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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Angela DysonORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Over a career spanning many decades, Brian Ridley made huge contributions to our understanding of solid-state physics. He is perhaps best known for his work on negative differential resistance and the Ridley–Watkins–Hilsum mechanism explaining the physics of the Gunn effect, widely used for microwave generation. His further investigation of negative differential resistance in materials such as gallium nitride has opened up possibilities for terahertz generation, which offers many technological applications in areas such as medical and security imaging. In addition, Brian developed the first confined-phonon models for low-dimensional structures, establishing him as one of the leading world experts in the area of two-dimensional semiconductors. Throughout his career, Brian’s work has always been characterized by a keen physical insight leading to intuitive conceptual models of quantum processes in semiconductor materials that have greatly aided research in these areas and accelerated our understanding.
Author(s): Dyson A, Vaughan MP
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society
Year: 2025
Pages: epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 26/11/2025
Acceptance date: 30/07/2025
Date deposited: 17/12/2025
ISSN (print): 0080-4606
ISSN (electronic): 1748-8494
Publisher: The Royal Society Publishing
URL: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.2025.0019
DOI: 10.1098/rsbm.2025.0019
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