The Department of Applied Physics was established in 1955 and initially offered undergraduate courses in Physics for the B.E. programmes. The Department currently offers the following programmes:

 The Department has received support under “Fund for Improvement in Science & Technology Infrastructure” (FIST) programme of the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, and under special Assistance Programme (SAP) of the UGC. The Department has received significant fund under TEQIP–I, and is also expected to receive the same in TEQIP –II.      

The M. Tech. programme in “New Materials and Processing Technology” was started in 2002. The course lays emphasis on plasma and laser processing of materials, advanced machining processes (water jet technology, EDM, Laser machining etc.), and modern experimental techniques for characterization of materials such as AFM, SEM, EPMA, XRD, atomic absorption spectrometry and real time holography. The programme is conducted in collaboration with the Departments of Production Engineering, Chemical & Polymer Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.

 The M. Tech. programme in “Nano Science & Nano Technology” was started in 2010. The course lays emphasis on fundamentals of nanotechnology, Applications of Nanotechnology, Theoretical Modeling of Nanostructures, Synthesis and Characterization of Nanomaterials. The programme is conducted in collaboration with the Departments of Applied Chemistry, Biotechnology, Chemical and Polymer Engineering, Electronics & Communication Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering.

 The Department has been offering M. Sc. Applied Physics and Integrated M.Sc. Physics programme from Spring 2009 and Monsoon 2011, respectively.

The Department has well equipped laboratories and computing facilities with software such as MATLAB, Maple, LabVIEW, RSOFT, etc. The Department has various sophisticated laboratories like Physics Lab, Materials Science Lab, Plasma Thin Film Lab, Applied Optics Lab, and Functional Materials Lab etc., equipped with facilities like, DC/RF magnetron sputtering system, anodic vacuum arc deposition unit, nitriding system, RF/DC/ Microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) systems, salt spray chamber, metallurgical microscope (Leica), Raman spectrometer (Renishaw), Nano-indenter (Bruker-CETR) and Ferroelectric loop tracer (Radian Technology, USA). The Department has setup for study of high temperature superconductivity, colossal magneto-resistance, dilute magnetic semi conductivity, piezoelectricity, electronic properties of composites, etc. The Department also has a real time holography laboratory for non-destructive testing of materials. In addition, it has facility for optical coherence tomography, facilities for fabrication of fiber composite plates and optical characterization of materials by optical microscope.

Currently, the Department is running sponsored projects funded by UGC, DST, AICTE, BRNS, ISRO and DRDO. The Department regularly organizes seminars and symposia and maintains a nationally and internationally recognized academic level. The Department has organized a one day “Workshop on Plasma Nitriding” on 20 August 2010 and a three days “National Conference cum Workshop on Recent Developments in Engineering Materials (RDEM)” on 12-14 May 2011. The Department is going to organize a “National Conference on Condensed Matter Physics, (CMDAYS-2012)” on 29-31 Aug 2012.

 Current areas of research activities in the Department:

Nanotechnology, solar cells, plasma and laser material processing, surface engineering with plasma coating, anodic vacuum arc deposition of thin films, carbon nanotubes, DLC films, nanocrystalline diamond coatings, plasma torch parameters and applications in material processing, high temperature superconductivity, colossal magneto-resistive materials, dilute magnetic semiconductors, piezoelectric materials, fiber composite materials, electronic composite materials, magnetic composites, holography for NDE testing, nonlinear optics, soliton and light propagation, optical communication, photonic crystal fibres, optoelectronics etc.