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Subfield · Physics and Astronomy

Condensed Matter Physics research

Condensed Matter Physics is a subfield of Physics and Astronomy. Science Explorer counts 364k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: branch of physics dealing with a property of matter.

Research works
364k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
36k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
8
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+1%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
34% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Condensed Matter Physics

What is Condensed Matter Physics research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Superconductivity, Cuprate Superconductors, High-Temperature Superconductivity, III-Nitrides, Semiconductors, Frustrated Magnets. Gaining share since 2011-15: Hydrodynamics, Micro/Nanomotors. Losing share: Heavy Fermion, Quantum Criticality, Critical Phenomena, Phase Transitions.

▲ gaining share of this field◆ holding its share▼ losing share

Size is the world's fractional works in 2021-25 in the topics tagged with each word; colour compares the word's share of this field with 2011-15. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 17 words, with their numbers
  1. Superconductivity13k◆ 0.95×3 topics
  2. Cuprate Superconductors9,587◆ 0.91×1 topic
  3. High-Temperature Superconductivity9,587◆ 0.91×1 topic
  4. III-Nitrides8,376◆ 0.95×1 topic
  5. Semiconductors8,376◆ 0.95×1 topic
  6. Frustrated Magnets7,565◆ 1.12×1 topic
  7. Quantum Spin Liquids7,565◆ 1.12×1 topic
  8. Hydrodynamics6,431▲ 2.2×1 topic
  9. Micro/Nanomotors6,431▲ 2.2×1 topic
  10. Critical Phenomena5,496▼ 0.80×1 topic
  11. Phase Transitions5,496▼ 0.80×1 topic
  12. Heavy Fermion3,428▼ 0.72×1 topic
  13. Quantum Criticality3,428▼ 0.72×1 topic
  14. Magnesium Diboride1,793◆ 0.90×1 topic
  15. Multiple Gaps1,793◆ 0.90×1 topic
  16. Channeling1,079◆ 0.99×1 topic
  17. Nuclear Resonant Spectroscopy1,079◆ 0.99×1 topic

Which countries lead Condensed Matter Physics research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, China and Germany rank highest in Condensed Matter Physics. By volume, China and the United States publish the most (10k and 5.9k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 1.31× citation excellence · 1.48× journals · 100% breadth 12.4% top 10% · 5.2k works
  2. 2 China #3 all time 1.12× citation excellence · 1.04× journals · 100% breadth 12.1% top 10% · 8.9k works
  3. 3 Germany #2 all time 1.20× citation excellence · 1.37× journals · 100% breadth 11.1% top 10% · 2k works
  4. 4 France #4 all time 1.00× citation excellence · 1.28× journals · 100% breadth 8.0% top 10% · 1.5k works
  5. 5 Switzerland #5 all time 1.51× citation excellence · 1.58× journals · 100% breadth 14.1% top 10% · 437 works
  6. 6 Japan #7 all time 0.76× citation excellence · 0.95× journals · 100% breadth 7.0% top 10% · 2.8k works
  7. 7 United Kingdom #6 all time 1.09× citation excellence · 1.19× journals · 100% breadth 10.3% top 10% · 1k works
  8. 8 Italy #11 all time 1.12× citation excellence · 0.97× journals · 100% breadth 9.5% top 10% · 791 works
  9. 9 Canada #8 all time 1.14× citation excellence · 1.32× journals · 100% breadth 10.0% top 10% · 444 works
  10. 10 Spain #10 all time 1.13× citation excellence · 1.18× journals · 100% breadth 10.8% top 10% · 486 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 22 countries ranked in Condensed Matter Physics. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Condensed Matter Physics

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 10k works
  2. 2 United States 5.9k works
  3. 3 Japan 3.1k works
  4. 4 India 2.4k works
  5. 5 Germany 2.3k works
  6. 6 Russia 1.7k works
  7. 7 France 1.6k works
  8. 8 United Kingdom 1.2k works
  9. 9 Italy 912 works
  10. 10 South Korea 893 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 33.7%United States: 19.6%Japan: 10.3%India: 7.8%6 others listed: 28.6%34%largest
China10k · 33.7%United States5,935 · 19.6%Japan3,115 · 10.3%India2,352 · 7.8%6 others listed8,636 · 28.6%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Condensed Matter Physics research?

Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) ranks first in Condensed Matter Physics on research quality in 2022-now, followed by Max Planck Society and Peking University.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #4 all time 13.8% top 10% · 1.2k works
  2. 2 Max Planck Society Germany · Munich · #2 all time 15.6% top 10% · 290 works
  3. 3 Peking University China · Beijing · #24 all time 16.9% top 10% · 181 works
  4. 4 Stanford University United States · Stanford · #1 all time 16.9% top 10% · 141 works
  5. 5 University of California, Santa Barbara United States · Santa Barbara · #3 all time 19.8% top 10% · 99 works
  6. 6 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States · Cambridge · #9 all time 21.4% top 10% · 125 works
  7. 7 ETH Zurich Switzerland · Zurich · #12 all time 20.0% top 10% · 102 works
  8. 8 Cornell University United States · Ithaca · #14 all time 20.5% top 10% · 85 works
  9. 9 Princeton University United States · Princeton · #6 all time 21.6% top 10% · 87 works
  10. 10 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France · Paris · #5 all time 7.2% top 10% · 680 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 88 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Condensed Matter Physics.

Top 100 Condensed Matter Physics institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 1.4k works
  2. 2 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 764 works
  3. 3 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 746 works
  4. 4 Max Planck SocietyGermany 317 works
  5. 5 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 309 works
  6. 6 The University of TokyoJapan 283 works
  7. 7 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 257 works
  8. 8 University of Science and Technology of ChinaChina 236 works
  9. 9 Tohoku UniversityJapan 226 works
  10. 10 Peking UniversityChina 205 works

Who are the leading researchers in Condensed Matter Physics?

Counting only their work in Condensed Matter Physics, R. J. Cava, Y. Tokura and Metin Sitti have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 R. J. Cava United States · #65,368 worldwide overall 100.9 of 405 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Y. Tokura Japan · #49,861 worldwide overall 80.8 of 230 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Metin Sitti Germany · #3,891 worldwide overall 69.7 of 121 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Yoshinori Tokura Japan · #72,757 worldwide overall 85.4 of 291 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Subir Sachdev United States · #19,992 worldwide overall 78.1 of 226 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Joseph Wang United States · #2,364 worldwide overall 62.2 of 86 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Steven P. DenBaars United States · #128,493 worldwide overall 95.4 of 425 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Gabriel Kotliar United States · #44,739 worldwide overall 71.1 of 194 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Gen Shirane United States · #13,080 worldwide overall 73.8 of 233 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Li Zhang China · #76,340 worldwide overall 60.8 of 103 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Condensed Matter Physics alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 558,386 ranked researchers with a paper here. Each paper counts once, so many strong papers outrank one famous one, and a long record of ordinary papers does not climb. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Condensed Matter Physics researchers

What are the most cited papers in Condensed Matter Physics?

The most cited paper in Condensed Matter Physics is "Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set" (Georg Kresse, Jürgen Furthmüller, 1996), with 123,939 citations. Next come "Optimization by Simulated Annealing" (45,251) and "Particle mesh Ewald: An N ⋅log( N ) method for Ewald sums in large systems" (31,396).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set Georg Kresse, Jürgen Furthmüller · Physical review. B, Condensed matter 15 Oct 1996 123,939
2 Optimization by Simulated Annealing Scott Kirkpatrick, C. D. Gelatt, Mario P. Vecchi · Science 13 May 1983 45,251
3 Particle mesh Ewald: An N ⋅log( N ) method for Ewald sums in large systems Tom Darden, Darrin M. York, Lee G. Pedersen · The Journal of Chemical Physics Open access 15 Jun 1993 31,396
4 Accurate and simple analytic representation of the electron-gas correlation energy John P. Perdew, Yue Wang · Physical review. B, Condensed matter 15 Jun 1992 25,193
5 Soft self-consistent pseudopotentials in a generalized eigenvalue formalism David Vanderbilt · Physical review. B, Condensed matter 15 Apr 1990 23,211
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Condensed Matter Physics research done?

The largest centres of Condensed Matter Physics research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Tokyo (Japan), Shanghai (China) and Moscow (Russia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Sayō, Villigen and Bariloche.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 2.3k works
  2. 2 TokyoJapan 843 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 705 works
  4. 4 MoscowRussia 653 works
  5. 5 NanjingChina 626 works
  6. 6 ParisFrance 582 works
  7. 7 Xi'anChina 532 works
  8. 8 HefeiChina 531 works
  9. 9 GuangzhouChina 415 works
  10. 10 HangzhouChina 360 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. SayōJP · 46.7 works32×
  2. VilligenCH · 84.1 works27×
  3. BarilocheAR · 22.5 works26×
  4. WakoJP · 92.3 works23×
  5. DidcotGB · 68.3 works22×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Condensed Matter Physics than the world average.

See Condensed Matter Physics on the map

Condensed Matter Physics research by country

The best places for Condensed Matter Physics research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.

Where is the best place to study Condensed Matter Physics?

Among universities, judged by research, Stanford University, University of California, Santa Barbara and Princeton University score highest, combining standing in the field's ranking, citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 18.02%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Massachusetts Instit…Princeton UniversityUniversity of Califo…Stanford University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Standingthis field's institution ranking, three quarters all time and a quarter 2022-now
50%
Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
20%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
5%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
15%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
5%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
5%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreRank in field (all time)Top 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Stanford UniversityUnited States 80.4#4 (#1)16.5%3.1×153 -1.9%
2University of California, Santa BarbaraUnited States 72.5#5 (#3)18.9%10.5×110 -17.1%
3Princeton UniversityUnited States 66.5#9 (#6)20.5%6.3×93 -4.0%
4Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States 65.9#6 (#9)21.0%6.0×139 -9.6%
5University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 60.4#12 (#20)15.6%4.8×257 +29.9%
6Harvard UniversityUnited States 60.4#11 (#7)23.2%0.7×75 -19.3%
7ETH ZurichSwitzerland 60.2#7 (#12)19.3%4.8×110 -14.9%
8Peking UniversityChina 59.1#3 (#24)16.2%3.0×205 +9.2%
9Cornell UniversityUnited States 59.1#8 (#14)18.5%2.5×106 -0.2%
10The University of TokyoJapan 56.4#15 (#15)10.5%6.9×283 -23.7%

Universities only. The score blends standing (50%), citation excellence (20%), size (15%), specialisation (5%), growth (5%), international reach (5%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise. Standing is the score in this field's institution ranking, three quarters over all time and a quarter 2022-now; excellence averages the two windows too. Four years alone undercount fields such as AI, where many conference and arXiv papers from 2022 on carry no affiliation in the data.

Every institution in Condensed Matter Physics, country by country

Is Condensed Matter Physics research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 1% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2006. The fastest-growing topics are Micro and Nano Robotics, Crystallography and Radiation Phenomena and GaN-based semiconductor devices and materials.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Condensed Matter Physics as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.16% in 2024.

still counting0.50%1.0%Condensed Matter Physics0.15% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Condensed Matter Physics over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Condensed Matter Physics9.7% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

  1. Micro and Nano Robotics+29%
  2. Crystallography and Radiation Phenomena+9%
  3. GaN-based semiconductor devices and materials+5%
  4. Rare-earth and actinide compounds-2%
  5. Superconductivity in MgB2 and Alloys-4%
  6. Theoretical and Computational Physics-8%
  7. Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism-8%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2018-21 to 2022-25. Every topic is a page of its own.

What does Condensed Matter Physics include?

Physics of Superconducti…107kPhysics of Superconductivity and Magnetism: 107k fractional worksTheoretical and Computational Physics: 69k fractional worksAdvanced Condensed Matter Physics: 51k fractional worksGaN-based semiconductor …49kGaN-based semiconductor devices and materials: 49k fractional worksRare-earth and actinide …41kRare-earth and actinide compounds: 41k fractional worksMicro and Nano Robotics: 19k fractional worksSuperconductivity in MgB2 and Alloys: 15k fractional worksCrystallography and Radiation Phenomena: 14k fractional works

Area is fractional works in that topic. Every name below is a page of its own.

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Who leads Condensed Matter Physics, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Condensed Matter Physics, for a post or a slide.

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1200 × 630 PNG, sized for social posts, drawn from the latest snapshot.

The leading institutions' badges6Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot

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