Leo Esaki
MAR 12, 2015
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.030917
Happy birthday Leo Esaki (江崎 玲於奈)! Born in 1925 in Osaka, Esaki earned a PhD in physics in 1959 from Tokyo University. During his graduate studies, he worked at Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (now known as Sony), where he invented a new ultrafast diode based on electron tunneling. In 1960 he moved to the US to join the research staff of IBM’s Thomas J Watson Research Center. There, he pioneered the development of semiconductor heterostructures, whose ultrathin layers yield a material that performs better than any of its constituents do alone. Esaki shared the 1973 Nobel physics prize for his tunneling work.
Date in History: 12 March 1925
© 2015 American Institute of Physics
