Robert N. Hall

Robert N. Hall (b. December 25, 1919) is an American engineer. He demonstrated the first semiconductor laser, and invented a type of magnetron commonly used in microwave ovens. He also contributed to the development of rectifiers for power transmission.

Hall was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He studied at California Institute of Technology, receiving the B.S. in 1942 and the Ph.D. in 1948.

Studying the characteristics of p-i-n diodes used as power rectifiers, he had a key insight which resulted in his being co-credited with William Shockley and W. T. Read, Jr., for the analysis of nonradiative carrier recombination in semiconductors.

Hall developed the semiconductor laser in 1962, while working at General Electric in Schenectady, New York. [cite journal |last=Hall |first=Robert N. |coauthors=G. E. Fenner, J. D. Kingsley, T. J. Soltys, and R. O. Carlson |year=1962 |month=Nov. |title=Coherent Light Emission From GaAs Junctions |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=9 |issue=9 |pages=366–369 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.9.366] In the 1970's, Hall's work focussed on photovoltaics and solar cells. He retired in 1987 having been granted 43 U.S. patents during his career.

Hall was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1977, and to the National Academy of Sciences in 1978. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994.

References

Further reading

* Hall, Robert N., "Early transistor history at GE", 2000, http://www.semiconductormuseum.com/Transistors/GE/OralHistories/Hall/Hall_Index.htm, accessed March 6, 2006.
* Invent Now Hall of Fame, "Robert N. Hall", http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/73.html, accessed March 6, 2006.
* Lemelson-MIT Program, "R. N. Hall", http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/hall3.html, accessed March 6, 2006.