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Article

Elephants and mahouts—early days in semiconductor physics

JUN 01, 1984
Research on band structures of diamond‐type crystals and germanium‐silicon alloys, undertaken in the 1950s to advance the development of transistors,led to a surprisingly different outcome.
Frank Herman

I didn’t really decide to become a physicist until I was about 23 years old, working as a research engineer at the RCA Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey. To understand my decision, you will need some background. Ever since I was a boy I was fascinated by the operation of machines. I liked to take them apart, and often I was even able to put them back together again. I used to make model airplanes and construct mechanical toys. Originally, I wanted to become a civil engineer and design complex mechanisms.

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References

  1. 1. G. E. Kimball, Phys. Rev. 47, 810(A (1935).https://doi.org/PHRVAO

  2. 2. W. Shockley, Phys. Rev. 50, 754 (1936).https://doi.org/PHRVAO

  3. 3. C. Herring, Phys. Rev. 57, 1169 (1940); https://doi.org/PHRVAO
    C. Herring, A. G. Hill, Phys. Rev. 57, 1080(A (1940).https://doi.org/PHRVAO

  4. 4. C. Herring, J. Franklin Inst. 233, 525 (1942).https://doi.org/JFINAB

  5. 5. As Herring wrote in his “Recollections” [Proc. Roy. Soc. London A371, 67 (1980)]: “After the war I became involved with other things and it was with surprise that I learned … in an encounter with Frank Herman at an APS meeting in New York, that he was trying to do a thesis at Columbia University on the electron band of diamond, using the OPW method. I followed his work with interest, as I began to think about possible band structures for the semiconductors, silicon and germanium” (page 69).

  6. 6. F. Herman, Phys. Rev. 88, 1210 (1952).https://doi.org/PHRVAO

  7. 7. F. Herman, J. Callaway, Phys. Rev. 89, 518 (1953).https://doi.org/PHRVAO

  8. 8. F. Herman, Phys. Rev. 93, 1214 (1954).https://doi.org/PHRVAO

  9. 9. F. Herman, Phys. Rev. 95, 847 (1954).https://doi.org/PHRVAO

  10. 10. F. Herman, J. Electronics 1, 103 (1955).https://doi.org/JELNAJ

More about the authors

Frank Herman, IBM Research Laboratory, San Jose, California.

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This Content Appeared In
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Volume 37, Number 6

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