Lothar Wolfgang Nordheim
Encyclopedia
Lothar Wolfgang Nordheim (November 7, 1899, München - October 5, 1985, La Jolla, California
, USA) was a German
-born Jewish theoretical physicist. He taught at Duke University
.
His name is sometimes misspelled as Lother.
An important contribution, with the British physicist Fowler
in 1928, was to establish the correct physical explanation of the physical phenomenon now called field electron emission (FE). They established that electron emission occurred by a form of wave-mechanical tunneling now called Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunnelling), and – with the help of the assumption that electrons in metals obeyed Fermi-Dirac statistics – derived an (approximate) emission equation. Over time, this equation has been developed into a family of approximate equations (offering different degrees of approximation to reality, when describing FE from bulk metals), known as Fowler-Nordheim-type equations.
FN tunneling was the first effect in physics to be firmly identified as due to wave-mechanical tunneling, in the early days of quantum mechanics. The original FN-type equation was one of the first to use Fermi-Dirac statistics to explain an experimental phenomenon involving electrons in metals, and its success greatly helped to establish modern electron band theory.
FE has had many significant practical applications (see main article on FE.).
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, USA) was a German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
-born Jewish theoretical physicist. He taught at Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
.
His name is sometimes misspelled as Lother.
An important contribution, with the British physicist Fowler
Ralph H. Fowler
Sir Ralph Howard Fowler OBE FRS was a British physicist and astronomer.-Education:Fowler was initially educated at home but then attended Evans' preparatory school at Horris Hill and Winchester College...
in 1928, was to establish the correct physical explanation of the physical phenomenon now called field electron emission (FE). They established that electron emission occurred by a form of wave-mechanical tunneling now called Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunnelling), and – with the help of the assumption that electrons in metals obeyed Fermi-Dirac statistics – derived an (approximate) emission equation. Over time, this equation has been developed into a family of approximate equations (offering different degrees of approximation to reality, when describing FE from bulk metals), known as Fowler-Nordheim-type equations.
FN tunneling was the first effect in physics to be firmly identified as due to wave-mechanical tunneling, in the early days of quantum mechanics. The original FN-type equation was one of the first to use Fermi-Dirac statistics to explain an experimental phenomenon involving electrons in metals, and its success greatly helped to establish modern electron band theory.
FE has had many significant practical applications (see main article on FE.).
External links
- http://www.physics.purdue.edu/alumni/hondegree/nordheim.shtml
- http://www.phy.duke.edu/history/DistinguishedFaculty/LotharNordheim/