Walter H. Schottky
Walter Hans Schottky (23 July 1886 – 4 March 1976) was a German physicist who played a major early role in developing the theory of electron and ion emission phenomena,[1] invented the screen-grid vacuum tube in 1915 while working at Siemens,[2] co-invented the ribbon microphone and ribbon loudspeaker along with Dr. Erwin Gerlach in 1924[3] and later made many significant contributions in the areas of semiconductor devices, technical physics and technology.
Walter H. Schottky
4 March 1976 (aged 89)
German
Schottky diode
Schottky effect
Schottky barrier
Schottky defect
Schottky anomaly
Schottky–Mott rule
Mott–Schottky equation
Mott–Schottky plot
Band bending
Screen-grid vacuum tube
Ribbon microphone
Ribbon loudspeaker
Theory of field emission
Shot noise
Solid state ionics
Time-symmetric interpretations of quantum mechanics
Hughes medal (1936)
Werner von Siemens Ring (1964)
Zur relativtheoretischen Energetik und Dynamik (1912)
Early life[edit]
Schottky's father was mathematician Friedrich Hermann Schottky (1851–1935). Schottky had one sister and one brother. His father was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Zurich in 1882, and Schottky was born four years later. The family then moved back to Germany in 1892, where his father took up an appointment at the University of Marburg.
Schottky graduated from the Steglitz Gymnasium in Berlin in 1904. He completed his B.S. degree in physics, at the University of Berlin in 1908, and he completed his PhD in physics at the Humboldt University of Berlin in 1912, studying under Max Planck and Heinrich Rubens, with a thesis entitled: Zur relativtheoretischen Energetik und Dynamik (translates as About Relative-Theoretical Energetics and Dynamics).
Career[edit]
Schottky's postdoctoral period was spent at University of Jena (1912–14). He then lectured at the University of Würzburg (1919–23). He became a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Rostock (1923–27). For two considerable periods of time, Schottky worked at the Siemens Research laboratories (1914–19 and 1927–58).
Inventions[edit]
In 1924, Schottky co-invented the ribbon microphone along with Erwin Gerlach. The idea was that a very fine ribbon suspended in a magnetic field could generate electric signals. This led to the invention of the ribbon loudspeaker by using it in the reverse order, but it was not practical until high flux permanent magnets became available in the late 1930s.[3]
Awards[edit]
He was awarded the Royal Society's Hughes medal in 1936 for his discovery of the Schrot effect (spontaneous current variations in high-vacuum discharge tubes, called by him the "Schrot effect": literally, the "small shot effect") in thermionic emission and his invention of the screen-grid tetrode and a superheterodyne method of receiving wireless signals.
In 1964 he received the Werner von Siemens Ring honoring his ground-breaking work on the physical understanding of many phenomena that led to many important technical appliances, among them tube amplifiers and semiconductors.
The invention of superheterodyne is usually attributed to Edwin Armstrong. However, Schottky published an article in the Proceedings of the IEEE that may indicate he had invented and patented something similar in Germany in 1918.[4] The Frenchman Lucien Lévy had filed a claim earlier than either Armstrong or Schottky, and eventually his patent was recognized in the US and Germany.[5]
Legacy[edit]
The Walter Schottky Institute for semiconductor research and the Walter Schottky Prize are named after him.