Ernst Billig
| Ernst Billig | |
|---|---|
| File:Ernst BILLIG.jpgErnst BILLIG.jpg | |
| Born | 1904 Vienna, Austria |
| 💀Died | 1970 Epsom, UK1970 |
| 💼 Occupation | Research scientist |
Ernst Billig FInstP (24 October 1904 - 25 July 1970) was an Austrian-born British physicist and engineer who pioneered techniques for the growth and purification of semiconductor materials.[1]
Early life and education
Billig was born in Vienna in 1904 to Jewish parents, Osias-Leib (Leo) Billig, a shoemaker from Brody, and Rosa (Sali) née Krieger from Mährisch Ostrau.[2] He attended the Schiffschul and Erherzog-Rainer Realgymnasium (Sigmund Freud Gyymnasium) in Vienna before obtaining a BSc in Mechanical Engineering at the Technische Universität Wien, then a BSc in Electrical Engineering and Doctorate in Technical Sciences in Berlin.[1]
Research and career
Billig's career began as a research engineer at the High Voltage Laboratory of AEG in Berlin in 1929. He held consulting engineer positions at the Moscow Electrical Supply Company (1931-1933) and the Dead Sea Works (1933-1935).[1]
After moving to England in 1935, Billig worked as a research engineer at Hackbridge Electrical Construction Company in Hersham until the outbreak of war. Interned on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien until November 1940, he joined the Electrical Research Association for the remainder of the war. There he was responsible for investigating power transformer failures affecting the national electricity supply.[1]
In 1946 he was appointed Head of Solid State Physics at the new research labs of Associated Electrical Industries in Aldermaston, where he pioneered techniques for growing germanium and silicon crystals from the melt and purifying them for use in semiconductor devices.[1] He characterized crystallographic defects, and methods he developed continue to be used more than 70 years later.[3]
He was sent to Germany by the Ministry of Supply (British Intelligence Objectives Sub-committee associated with T-Force) for several months in 1947 to interview leading physicists, including Werner Heisenberg and Robert Pohl, and to obtain documents concerning the state of research on semiconductors, metal rectifiers, detectors and photocells.[4]
From 1965 Billig was Associate Director of Physics Research at King's College, University of London. He was a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and of the American Institute of Physics.[1]
Personal life
Billig married Gertrud Flor, also a Jewish refugee from Vienna, in Wembley in 1939. Having been stripped of their Austrian citizenship after the Anschluß of 1938, the couple became British citizens in 1947 and had four children between 1948 and 1955.[1] Billig was the brother of Fritz Billig, philatelist, and of Kurt Billig, civil engineer.
A member of Sportklub Hakoah in Vienna, Billig also represented Austria internationally in swimming and diving in the 1920s.[5]
Publications
- Billig, E (1946). "Mechanical stresses in transformer windings". Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers-Part II: Power Engineering. 93 (33): 277–243. doi:10.1049/ji-2.1946.0057.
- Billig, E; Plessner, KW (1949). "The efficiency of the selenium barrier-photocell when used as a converter of light into electrical energy". The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. 40 (304): 568–572. doi:10.1080/14786444908521742.
- Billig, E (1949). "The design of a capacitor voltage transformer". Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers-Part II: Power Engineering. 96 (54): 793–802. doi:10.1049/pi-2.1949.0210.
- Billig, E; Landsberg, PT (1950). "Characteristics of compound barrier layer rectifiers". Proceedings of the Physical Society. Section A. 63 (2): 101.
- Billig, E (1951). "Thermal Instability of Contact Rectifiers: The Effect of the Constituent Materials on the Efficiency of a Rectifying Junction". Proceedings of the Physical Society. Section B. 64 (4): 342.
- Billig, E; Plessner, KW (1951). "A note on the dielectric dispersion in polycrystalline materials". Proceedings of the Physical Society. Section B. 64 (4): 361.
- Billig, E; Ridout, MS (1951). "Height of the Potential Barrier in Contact Rectifiers and its Change with Temperature". Nature. 167 (4260): 1028. doi:10.1038/1671028a0.
- Billig, E (1951). "Application of the image-force model to the theory of contact rectification and of rectifier breakdown". Proceedings of the Royal Society A. 207 (1089): 156–181. doi:10.1098/rspa.1951.0109.
- Billig, E (1951). "Effect of Temperature on the Height of Potential Barriers and on the Breakdown Voltage of Contact Rectifiers". Proceedings of the Physical Society. Section A. 64 (8): 752.
- Billig, E (1951). "The calculation of the magnetic field of rectangular conductors in a closed slot, and its application to the reactance of transformer windings". Proceedings of the IEE-Part IV: Institution Monographs. 98 (1): 55–64. doi:10.1049/pi-4.1951.0007.
- Billig, E (1951). "Effect of the Change in Lattice Parameter on the Width of the Forbidden Energy Zone according to Kronig and Penney's One-Dimensional Lattice Model". Proceedings of the Physical Society. Section A. 64 (10): 878.
- Billig, E (1952). "A Note on the Structure of Selenium". Proceedings of the Physical Society. Section B. 65: 216.
- Billig, E (1952). "The physics of transistors". British Journal of Applied Physics. 3 (8): 241.
- Billig, E (1952). "Effect of minority carriers on the breakdown of point contact rectifiers". Physical Review. 87 (6): 1060. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.87.1060.
- Billig, E; Dowd, JJ (1953). "pn Junction revealed by Electrolytic Etching". Nature. 172 (4368): 115. doi:10.1038/172115a0.
- Billig, E (1954). "Growth twins in crystals of low co-ordination number". Journal of the Institute of Metals. 83 (2): 53–56.
- Billig, E; Ridout, MS (1954). "Transmission of electrons and holes across a twin boundary in germanium". Nature. 173 (4402): 496. doi:10.1038/173496a0.
- Billig, E (1955). "The growth of semi-conductor crystals from the melt". Chemistry & Industry (20): 562.
- Billig, E (1955). "Growth of monocrystals of germanium from an undercooled melt". Proceedings of the Royal Society A. 229 (1178): 346–363. doi:10.1098/rspa.1955.0090.
- Billig, E; Holmes, PJ (1955). "Some observations on growth and etching of crystals with the diamond or zincblende structure". Acta Crystallographica. 8 (6): 353–354. doi:10.1107/S0365110X55001084.
- Billig, E (1956). "Defects in crystals of silicon and germanium grown from the melt". Journal of the Electrochemical Society. 103 (3): C60.
- Billig, E (1956). "Some defects in crystals grown from the melt-I. Defects caused by thermal stresses". Proceedings of the Royal Society A. 235 (1200): 37–55. doi:10.1098/rspa.1956.0063.
- Billig, E (1956). "Defects in germanium crystals grown from the melt". British Journal of Applied Physics. 7 (10): 375.
- Billig, E (1957). "Some speculations on the growth mechanism of dendrites". Acta Metallurgica. 5 (1): 54–55.
- Billig, E; Holmes, PJ (1957). "New observations on the structure of germanium dendrites". Acta Metallurgica. 5 (1): 53–54.
- Billig, E; Gasson, DB (1957). "Preparation of Large‐Area p‐n Junctions in Silicon by Surface Melting". Journal of Applied Physics. 28 (11): 1242–1245. doi:10.1063/1.1722625.
- Billig, E (1958). "Growth and Defects of Semiconductor Crystals". In Schön, M; Welker, H. Halbleiter und Phosphore / Semiconductors and Phosphors / Semiconducteurs et Phosphores. Vieweg+Teubner Verlag, Wiesbaden. pp. 2–16. doi:10.1007/978-3-663-02557-3_1. Search this book on
- Billig, E; Holmes, PJ (1958). "Defects in Diamond-Type Semiconductor Crystals". Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics. 10: 71–105.
- Billig, E; Gasson, DB (1958). "The preparation of single-crystal ingots of silicon by the pulling technique". Journal of Scientific Instruments. 35 (10): 360.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Debus, Allen G., ed. (1968). World who's who in science: a biographical dictionary of notable scientists from antiquity to the present (1st ed.). Chicago: Marquis-Who's Who, inc. p. 176. ISBN 0837910013. Search this book on
- ↑ "Ernst BILLIG (1904-1970) birth record 1". wikitree.com. Retrieved 2022-05-14.
- ↑ "What kind of etchant could be used to etch Ge and MgF2 without etching CaF2?". ResearchGate. Retrieved 2022-05-15.
- ↑ Billig, Ernst (1947). B.I.O.S. Final Report No. 1751: German Research on Semi-Conductors, Metal Rectifiers, Detectors and Photocells (Report). British Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee. Retrieved 2022-05-14.
- ↑ "Die Wettbewerbe" [Competitions]. Der Tag (in german). 1925-07-23. Retrieved 2022-05-14.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)
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