| Authorised form of name | Ridley; Brian Kidd; solid state physicist |
| Nationality | British |
| Date of birth | 02 March 1931 |
| Date of death | 22 May 2024 |
| Occupation | solid state physicist |
| Research field | Opto electronics |
| Microscopy |
| Solid state physics |
| Materials Science |
| Engineering |
| Activity | Education:
University of Durham BSc 1953; PhD 1957.
Activity:
Research physicist in the solid-state physics division of the Mullard Research Laboratories in Redhill, Surrey (1956–1964); lecturer in physics, University of Essex (1964); senior lecturer (1967); reader (1971); Professor of physics (1984); retired (2008).
Medals/Awards:
Dirac Medal 2001 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 10/03/1994 |
| Age at election | 63 |
| PublishedWorks | RCN 28461
RCN R69107 |
| OtherInfo | Conducted important work on negative differential resistance (NDR), instabilities and hot-electron transport in semiconductors. He jointly discovered the electron transfer mechanism (Ridley–Watkins–Hilsum effect) which underlies microwave generation in Gunn diodes, and he was the first to discover the impurity barrier mechanism for NDR, and to demonstrate its existence in germanium. He was also the first to describe the consequences of NDR instabilities in terms of propagating dipole domains and current filaments, and the existence of these nonlinear entities has been amply verified in a wide variety of solids.
His work on acoustoelectric instabilities led to his invention of the microsonic analogue of the laser.
made original contributions to the theory of electron transitions in solids, particularly impurity scattering and multiphonon processes, and this work is embodied in his monograph Quantum Processes in Semiconductors, widely used as a reference text.
His interest in popularising physics is manifested in his book, Time, Space and Things, which has been much translated and widely quoted. |
| Source | The Royal Society Fellows Directory, Professor Brian Ridley FRS, [URL: https://royalsociety.org/people/brian-ridley-12177/; last accessed: 29/01/2025]
University of Essex, 16 March 2009, Conference to honour physicists, Colchester Campus, [URL: https://www1.essex.ac.uk/news/event.aspx?e_id=531; last accessed: 29/01/2025] |
| Code | NA4252 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| IM/003825 | Ridley, Brian Kidd | 1994 |
| EC/1994/32 | Ridley, Brian Kidd: certificate of election to the Royal Society | 30/06/1989 |