Wolfgang Eisenmenger (physicist)

Wolfgang Eisenmenger ( born February 11, 1930) is a German physicist.

Career and research

After studying physics at the RWTH Aachen and the University of Göttingen Eisenmenger received his doctorate in 1958 with a thesis on the surface tension of water and aqueous solutions. In 1964 he habilitated with experimental studies of shock waves in liquids in the acoustic frequency range; developed in this work Electromagnetic shock wave generator was an important contribution to extracorporeal lithotripsy, the disintegration of kidney stones without surgery.

In the late 1960s Eisenmenger worked at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill (New Jersey). There he began his research on sound waves in the ultra-high frequency range. Which began at Bell experiments on generation and detection of acoustic phonons led to the development of phonon spectroscopy of solids that has gained in determining the purity of semiconductor single crystals importance.

Eisenmenger 1969 received a professorship at the University of Stuttgart. As a professor of experimental physics and director of the first Physics Institute is dedicated Eisenmenger continue studies in the field of acoustics and Phononenphysik and participated in the development of shock wave lithotripsy. Further research interests concern the Eisenmenger piezoelectricity of polymer films and scanning tunneling microscopy. Since spring 1998, Eisenmenger emeritus.

Honors

• Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, since 1988
• Robert Wichard Pohl Prize of the German Physical Society, 1995
• Honorary doctorate from the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, 2002
• Helmholtz Medal of the German Society of Acoustics, 2003