About Us

The Department of Physics has been a part of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi since the Institute's establishment in 1961. Over more than six decades, it has grown into one of the largest and most diverse physics departments among the IITs, with research activities spanning condensed matter and materials physics, optics and photonics, quantum science and information, high-energy physics, astrophysics, plasma physics, and computational and statistical physics.

The Department's contributions have received sustained national and international recognition. In the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026, it is ranked 139th in the world and 4th in India in Physics & Astronomy. Its faculty have been conferred the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, the ICO Galileo Galilei Award, MRSI Medals, Fellowships of the American Institute of Physics and the Optical Society of America, Fellowships of the Indian National Science Academy, the IRDC STA Fellowship, and Humboldt Fellowships. Members of the faculty also serve on the editorial boards and technical programme committees of leading international journals and conferences, and maintain active research collaborations with institutions in India and abroad.

The Department's academic programmes include the B.Tech. in Engineering Physics, the M.Sc. in Physics, and the Ph.D. in Physics, together with M.Tech. programmes in Applied Optics, Solid State Materials, and Optoelectronics and Optical Communication, the last of these offered jointly with the Department of Electrical Engineering. Its faculty, students, postdoctoral researchers, and technical staff together constitute an active and closely engaged academic community.

Research in the Department is supported by dedicated experimental and computational facilities in materials characterisation, thin films and nanostructures, spectroscopy, and ultrafast optics, in addition to the wider research infrastructure of the Institute. Since its inception, the Department has remained committed to advancing fundamental understanding in physics and to applying that understanding to problems of technological and scientific significance.