Although relatively small, by the quality of its laboratories and research projects, the Institute of Physics belongs to one of the leading Central-European research institutes. Our researchers carry out joint research projects with the most prominent European and American universities (including, e.g., Stanford, Harvard, or ENS Paris), participate in numerous international and European 'high-profile' projects (ERC and ESF), and have strong relations with industrial partners, too. In addition, the Institute currently hosts four research groups of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, three of them being prestigious 'Momentum' research groups.
The research of the Institute mainly focuses on materials science, nanophysics, solid-state, and statistical physics as well as applied optics. The Institute hosts many modern laboratories, including a low temperature nanophysics laboratory, a surface physics laboratory, an electron spin resonance (ESR) laboratory, and optics and magneto-optics laboratories. Theoretical research at the Institute focuses mainly on condensed matter physics, nanophysics, solid-state physics, molecular physics, statistical physics, and various aspects of modern quantum theory.