Moses H W Chan

Education

Ph.D. Cornell University, New York (1974)
M.S. Cornell University (1969)
B.A. Bridgewater College, Virginia (1967)

Honors and Awards

Senior Research Fellowship, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (1982)
John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (1986)
Fellow, American Physical Society (1987)
Fritz London Memorial Prize in Low temperature Physics (1996)
National Academy of Sciences (2000)
American Academy of the Arts and Sciences (2004)

Research Interests

Phase transition studies, particularly quantum fluids and solids at cryogenic temperatures, in reduced dimensionalities and in the presence of disorder. Prof. Chan's research group is also involved with colleagues in the Center for Nanoscale Science (CNS) studying fluids, metals and superconductors infiltrated in and templated from ordered porous hosts. CNS is a NSF-supported Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC).

There are two current themes in my research group. The first theme is the study of onset and nature of the supersolidity in solid He-4 in the limit of absolute zero. The second theme is the transport, structural, magnetic and thermodynamic properties of one dimensional superconducting and magnetic nanowires. The last topic is a collaboration with colleagues in the Chemistry, Electrical Engineering and Material Science Departments through the sponsorship of the Penn State Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. Graduate students supervised: 12 Ph.D and 7 M.S. students. Postdocotral scholars and visitors hosted:14

This research area provides opportunities for undergraduate research.

Selected Publications

Jian Wang, Yi Sun, Mingliang Tian, Bangzhi Liu, Meenakshi Singh, and Moses HW Chan. "Superconductivity in single crystalline Pb nanowires contacted by normal metal electrodes." Physical Review B 86, 035439 (2012).

Duk Y. Kim, Joshua T. West, Tyler A. Engstrom, Norbert Mulders, and Moses HW Chan. "Probing phase coherence in solid helium using torsional oscillators of different path lengths." Physical Review B 85, 024533 (2012).

Duk Y. Kim and Moses HW Chan. "Absence of supersolidity in solid helium in porous Vycor glass."Physical review letters 109, 155301 (2012).

Meenakshi Singh, Jian Wang, Mingliang Tian, T. E. Mallouk, and Moses HW Chan. "Antiproximity effect in aluminum nanowires with no applied magnetic field." Physical Review B 83, 220506 (2011).

Jian Wang, Ashley M. DaSilva, Cui-Zu Chang, Ke He, J. K. Jain, Nitin Samarth, Xu-Cun Ma, Qi-Kun Xue, and Moses HW Chan. "Evidence for electron-electron interaction in topological insulator thin films." Physical Review B 83, 245438 (2011).

Duming Zhang, Jian Wang, Ashley M. DaSilva, Joon Sue Lee, Humberto R. Gutierrez, Moses HW Chan, Jainendra Jain, and Nitin Samarth. "Superconducting proximity effect and possible evidence for Pearl vortices in a candidate topological insulator." Physical Review B 84, 165120 (2011).

Jian Wang, Meenakshi Singh, Mingliang Tian, Nitesh Kumar, Bangzhi Liu, Chuntai Shi, J. K. Jain, Nitin Samarth, T. E. Mallouk, and M. H. W. Chan. "Interplay between superconductivity and ferromagnetism in crystalline nanowires." Nature Physics 6, 389-394 (2010).

Jian Wang, Chuntai Shi, Mingliang Tian, Qi Zhang, Nitesh Kumar, J. K. Jain, T. E. Mallouk, and M. H. W. Chan. "Proximity-induced superconductivity in nanowires: minigap state and differential magnetoresistance oscillations." Physical Review Letters 102, 247003 (2009).

J. T. West, X. Lin, Z. G. Cheng, and M. H. W. Chan. "Supersolid behavior in confined geometry."Physical Review Letters 102, 185302 (2009).