The Department of Physics offers graduate programs leading to the MS and PhD degrees. The Department is located in Sharp Laboratory, which houses a physics library, research and teaching laboratories, a fully equipped and staffed machine shop, and an electronics shop.

The faculty of the Graduate Program are involved in a variety of experimental and theoretical research activities focused on the areas of condensed matter and materials physics, AMO (atomic, molecular, and optical) physics, astronomy, astrophysics, space physics, and particle physics. In-house experimental research laboratories are well equipped and on-campus shared facilities such as the University of Delaware Nanofabrication Facility supplement experimental capabilities. Off-campus research activities involve high altitude balloon flights, a worldwide network of neutron monitors, ultra-high energy cosmic ray and solar flare observatories in Antarctica, and gamma-ray telescopes in Arizona. Faculty also conduct research at national laboratories, both in the U.S. and abroad, and make frequent use of ground and space-based astronomical observatories.