Charles Pence Slichter

Charles Pence Slichter ( born January 21, 1924 in Ithaca ( New York)) is an American solid-state physicist.

Life and work

Slichter studied at Harvard University ( bachelor's degree in 1946, master 1947), where he ( were friends with the Slichters parents) among others, John H. van Vleck studied and in 1949 received his doctorate with a thesis on electron spin resonance at Edward Purcell ("A study of microwave absorption in paramagnetic solids " ). During the Second World War he worked at the Research Laboratory for underwater explosions in Woods Hole. After graduation, he was instructor in 1949 at the University of Illinois, where he was an assistant professor in 1951, associate professor in 1954 and full professor in 1955 (from 1968 Center for Advanced Study Professor ). In 1986 he was also Professor of Chemistry. In 1996 he retired, but was then still active in research. At the University of Illinois he had more than 60 doctoral students.

Slichter is especially for his research on nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (nuclear magnetic resonance, NMR) with application to studies in solid-state physics known: Confirmation of BCS theory ( pairing detection with lever ), high-temperature superconductors ( also pairing detection and d -state shares in addition to s- state of the electron pairs ), charge density waves (Charge density waves ) Kondo effect, surface physics and other, as well as studies on the chemical physics. He confirmed the first with Thomas Carver 1953 Overhauser effect and led to Carver from the first experiment for the electron-nuclear double resonance ( ENDOR ). He measured the first with Schumacher the susceptibility at the Pauli paramagnetism of conduction electrons in metals and is Gutowsky and McCall discoverer of the J-coupling in molecules. Slichter developed a phase-sensitive detection method with high sensitivity pulsed NMR.

In addition to experimental physical work he published some purely theoretical work (eg theory of the chemical shift in fluorine).

Slichter is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society since 1967. In 1969 he was awarded the Langmuir Prize of the APS for Chemical Physics, 1986 Triennial Prize of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance ( ISMAR ), 1993 the Comstock Prize in Physics, 1996 Oliver E. Buckley Prize of the APS and 1993 the price of the DOE for outstanding achievements in solid state physics. In 2007 he received the National Medal of Science. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Waterloo (1993 ), Harvard ( in Jura 1996) and the University of Leipzig (2010). 1955 to 1961 he was Alfred P. Sloan Fellow. He was a member of the JASON Defense Advisory Group. 1976 to 1984 he was with the Council of the National Science Foundation and from 1970 to 1995 a member of the Harvard Corporation ( the head of the Harvard University ).

His father Sumner Slichter (1892-1959) was professor of economics at Harvard. His grandfather, Charles Sumner Slichter (1864-1946) was also a prominent physicist at the University of Wisconsin and developed, among other things, a method for measuring the velocity of groundwater flow. Slichters son Jacob Slichter (* 1961) is rock drummers.

Writings

  • Principles of Magnetic Resonance. 3rd edition, Springer, 1990 ( First Harper and Row 1964)
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