The bell tolls for Bell Labs

The glory of fundamental physics research at Bell Labs has been fading for a long time; now just a few scientists working on two-dimensional electrongas physics remain. Bell’s parent company, Lucent Technologies, merged in late 2006 with the communications giant Alcatel (see Physics Today, February 2007, page 26 ), and among the recent research casualties were materials science and a silicon foundry, both disbanded earlier this year. According to many former Bell Labs researchers, basic physics research at Bell is dead.

“For 30 of the 41 years I was at Bell, the criterion was, ‘Do good physics,’” says Dick Slusher, who is now at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “Then it was, ‘Pay attention and see if you can help the company.’ Then it became, ‘Work on something you can get external funding for.’” Adds Oleg Mitrofanov, who last year moved from Bell Labs to University College London, “The spirit is practically gone. The culture—seminars, journal club discussions, tea time—those are gone.”

Not surprisingly, Gee Rittenhouse, Bell’s vice president of research, sees things differently. “A broad and fairly substantial part of our research is still fundamental research,” he says, noting that some 20% of Bell’s staff of 850 are active in “undirected research in areas across technologies.” But while physicists still work at Bell, they don’t necessarily do physics; the research there is now highly aligned to the business and is mainly in the areas of optics, networking, wireless communications, high-speed electronics, math, and computer science.

“We are coming out of an era,” says Federico Capasso, who headed physical research at Bell before moving to Harvard University in 2003. “Until more or less now, research in industrial labs gave a huge edge to the US.” But in today’s global competition, he notes, “corporations can’t afford to do medium- and long-term research in areas beyond their technology and business horizon. That’s a fact, and we should not judge them for it.”