Highlights of Solid State Physics Man of the Year Nobel Prizes
Silicon Technology Moore s Law Gordon Moore Intel Jack Kilby 14 nm 2014 Physics Nobel Prize 2000 Integrated Circuit
Electrons in the Conduction Band p-type n-type Holes in the Valence Band Benefits of a quantum well: 1) Trap electrons and holes in the same quantum well and thereby give them more time to recombine into a photon. Alferov Kroemer Physics Nobel Prize 2000 2) Electrons and holes have well-defined, quantized energies, such that most of them contribute to the same laser line.
Efficient Light Emitting Diodes Physics Nobel Prize 2014 Akasaki Amano Nakamura Use InGaN quantum wells in GaN. Lighting consumes ¼ of our electric power. Blue LED + Yellow Phosphor = White Light
CCD (Charge Coupled Device) The CCD detectors in digital cameras wiped out photographic film. Physics Nobel Prize 2009 : Boyle and Smith
Optical Fiber Communication Charles Kao Physics Nobel Prize 2009
Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR) for Sensitive Magnetic Readout Parallel Spin Filters Resistance Low Opposing Spin Filters Resistance High 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics to Fert and Grünberg
Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics to Binnig and Rohrer Electron wave functions of the tip and surface atoms overlap and allow electrons to tunnel across vacuum. The tunneling probability decreases by a factor of 100 when retracting the tip by one atom diameter (0.2 nm).
Surface Chemistry of Ammonia Synthesis N 2 +3H 2 3NH 3 A significant fraction of our energy consumption goes into producing ammonia for fertili- zers. Plants need nitrogen in a form that can be biologically converted into proteins. The triple bond in N 2 is too stable for that. The Haber-Bosch synthesis uses iron oxide as catalyst to break the triple bond in N 2. High temperature (400 0 C) and high pressure (200 atmospheres) drive the reaction to the right side: N 2 ammonia nitrites nitrates for fertilizers Gerhard Ertl received the 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for systematically unraveling the molecular reactions underlying the Haber-Bosch process (1918 Nobel Prize in Chemistry).
Density Functional Theory provides a practical method for calculating the behavior of electrons in molecules and solids Walter Kohn, 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Quantum Hall Effect Precision measurements of fundamental constants: Resistance standard h/e 2, Electromagnetic coupling constant = e 2 /ħc Klaus von Klitzing, Nobel Prize in Physics 1985
Fractional Quantum Hall Effect Exotic forms of matter in two dimensions: One electron (blue circle) orbits around three magnetic flux quanta (arrows). Bob Laughlin Nobel Prize in Physics 2000 Horst Störmer Dan Tsui
Superconductors and Superfluids 1987 Physics Nobel Prize: Bednorz Müller 2003 Physics Nobel Prize: Abrikosov Ginzburg Legett
Graphene, a single sheet of graphite Graphene is extremely strong and provides a transparent conductor with high electron mobility. Its E(p) relation is linear instead of a quadratic, which causes a different kind of quantum Hall effect. Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 Geim and Novoselov
The only winner of a Nobel Prize and an Ig Nobel ( Ignoble ) Prize Andre Geim s frog levitation experiment: Same idea as levitating a piece of superconductor by a magnetic field. Both frogs and superconductors are diamagnetic. The induced magnetic field opposes the inducing field and leads to repulsion.
Fullerenes (Buckyballs) Zero-dimensional carbon 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to: Curl Kroto Smalley
2011 Chemistry Nobel Prize: Dan Shechtman Quasicrystals
Soft Matter Soft matter does not exhibit the crystalline order that is characteristic of hard matter. Its shape is dominated by entropy rather than energy. Soft matter lends itself to self-assembly, from block copolymers (AAA BBBBB) to living things. Pierre-Gilles de Gennes received the 1991 Physics Nobel Prize for bringing order into soft matter.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000
Paper-like Flexible Displays
Protein Crystallography This diffraction pattern of myoglobin contains about 3000 spots. From their intensities one obtains the positions of all the atoms. Protein crystallography has become essential for biochemistry, because the structure of a protein determines its function.
Rosalind Franklin s X-ray diffraction pattern of DNA, which led to the double-helix model by Watson and Crick
Structure of Ion Channels from X-Ray Crystallography Top view of an ion channel (ion at the center) 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Also Prizes in 2012, 2009, 2006,
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) of protons in water. Obtain spatial resolution by varying the magnetic field across the sample. Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1991 Simultaneous measurement of all frequencies from the Fourier transform of a short pulse ( which is a continuous frequency spectrum ). Richard Ernst