Nanotechnology Department of Southern Federal University (SFedU) was founded at the Physics Department in 2004 with the participation of Academician V.I. Minkin. The Department became a basic partner of Southern Scientific Center of Russian Academy of Sciences in May 2010. The Department of Physics of Crystals and Structural Analysis was joined with Nanotechnology Department in October 2010. The union provided the opportunity to expand range of scientific research. The department provides training in the field of science called "Nanotechnology and Microsystems Engineering".

The theoretical and experimental study of crystals, quasicrystals, polycrystals, ceramics, nanocrystals and oriented nanorods, thin films of ferroelectrics and multiferroics, high-temperature superconductors, materials with high magnetoresistance, ionic conductors, carbon nanotubes and nanoscale catalysts are carried out at the Department. Synthesis methods of dielectric and semiconductor nanocrystals and nanoscale heterostructures of complex oxides via ion plasma and laser deposition are developed. Physical properties of materials are investigated by electron and scanning probe microscopy, X-ray diffraction and vibrational spectroscopy. Nanotechnology Department collaborates with the Southern Scientific Center of Russian Academy of Science, Institute of Radio Research, Institute of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics of SFedU, Institute of Physics of SFedU and a number of foreign laboratories in Germany, France, Portugal, Sweden and United States.