Department of Physics

Faculty Description


  • Professor, CHAIR
  • Ph. D., Lebedev Physics Institute, Academy of Sciences of Russia, 1991
  • http://infrared.ucsd.edu/
  • RESEARCH: Condensed Matter Physics
Contact
Research Statement
  • In our research we employ infrared spectroscopy to investigate novel physics of novel electronic and magnetic materials. "Infrared" here is used colloquially since in fact our instruments allow us to cover much broader frequency range extending continuously from sub-THz to UV light. Current research directions include:

    Physics of strongly correlated electron systems
    Magnetic semiconductors
    Molecular and organic nano-electronics
    Electromagnetic metamaterials
    Charge dynamics in graphene

    Versatility of infrared and optical methods can be appreciated from a quick inspection of characteristic energy scales in solids which all fall in the frequency range that can be covered using a series of instruments available in our group. Development of novel spectroscopic instrumentation is an integral part of our research effort.
Awards & News
  • 2005 REU Physics of Sailing Trip

  • Each year the Physics Department and its faculty host a number of undergraduates in its Research Experience for Undergraduates program. The students are selected from approximately 450 applicants. The program is funded by an NSF Grant (with Dmitri Basov and Hans Paar co-PIs).

    Besides working hard in the labs and attending seminars and workshops, the students also take the Physics of Sailing course. The course consists of a classroom lecture and a laboratory component that takes place on the San Diego Bay in a 42' Catalina sailboat. The photograph shows the students, Charmaine Samahin and her husband Randy, and the instructor (Hans Paar).

  • UCSD Physics Professor Dimitri Basov has been elected a fellow of the American Physical Society (2005)
  • Basov was cited by the society "For his significant contributions to our understanding of high temperature superconductors and other correlated electron systems using infrared and optical spectroscopy." He will be formally presented with his fellowship certificate at the next annual meeting of the society's Division of Condensed Matter Physics.
  • Professor Dimitri Basov receives Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn, Germany (2009)
  • The Humboldt Research Award, valued at 60,000 euro, from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn, Germany grants up to 100 Humboldt Research Awards annually in recognition of a researcher's entire achievements and "whose fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in future."
    Award winners are invited to spend a period of up to one year cooperating on a long-term research project with specialist colleagues at a research institution in Germany.
  • 2012 Frank Isakson Prize for Optical Effects in Solids Recipient
  • Dmitri N. Basov received the M.S. degree (1988) from Moscow Engineering Physics Institute and the Ph.D. (1991) from Lebedev Physics Institute, Academy of Sciences of Russia. He was a postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Regensburg (1991) and McMaster University (1992-1996). In 1996, he held an Assistant Physicist appointment at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

    He joined the faculty of the University of California, San Diego as an Assistant Professor in 1997 and was promoted to Professor in 2001. At present, he serves as the Chair of the Physics Department.

    Throughout his career, Basov has developed and used various infrared techniques to investigate novel electronic and magnetic phenomena in a wide variety of materials including high-Tc superconductors, transition metal oxides, ferromagnetic semiconductors, organic materials, and - most recently - graphene. A leitmotif of his research is to explore optical phenomena originating from many body effects and electronic correlations. Basov is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (2005). He was awarded the Ludwig Genzel prize in 2004 and the Humboldt Research Prize in 2009.
  • 5 UC San Diego Physicists elected as Fellows of American Association for the Advancement of Science.
  • In October 2012, the AAAS Council elected 701 members as Fellows of AAAS. These individuals will be recognized for their contributions to science and technology at the Fellows Forum to be held on 16 February 2013 during the AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts. The new Fellows will receive a certificate and a blue and gold rosette as a symbol of their distinguished accomplishments.

    Congratulations to Dimiti Basov, Benjamin Grinstein, David Kleinfeld, Aneesh Manohar, Art Wolf.
Selected Publications
  • - 133. A. Frenzel, M. M. Qazilbash, M. Brehm, Byung-Gyu Chae, Bong-Jun Kim, Hyun-Tak Kim, A. V. Balatsky, F. Keilmann, and D. N. Basov, "Inhomogeneous electronic state near the insulator-to-metal transition in the correlated oxide VO2", Phys. Rev. B 80, 115115 (2009).PDF.

  • - 132. M. M. Qazilbash, J. J. Hamlin1, R. E. Baumbach, Lijun Zhang, D. J. Singh, M. B. Maple, and D. N. Basov, "Electronic correlations in the iron pnictides", Nature Physics 5, 647 (2009).PDF.

  • - 131. T. Driscoll, Hyun-Tak Kim, Byung-Gyu Chae, Bong-Jun Kim, Yong-Wook Lee, N. Marie Jokerst, S. Palit, D. R. Smith, M. Di Ventra, D. N. Basov, "Memory Metamaterials", Science 325, 1518 (2009).PDF.

  • - 130. D. Talbayev, A. D. LaForge, N. Hur, T. Kimura, S. A. Trugman, A. V. Balatsky, D. N. Basov, A. J. Taylor, R. D. Averitt, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 148, 012037 (2009).

  • - 129. T. Driscoll, H.-T. Kim, B.-G. Chae, M. Di Ventra, and D. N. Basov, "Phase-transition driven memristive system", Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 043503 (2009).PDF.

  • - 128. M. Liu, B. Pardo, M. M. Qazilbash, S. J. Yun, B. G. Chae, B. J. Kim, D. N. Basov, R. D. Averitt, '"Conductivity dynamics in the correlated metallic state of V2O3", 2009 Conference on lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), (2009).

  • - 127. M. K. Stewart, K. B. Chetry, B. Chapler, M. M. Qazilbash, A. A. Schafgans, A. Gupta, T. E. Tiwald, and D. N. Basov, "Ellipsometric study of the electronic band structure of CrO2 across the ferromagnetic transition", Phys. Rev. B 79, 144414 (2009).PDF.

  • - 126. A. D. LaForge, W. J. Padilla, K. S. Burch, Z. Q. Li, A. A. Schafgans, Kouji Segawa, Yoichi Ando, and D. N. Basov, "Magnetic field induced modification of superfluid density and interplane spectral weight in YBa2Cu3Oy", Phys. Rev. B 79, 104516 (2009).PDF.

  • - 125. C. C. Homes, S. V. Dordevic, A. Gozar, G. Blumberg, T. Room, D. Huvonen, U. Nagel, A. D. LaForge, D. N. Basov, and H. Kageyama, "Infrared spectra of the low-dimensional quantum magnet SrCu2(BO3)2: Measurements and ab initio calculations", Phys. Rev. B 79, 125101 (2009).PDF.

  • - 124. M. M. Qazilbash, M. Brehm, G. O. Andreev, A. Frenzel, P.-C. Ho, Byung-Gyu Chae, Bong-Jun Kim, Sun Jin Yun, Hyun-Tak Kim, A. V. Balatsky, O. G. Shpyrko, M. B. Maple, F. Keilmann, and D. N. Basov, "Infrared spectroscopy and nano-imaging of the insulator-to-metal transition in vanadium dioxide", Phys. Rev. B 79, 075107 (2009).PDF.