Julius Edgar Lilienfeld

Infobox_Scientist
name = Julius Edgar Lilienfeld


image_width =
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birth_date = April 18, 1881
birth_place = Lemberg, then Austria-Hungary, today Lviv, Ukraine
death_date = August 28, 1963
death_place = Charlotte Amalie, USA
residence = Austria-Hungary, Germany, USA
field =
work_institution =
alma_mater = Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for = Inventor of the transistor
and the electrolytic capacitor
prizes =
religion = Jewish
footnotes =

Julius Edgar Lilienfeld (April 18, 1881 – August 28, 1963) was an Austrian-Hungarian physicist. He was born in Lemberg in Austria-Hungary (now called Lviv in Ukraine).

From 1900 to 1904 he studied at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin. In 1905 he started to work at the physics institute at the University of Leipzig. Lilienfeld attained the habilitation in 1910.

Among other things, he invented the field-effect transistor (in 1925) and the electrolytic capacitor in the 1920s. He filed several patents describing the construction and operation of transistors as well as many features of modern transistors. When Brattain, Bardeen and Shockley tried to get a patent on their device, most of their claims were rejected due to the Lilienfeld patents.

The optical radiation emitted when electrons are hitting a metal surface is named "Lilienfeld radiation" after he first discovered it close to X-ray tube anodes. Its origin is attributed to the excitation of plasmons in the metal surface. [J.E. Lilienfeld: "Die sichtbare Strahlung des Brennecks von Röntgenröhren." Physikalische Zeitschrift, 20(12) 280, 1919] [cite journal|last = Boersch
first = Hans
authorlink= Hans Boersch
coauthors = Radeloff, C.; Sauerbrey, G.
year = 1961
month = August
title = Über die an Metallen durch Elektronen ausgelöste sichtbare und ultraviolette Strahlung
journal = Zeitschrift für Physik A Hadrons and Nuclei
volume = 165
issue = 4
pages = 464–484
doi = 10.1007/BF01381902
url = http://www.springerlink.com/content/m614528152n64251/
language = German ] [cite journal
last = Boersch
first = Hans
authorlink= Hans Boersch
coauthors = Radeloff, C.; Sauerbrey, G.
date = July 15, 1961
title = Experimental detection of transition radiation
journal = Phys. Rev. Lett.
volume = 7
issue = 2
pages = 52–54
publisher = American Physical Society
doi = 10.1103/PhysRevLett.7.52
url = http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v7/p52
quote = ]

Lilienfeld emigrated to the USA in 1927 and became a U.S. citizen in 1934.

Some of his patents:

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Education

Ph.D. Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (renamed in 1949), Berlin, on 18 February 1905

References

External links

* [http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bllilienfeld.htm About.com, short text about Lilienfeld]
* [http://profiles.incredible-people.com/julius-edgar-lilienfeld J.E.Lilienfeld biography]