Humphrey J. Maris
Professor of Physics
Low Temperature Physics
Professor Maris came to Brown in 1965 after two years as a postdoctoral research associate at Case Institute of Technology. He is a 1960 graduate of Imperial College, London, where he also received the Ph.D. in 1963, before coming to the United States. In 1972 and 1973 he was a visiting professor at the University of East Anglia in England and at Chalmers Institute of Technology in Goteborg, Sweden. He has carried out research at the Max Planck Institute in Grenoble, University of Tokyo, University of Paris, Centro Atomico Bariloche in Argentina, Institute for Physical Problems in Moscow, and the University of Hokkaido. In 1991 he was appointed the George Chase Professor of Natural Science.
RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Studies of superfluid hydrodynamics using magnetically-levitated helium drops. Development of a new detectors for solar neutrinos. Quantum nucleation of bubbles in liquid helium at negative pressure. Tests of quantum measurement theory using electrons in liquid helium. Ultrafast optical studies of solids including picosecond ultrasonic measurements on thin films and nanostructures.

 
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:

"Magnetic Levitation and Non-Coalescence of Liquid Helium", (with M.A. Weilert, D.L. Whitaker, and G.M. Seidel), Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 4840 (1996).

"Electrons and Cavitation in Liquid Helium", (with J. Classen, C.-K. Su, M. Mohazzab), Phys. Rev. 57, 3000 (1998).

"Picosecond Ultrasonics", Scientific American, Vol. 278, p. 86, January 1998.

"Thermal Conductivity of GaAs/AIAs Superlattices Using a Picosecond Optical Pump and Probe Technique", (with W.S. Capinski, M. Cardona, D.S. Katzer, K. Ploog, and T. Ruf), Phys. Rev. B59, 8105 (199).

"Negative Pressures and Cavitation", (with S. Balibar), Physics Today, 53, 29, February 2000. Reprinted in Parity (Maruzen Tokyo, 2001).

"Study of Phonon Dispersion in Silicon and Germanium Using Picosecond Ultrasonics", (with H.-Y. Hao), Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 5556 (2000).

"On the Fission of Elementary Particles and Electrons in Liquid Helium", J. Low Temp. Phys., 120, 173 (2000).

"Dispersion of Long Wavelength Phonons in Ge, Si, GaAs, Quartz and Sapphire", (with H.-Y. Hao) Phys. Rev. B 63, 224, 301 (2001).

"Experiments with Acoustic Solitons in Crystalline Solids", (with H.-Y. Hao), Phys. Rev. B 64, 064, 302 (2001).