Facilities
The central facilities of the Physics Department are almost entirely housed in the spacious and comfortable environment of the Barus and Holley building. Laboratory and Department library facilities in the building are excellent. The Physical Sciences Library of the University, located near the Barus and Holley building, has a large collection of paper journals and a vast range of e-journals that can be accessed from anywhere over the internet.
The extensive resources and equipment required for research in the Brown Physics Department fall into three distinct categories. Within the laboratories of individual professors, very specialized smaller scale apparatuses such as cryostats, scanning probe microscopes, pulsed laser systems and optical tweezers are found. These facilities and resources change relatively rapidly to stay at the research forefront.
Shared facilities at Brown substantially enhance the capabilities of individual research groups. As described in the following, these provide significant support in the areas of computing, microelectronics, and instrument fabrication.
Computation is an essential and growing component of modern physics research, and Brown University and the physics department have traditionally been leaders in the use of computer technology. We have been able to establish and support exceptional computing capabilities through our strong faculty involvement in computational based physics. These facilities are readily available to faculty, students and staff.
The physics department is a major participant in Brown's Center for Computation and Visualization. Through this center, we have access to over 100 IBM SP cpus to use for numerical calculation and to power a unique room designed for immersive three dimensional visualization. This center not only has exceptional capabilities, but serves as a focal point for a community of students and faculty from many scientific disciplines to interact and share knowledge and pool resources to solve often overlapping scientific problems.
The microelectronics laboratory, which is overseen by the Center for Advanced Materials Research, provides the modern facilities necessary for the preparation and patterning of samples with micron and submicron dimensions. It supports both microlithography and electron beam lithography capabilities.
The joint physics and engineering instrument shop staff manufacture many of the parts of and complete apparatuses used in experimental research in the department. The recently developed CNC capabilities have increased the range of apparatuses that can be produced.
