The Laboratory for Materials Physics is involved in basic and applied research in the fabrication, characterization, and application of new materials. It supports work that involves a wide network of collaboration with members of the faculty in physics, chemistry, and engineering, along with physicists and engineers at other universities and national X-ray and neutron diffraction facilities.

Topics of research include: amorphous, quasicrystal, and complex intermetallic crystalline alloy formation; liquid structure and its relationship to the nucleation barrier; transitions in supercooled liquids, including the glass transition; coupled phase transitions; semiconductor and metallic calorimetry; and high temperature resistivity (up to 1,000 C).

Facilities are available for the production and characterization of materials. Metallic alloys are prepared by arc melting or by RF melting. Rapidly quenched alloys are produced by melt spinning in an inert atmosphere. A JEOL 2000-DI TEM permits electron diffraction, microstructure, and compositional studies over small regions. The TEM is equipped with a Tracor- Northern Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometer and Gatan Parallel Electron Energy Loss Spectrometer for compositional and electronic structure studies. X-ray diffraction facilities include a Siemens powder diffractometer, an Elliot rotating- anode generator, and a computer- transformation kinetics are made from 100 K to approximately 2,000 K using a Perkin-Elmer Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC-7) and Differential Thermal Analyzer (DTA-1700). Facilities exist for measuring the electrical resistivity in vacuum from room temperature to approximately 1,200 K for accurate measurement of sample densities and for studying hydrogen absorption/desorption properties of alloys.

A unique facility, housed in the Laboratory for Materials Physics, which allows structural and thermophysical property measurements to be made on high temperature liquids in a containerless environment, has recently been constructed and tested at the Advanced Photon Source.