Faculty Type: 
Active Faculty
Title: 
Theodore and Sydney Rosenberg Professor of Applied Physics
Additional Titles: 
Professor of Physics
Address: 
Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials,
McCullough Building, Rm. 361
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4045
Phone Number: 
650-723-3847
Contact Email: 
aharonk@stanford.edu
Personal Website: 
StanfordWho directory listing
Group Website: 
KAPITULNIK LAB at Stanford University
Support Staff: 
Clora Lap Yeung

Prof. Kapitulnik studies materials with novel electronic states at low temperatures.  Current projects include the study of various symmetry breaking effects in unconventional superconductors, the interplay between superconductivity, magnetism and disorder, quantum phase transitions and the superconductor-insulator transition, and "Bad Metallic" behavior in strongly correlated electron systems.  While we use standard techniques such as electrical and thermal transport abd scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, our group also emphsizes the invention and construction of new experimental probes and techniques for high sensitivity, mostly low temperature, measurements.

Besides our condensed-matter related research, we are also intereted in applying condensed matter physiques technique to precision measurements associated with the study of fundamental interactions,  We currently have efforts in applying sensitive mechanical oscillators in search of deviations from the Newton's inverse square law of gravity, and in search of axions using spin-dependent force measurements.

CURRENT AREAS OF FOCUS:

- Strongly Correlated Electron Systems
- Low Dimensional Electronic Systems
- Unconventional Superconductors
- Topological Superconductors
- Superconductivity and Magnetism
- Transport in Bad Metals
- Precision Measurements


Career History

  • B.A. 1975, Tel-Aviv University 
  • Ph.D., 1983 Tel-Aviv University 
  • Weizmann fellow and Institute Fellow 
  • Institute for Polymers and Organic Solids, Associate Member 
  • Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1983-85 
  • Assistant Professor of Applied Physics, Stanford University 1985-90 
  • Associate Professor of Applied Physics, Stanford University, 1990-94 
  • Associate Professor of Physics, Stanford University, 1993-94 
  • Professor of Applied Physics and of Physics, 1994-present 
  • Fellow of the American Physical Society, 1995 
  • Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow 
  • Presidential Young Investigator Award 
  • IBM Faculty Development Award 
  • TRW Faculty Assistantship Award
  • 2009 Heike Kamerlingh Onnes Prize
  • Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2009
  • Einstein Colloquium, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, 2012
  • Yuval Ne'eman - Annual Memorial Lecture, 2014
  • 2015 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize
  • Member of the National Academy of Science, 2015