The School of Physics and Optoelectronics at South China University of Technology is located in Building 18 of the Wushan Campus, facing the Cultural Square, backed by Baihu Mountain, and facing the Zhongshan Statue to the east, with beautiful scenery. The history of the college can be traced back to the establishment of the University Physics Teaching and Research Office in 1952. In 1958, the Engineering Physics Department was established on the basis of the University Physics Teaching and Research Office. In 1962, the School merged the Engineering Physics Department, Mathematics Department, and Mechanics Department into the Department of Mathematical and Physical Mechanics. In 1969, it was adjusted to the Basic Department (including public courses such as physics, mathematics, English, and engineering drawing). In 1979, the School rebuilt the Department of Applied Physics. In 2004, it was renamed the School of Physical Science and Technology. In 2008, the School of Physical Science and Technology and the School of Mathematical Science were merged into the School of Science. In May 2014, in order to strengthen the discipline of science, the school separated the School of Science and established the School of Physics and Optoelectronics.

The college currently has two doctoral programs and postdoctoral research stations in the first level discipline of physics and the second level discipline of physical electronics. Physics is a key discipline in Guangzhou and has been ranked in the top 1% of ESI global rankings since 2011. We have four provincial-level research platforms, including Guangdong Optoelectronic Engineering Technology Research and Development Center, Guangdong University Semiconductor Lighting Engineering Technology Research Center, Guangdong Third Generation Semiconductor Materials and Devices Engineering Laboratory, and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Chips and Application Systems. We also have two provincial-level demonstration centers, Guangdong Physics Experiment Teaching and Guangdong Electronic Process Experiment Teaching. The college has a complete talent cultivation chain from undergraduate, master's, doctoral to postdoctoral, with two undergraduate majors in Applied Physics and Optoelectronic Information Science and Engineering (all of which are national first-class undergraduate major construction points). It also recruits master's students in five majors including Theoretical Physics, Condensed Matter Physics, Optics, Acoustics, and Physical Electronics, and doctoral students and postdoctoral staff in Physics and Physical Electronics. There are currently 731 full-time undergraduate students, 210 master's students, and 147 doctoral students.

The college has two departments (Department of Applied Physics and Department of Optoelectronic Information Science and Engineering), one experimental center, and four research institutes (Institute of Acoustics, Institute of Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Computational Physics, and Institute of High Voltage Physics).

The college currently has 109 faculty members, including 84 full-time teachers. Among full-time teachers, there are 38 with senior professional titles and 32 with associate senior professional titles, with 45% of teachers under the age of 45. It has 4 national outstanding young people/Yangtze River specially employed people, 2 national outstanding young people, 1 young Yangtze River scholar, 1 young talent, 2 overseas outstanding young people, 3 provincial talent project winners, 2 South Guangdong Excellent Teachers, and 3 innovation and entrepreneurship teams of the Pearl River Talent Plan in Guangdong Province.

In the past three years (2022.1-2024.12), a total of 177 new scientific research projects were added, with a total contract budget of 76.95 million yuan. Published 582 papers in the three major indexes; Applied for 113 patents and obtained 42 authorized invention patents. It has won one second prize of the the State Technological Innovation Award, one second prize of the Ministry of Education for Science and Technology Progress, one Guangdong Provincial Award for Technological Invention, one first prize of Guangdong Provincial Award for Technological Invention, one Chinese Silver Patent Award, one second prize of the Natural Science Award for Education, and one Wei Rongjue Award of the Chinese Acoustical Society.