The School operates the premier facility in Australia for accelerator-based research in physics of the nucleus. These facilities are centred on the 14UD electrostatic heavy-ion accelerator and a new modular superconducting linear accelerator booster. The accelerators feed a variety of experiments and instrumentation, enabling the study of:
- Fusion and Fission Dynamics with Heavy Ions
- Nuclear Spectroscopy
- Nuclear Moments and Hyperfine Fields
- Perturbed Angular Correlations and Hyperfine Interactions applied to Materials
- Heavy Ion Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis (ERDA)
- Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS)
Potential student research projects
You could be doing your own research into fusion and plasma confinement. Below are some examples of student physics research projects available in RSPE.

Time dependence of nuclear fusion
This project will allow us to understand the time-dependence of quantum tunnelling and nuclear fusion.

Measuring and modelling free-ion hyperfine fields
Motivated by exciting prospects for measurements of the magnetism of rare isotopes produced by the new radioactive beam accelerators internationally, this experimental and computational project seeks to understand the enormous magnetic fields produced at the nucleus...

Towards a global understanding of nuclear fission
Improved understandings of nuclear fission is key for many areas of science, including heavy element formation in supernova and neutron-star mergers, making safer nuclear reactors, and the formation and properties of long-lived superheavy isotopes. Students...

Exotic nuclear structure towards the neutron dripline
Investigate the properties of exotic nuclei and their impact on fundamental models and creation of the elements when stars explode.

Nuclear batteries: Energy-storage applications of nuclear isomers
Nuclear metastable states, known colloquially as isomers, have energy densities millions of times greater than chemical batteries. This project investigates nuclear pathways for reliably extracting this energy from candidate isotopes on demand.

Nuclear structure studies with particle transfer reactions
This project will use nuclear reactions to study the basic make-up of atomic nuclei at the quantum level, and investigate the impact of nuclear structure on sub-atomic forces and fundamental physics.
Please browse our full list of available physics research projects to find a student research project that interests you.
Updated: 8 February 2023/ Responsible Officer: Director, RSPhys/ Page Contact: Physics Webmaster