The Department of Physics at Nanjing University is one of the earliest physics departments established in Chinese colleges and universities. After more than 90 years of development and expansion, it has now developed into one of the most famous departments of physics in China. Many famous scholars and prominent persons who have made outstanding contributions to the education, scientific research, national construction and the development of physics graduated from the Department of Physics at Nanjing University.

The Department of Physics restructured its departmental setup in order to pursue its further development in 2009. The new Department of Physics was established based on the strengths of the former Department of Physics, Condensed Matter Physics and Theoretical Physics. Relying on the National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructure, the Department of Physics has first-class basic research, and maintains close scientific cooperation, academic exchanges with more than 20 countries and regions internationally. The main research is to study the different electronic states, interactions, formation and transformation patterns in condensed matter at the electron level, to reveal their intrinsic connection with macroscopic physical properties, and to explore, design and prepare various types of materials by combining theoretical research, computer simulation and contemporary advanced experimental methods, to study their physical mechanisms and new effects, and to lay the foundation for the development of new materials.

The research directions include as below:

1. Superconductivity physics and strongly correlated electron systems: the study of the physical properties of doped Mott insulators, superconductivity mechanisms and physical properties of various unconventional superconductors including high temperature superconductors, perovskite oxide, ferroelectric physics, multiferroic systems, magnetoelectric coupling and material synthesis, neutron scattering in high temperature superconductors, quantum spin liquids, and other electron strongly correlated materials.

Changde Gong,Jin An, Yaomin Dai, Jianxin Li, Junming Liu, Da Wang, Qianghua Wang, Zhihe Wang, Jinsheng Wen, Haihu Wen, Zhibo Yan, Huan Yang, Shunli Yu, Peng Zhang, Yuan Zhou, Xiyu Zhu.

2. Confined quantum system: the study of novel quantum effects in confined quantum systems to develop new quantum regulation techniques and design new quantum devices through the charge, spin, phase, orbit, and other degrees of freedom of electrons such as the controllable synthesis and physical properties of two-dimensional materials research, the development of new two-dimensional materials synthesis technology, the development of new electronic information technology. With experimental techniques such as angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy, the properties of topological quantum materials, low-dimensional heterostructures, etc., are studied. The research on these issues will contribute to the design of future generation of micro and nano electronic devices.

Dingyu Xing, Bogen Wang, Wei Chen, Lingjie Du, Libo Gao, Min Gu, Shijun Liang, Erfu Liu,Feng Miao, Lubing Shao, Rui Shen, Li Sheng, Lei Wang, Rui Wang, Xiaoxiang Xi, Geliang Yu, Yi Zhang, Jianhui Zhang.

3. Computational condensed matter physics and material design: Numerical computational methods such as molecular dynamics and first principles are used to study the physical and chemical properties of the correlated electronic materials, molecular and nanoscale optoelectronic functional materials, metal clusters and their derivative materials. Thesystems of concern include topological insulators, topological semimetals, topological superconductors, iron-based superconductors, and two-dimensional materials. Material design for extreme conditions of condensed matter is also studied, including high-pressure phase transition mechanisms, functional material design (superhardness, high energy density, superconductivity, etc.), and liquid vibrational spectroscopy.

Wei Chen, Wei Fa, Yi Lu, Jian Sun, Xiangang Wan, Haijun Zhang, Yuxin Zhao.

Magnetism and spintronics: The spin degrees of freedom of electrons are used to realize new types of electronic devices, including low-dimensional magnetic materials, insulator spintronics, etc. The magnetism and spin-related transport properties of nanomaterials and their correlation with microstructure are studied, such as the study of magnetic topological structure, skyrmions, magnetic properties of two-dimensional materials, spin current transport in metals, insulators and organic materials, size effect of magnetic nanoparticles, etc.

Youwei Du,Qingqi Cao,Haifeng Ding, Jun Du,Ronghua Liu,Bingfeng Miao, Liang Sun,Nujiang Tang,Shaolong Tang, Di Wu,Weiyi Zhang, Wei Zhong.

Cluster physics: Study of various physical properties of multiple cluster structures, such as structure and properties of metal and semiconductor clusters, quantum properties of cluster assembled nanostructures, structure and properties of metal and oxide nanowires, thermodynamic properties of wrapped clusters - nano-jet,the development of materials and devices at the atomic limit level based on atomic and quantum states.

Guanghou Wang, Fengqi Song, Jianguo Wan.

Solid-state quantum information and quantum computing: The main research areas are superconducting quantum computing and superconducting devices, ultracold atoms, magnetic resonance and quantum precision measurements, and macroscopic quantum-related phenomena. The experimental observation of quantum coherent oscillations in Josephson junctions not only confirms that quantum mechanics can be applied to macroscopic variables, but also opens up a broad prospect of using superconducting devices to realize quantum computers. The study of quantum simulations based on ultracold atomic systems, ion trap and superconducting quantum computing, and geometric and topological quantum computing, quantum gyroscope, quantum storage, and nanoscale chemical process detection through solid-state single-electron spin quantum probes, etc.

Pu Huang, Xi Kong, Xinsheng Tan, Yang Yu.