Research in Physical Sciences covers a widerange of basic and applied topics in frontier areas of current interest. It also contributes to the indigenous development of advanced technologies of relevance to DAE. The R & D spans a wide dynamic range of distances and energy scales, cutting across disciplines and includes investigation of matter at extremes of temperature and pressure. Reactor, ion and electron accelerators and lasers are being employed as tools for this R&D. The major facilities operated by BARC for research in Physical sciences include the Pelletron plus
Superconducting linear accelerator at TIFR, the FOlded Tandem Ion Accelerator (FOTIA) and PURNIMA fast neutron facilities at BARC, the 3 MV tandetron accelerator at the National Centre for Compositional Characterization of Materials, the TACTIC (TeV Atomospheric Cherenkov Telescope with Imaging Camera) telescope set up at Mt. Abu, the 10 MeV electron accelerator at the Electron Beam Centre at Navi Mumbai, National Neutron Beam Facility at Dhruva and a number of state-of-the-art beam lines at INDUS.

BARC also has a sustained program of indigenous development of instrumentation, detectors, sensors, mass spectrometers, imaging techniques, multilayer mirrors required for DAE. Recent achievements include: the design and development of a 10 meter optical periscope for the PFBR program under a collaborative effort between BARC and IGCAR; the EDXRD, EXAFS and HRVUV beam lines at INDUS, commissioning of beam lines and associated detector facilities at TIFR, establishing an experimental station for Laser Induced Photo-Physics Studies (LIPPS) of thin films, multilayers and precision optical elements, use of Laser assisted methodology for cleaning of nuclear fuel; development of state-of-the-art Mass spectrometers.Some of the major ongoing programs are: The MACE telescope at Hanle; The Low Energy High Intensity Proton Accelerator (LEHIPA); R & D towards development of enabling technologies for high energy/current ion and electron accelerators; setting up of SAXS, Imaging, Protein, Infra red, ARPES/PES etc beam lines at INDUS and time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at Dhruva; coupling of fast neutrons from PURNIMA facility to a sub-critical core as part of ADS activity; R & D towards the India based Neutrino observatory; establishing a centre of excellence in optics and thin films at BARC-Vizag.

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A view of the Copper vapour laser pumped dye laser system

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National facility for neutron beam research at Dhruva