Robert N. Hall
Robert N. Hall ( born December 25, 1919 in New Haven, Connecticut) is an American physicist, who in 1962 demonstrated the first laser diode.
Hall studied at Caltech (Bachelor 1942), then worked in the research laboratories of General Electric in the development of radar (radar with continuous frequencies for jamming of enemy radar ) and returned after his graduation ( where he had a source of protons for nuclear physics built with William Alfred Fowler ) for he returned to Caltech in 1946 and 1948 was, back there. The rest of his career, he remained in the research laboratory of General Electric in Schenectady. In the 1950s he worked on transistor design and semiconductors. He developed purification method for the alloy of germanium and method ( Alloying method) for the preparation of the PIN diodes and alloy junction transistors ( early bipolar transistors ) on the basis of germanium ( for silicon, the work from General Electric Nick Holonyak were performed ). He invented the rate of growing method for the manufacture of transistors.
His work on PIN diodes also meant that the Shockley - Read-Hall process for carrier recombination by William Shockley, WT Read, and named him.
When, after the invention of the laser in 1960, the question arose whether LEDs could be used as a laser, several laboratories provided a race (including IBM, MIT, the Joffe Institute in the Soviet Union), emerged from the Hall's team just as the winner.
In addition to the laser diode from his development work in the Second World War was a version of the magnetron, which is now used in most microwave ovens, and from his pioneering work in PIN diodes, the basic idea of today's semiconductor power rectifier ( SCR ).
In the 1960s he devoted himself to the production of very pure germanium for particle detectors. The occasion was that in 1960 sued a fellow nuclear physicist, that the industry would produce no more suitable detectors. General Electric, however, soon rose again from the production.
In the 1970s he worked on photovoltaics and solar cells. In 1987 he went with General Electric in retirement, as a holder of 43 patents. In his retirement he turned to charitable tasks such as demonstration experiments for physics students in Schenectady, Repair of tape recorders for the audiobook program of the Library of Congress or classes for the learning disabled.
Since 1977 he was a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and since 1978 the National Academy of Sciences. In 1994, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.