molecular Materials (Molmat) is a multidisciplinary research group consisting of physicists, chemists and biologists aiming at functional materials based on supramolecular and supracolloidal self-assembly and its hierarchies.
The MSP group is recognised worldwide in the development of multi-scale and coarse-graining methodologies and their application to condensed matter systems.
Our research focuses on experimental studies of magnetic, magneto-optical, and spin-transport phenomena in new functional materials and hybrid nanoscale structures.
The NanoMaterials Group, headed by Prof. Esko I. Kauppinen, is among the top aerosol technology laboratories in the world and offers a unique environment for strong interdisciplinary research and a proven track record of productive cooperation.
The interest of the New Energy Technologies Group is on advanced energy systems, in particular nanomaterials for energy devices, sustainable energy systems, and multidisciplinary energy science.
The Nuclear Materials and Engineering group employs computational methods to study radiation induced processes and damage formation in materials.
The research of the Optics and Photonics group covers a range of topics of modern optics and photonics, encompassing various aspects of light-matter interaction, optical coherence and polarization, development of methods to manipulate light with nano- and micro-structures, design and construction of novel light sources, optical metamaterials and optical imaging.
We investigate mesoscopic physics and its sensor applications. The main focus is on charge transport and thermal properties of metallic, superconducting and hybrid nanostructures.
Nano group of the Low Temperature Laboratory investigates fundamental quantum phenomena in nanostructures using low temperature and electronic transport measurements.
We have a major effort on experimental low-temperature physics, but we also carry out computational and theoretical work down to fundamental quantum mechanics.
The research interests of the QD group are quantum coherent dynamics and quantum many-body phenomena in designed nanosystems.
The NEMS group focuses on studies of micro- and nanomechanical resonators near the quantum ground state of moving objects.
The QNOF group is using nanomechanical oscillators and optomechanical techniques to realize force measurements.
The research group works on theoretical problems in quantum transport.
Functional soft materials and wettability of surfaces are the key research interests of Soft Matter and Wetting research group at Aalto University Department of Applied Physics.
Our group is part of the effort in nanoelectronics in the Low Temperature Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics. The group is doing research in such fields as quantum information and quantum-level effects in superconducting devices, quantum coherent matter, and interaction of electromagnetic fields with nano-structured materials.
In the SIN group we apply and develop various atomistic and quantum mechanical simulation methods to study surface and interface physics at the nanoscale, with particular emphasis on working closely with experimentalists and technologists.
The Surface Science group studies structures, bonding, and reactivity at solid surfaces on the atomic and molecular scale using advanced surface sensitive tools in Ultra High Vacuum environment.
Our research is focused on topological superfluid ³He at ultra-low temperatures