Department of Physics

Faculty Description


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Research Statement
  • My group's research is concerned with studying the structure and dynamics of Condensed Matter using the techniques of X-Ray and Neutron Scattering. Neutrons and X-Rays from Synchrotron Radiation sources are powerful tools to study matter with at length scales ranging from the nanoscopic to the mesoscopic. We have ongoing programs in both hard and soft Condensed Matter.
Awards & News
  • Sunil Sinha: 2004 MRS Medal Award Recipient
  • For seminal contributions to understanding mechanisms of thin-film surface and interface morphology evolution and establishing the foundations of diffraction and scattering methods for its quantitative analysis. http://www.mrs.org/meetings/fall2004/mrs_medal.html
  • Sunil K. Sinha, Professor of Physics, has been selected to receive the 2007 Barrett Award
  • Sunil K. Sinha, professor of physics, has been selected to receive the 2007 Barrett Award by the Denver X-ray Conference Advisory Committee. The Barrett Award recognizes "outstanding contributions to the field of powder diffraction."
    The award will be presented on August 1 at the 2007 Denver X-ray conference. Sinha is only the twelfth person to receive the award, which is presented biennially. It consists of $1,000 and a recognition plaque.
    Sinha's research involves examining the structure and dynamics of polymer films and other novel liquids using X-ray and neutron scattering. He also studies novel magnetic and superconducting materials to understand how their chemical structure affects their magnetic and transport properties.
  • UCSD Physicist Sunil Sinha has cover article published in the December 2012 edition of Nature Materials Magazine.
  • Professor Sinha and student Yicong Ma are authors of, "Long-range interlayer alignment of intralayer domains in stacked lipid bilayers" which is featured on the magazine cover for the December 2012 edition.

    The article can be read here: October 2012 Nature Materials

  • UCSD Physicist Sunil Sinha and his group have publication featured as cover story on Physical Review Letters
  • Professor Sinha, S.-W. Chen, H. Guo, K. A. Seu, K. Dumesnil, S. Roy authored "Jamming Behavior in a Magnetic System"

    One of the most satisfying aspects of condensed matter physics is that a variety of condensed matter systems show universal behavior, i.e. behavior that appears to be common to a wide variety of unrelated systems. A jamming transition occurs when the density of particles becomes large enough and the motion of the particles is restricted by the surrounding particles (think traffic jams!). In this regime, the particles cannot fluctuate freely but move collectively via long range interactions. Examples are colloidal gels or polymer emulsions. Recent work carried out in the Sinha group (S.-W. Chen, H. Guo, K. A. Seu, K. Dumesnil, S. Roy, and S. K. Sinha, Physical Review Letters 110, 217201 (2013) ) using X-ray scattering show that magnetic domains in an antiferromagnet have dynamical behavior very similar to that exhibited by several other jammed systems. The magnetic spins in the rare earth element dysprosium undergo a phase transition from a disordered state to a spiral ordered structure at a temperature of 180 K. When the temperature is slightly above the phase transition temperature, the spins start to form clusters which eventually become magnetic domains below the transition temperature. These domains are head to head with each other and the domain walls form a disordered network, which mimics the jammed state in a soft matter system. As the temperature is further lowered, the sizes of the domains increase and eventually the dynamics are kinetically arrested, as happens when a material becomes a glass.

    Abstract: http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v110/i21/e217201

Selected Publications
  • - O.H.Seeck, H.J.Kim, D.R.Lee, D.Shu, I.Kaendler, J.K.Basu and S.K.Sinha, Observation of Thickness Quantization in Liquid Films Confined to Molecular Dimensions (submitted)

  • - H.J.Kim, A.Ruhm, L.B.Lurio, J.K.Basu,J.Lal, D.Lumma, S.G.J.Mochrie, and S.K.Sinha, Surface Dynamics of Polymer Films (submitted)

  • - Z.Islam, S.K.Sinha, D.Haskell, J.C.Lang, G.Srajer, D.R.Haeffner, B.W.Veal, and H.A.Mook, X-Ray Diffraction Study of Charge Density Waves and Oxygen Ordering in YBa2Cu3O6+x (submitted).

  • - K.Shin, Y.Pu, M.H.Rafailovich, J.Sokolov, O.H.Secck, S.K. Sinha, M.Tolan and R. Kolb, Correlated Surfaces of Free-standing Polystyrene Thin Films, Macromolecules 34, 5620, (2001).

  • - S.K. Sinha, Small Angle Scattering from Porous Materials, Book Chapter in Physics of Porous Media, P.Z. Wong, Ed., Academic Press, 1999).

  • - J. Wang, M. Tolan, O.H. Seeck , S.K. Sinha, O. Bahr, M.H. Rafailovich, and J. Sokolov, "Surfaces of Strongly Confined Polymer Thin Films Studied by X-ray Scattering," Phys. Rev. Lett., 83, 564 (1999).

  • - J.Wang, A.K.Sood, P.V.Satyam,Y.P.Feng, X.Z.Wu,Z.H.Cai,W.B.Yun and S.K.Sinha,X-ray Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy: A method for Studying Particle Dynamics in Condensed Matter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 1110 (1998).

  • - Z. Li, M. Tolan, T. Hohr, D. Kharas, S. Qu, J. Sokolov, M.H. Rafailovich, H. Lorenz, J.P. Kotthaus, J. Wang, S. K. Sinha and A. Gibaud, Polymer Thin films on Patterned Si Surfaces, Macromolecules 31, 1915, (1998).

  • - M.Tolan, O.H.Seeck, J.-P. Schlomka, W.Press, J.Wang, S.K. Sinha, Z.Li, M.Rafailovich, and J. Sokolov, Evidence for Capillary Waves on Dewetted Polymer Film Surfaces: A Combined X-ray and Atomic Force Microscopy Study, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 2731 (1998).

  • - M.K.Sanyal, S.K.Sinha, K.G.Huang and B.M.Ocko, X-ray Scattering study of Capillary Wave Fluctuations at a Liquid Surface, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 628 (1991).