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به نشریه الکترونیکی سی. پی. اچ.

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Nobel 1986

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The Development of the Electron Microscope and of Electron Microscopy

Scanning Tunneling Microscopy – From Birth to Adolescence

"for his fundamental work in electron optics, and for the design of the first electron microscope"

"for their design of the scanning tunneling microscope"

Ernst Ruska	Gerd Binnig	Heinrich Rohrer

1/2 of the prize	1/4 of the prize	1/4 of the prize
Federal Republic of Germany	Federal Republic of Germany	Switzerland
Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany	IBM Zurich Research Laboratory Rüschlikon, Switzerland	IBM Zurich Research Laboratory Rüschlikon, Switzerland
b. 1906 d. 1988	b. 1947	b. 1933

Autobiography: Ernst Ruska

I was born on 25 December 1906 in Heidelberg as the fifth of seven children of Professor Julius Ruska and his wife Elisbeth (née Merx). After graduating from grammar school in Heidelberg I studied electronics at the Technical College in Munich, studies which I began in the autumn of 1925 and continued two years later in Berlin. I received my practical training from Brown-Boveri & Co in Mannheim and Siemens & Halske Ltd in Berlin. Whilst still a student at the Technical College in Berlin I began my involvement with high voltage and vacuum technology at the Institute of High Voltage, whose director was Professor Adolf Matthias. Under the direct tutelage of Dr Max Knoll and together with other doctoral students I worked on the development of a high performance cathode ray oscilloscope. On the one hand my interest lay principally in the development of materials for the building of vacuum instruments according to the principles of construction; on the other it lay in continuing theoretical lectures and practical experiments in the optical behaviour of electron rays.

My first completed scientific work (1928-9) was concerned with the mathematical and experimental proof of Busch's theory of the effect of the magnetic field of a coil of wire through which an electric current is passed and which is then used as an electron lens. During the course of this work I recognised that the focal length of the waves could be shortened by use of an iron cap. From this discovery the polschuh lens was developed, a lens which has been used since then in all magnetic high-resolution electron microscopes. Further work, conducted together with Dr Knoll, led to the first construction of an electron microscope in 1931. With this instrument two of the most important processes for image reproduction were introduced-the principles of emission and radiation. In 1933 I was able to put into use an electron microscope, built by myself, that for the first time gave better definition than a light microscope. In my Doctoral thesis of 1934 and for my university teaching thesis (1944), both at the Technical College in Berlin, I investigated the properties of electron lenses with short focal lengths.

Since the further technical development of electron microscopes could not be the task of a college institute - whose resources would have been far overstretched - I went to work in industry in the field of electron optics. From 1933 to 1937 I was with Fernseh Ltd in Berlin-Zehlendorf and was responsible for the development of television receivers and transmitters, as well as photoelectric cells with secondary amplification. Convinced of the great practical importance of electron microscopy for pure and applied research I attempted during this time to continue the development of high-resolution electron microscopes with larger materials, this time working with Dr Bodo von Borries. This work was made possible in 1936-7 by Siemens & Halske. In Berlin-Spandau in 1937 we set up the Laboratory for Electron Optics and developed there until 1939 the first customised electron microscopes (the 'Siemens Super Microscope'). Parallel to the development of this instrument my brother, Dr Med. Helmut Ruska, and his colleagues worked on its application, particularly in the medical and biological fields. In order to promote its usage in different scientific areas as quickly as possible we suggested to Siemens that they set up a visiting institute for research work to be carried out using electron microscopy. This institute was founded in 1940. From this institute, in which we worked together with both German and foreign scientists, around 200 scientific papers were published before the end of 1944. My task consisted in the development and production of the electron microscope, such that by the beginning of 1945 around 35 institutions were equipped with one.

In the years following 1945 I, together with a majority of new colleagues, reconstituted the Institute of Electron Optics in Berlin-Siemensstadt, which had been disbanded due to bombing, so that by 1949 electron microscopes were again being built. This new period of development led in 1954 to 'Elmiskop 1', which since then has been used in over 1200 institutions the world over. At the same time I sought the further physical development of the electron microscope by working at other scientific institutions. Thus from August 1947 to December 1948 I worked at the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Buch in the Faculty of Medicine and Biology, then from January 1949 as Head of Department at what is today the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin-Dahlem. Here on 27 June 1957 I was made Director of the Institute for Electron Microscopy, after I had given up my position with Siemens in 1955. I retired on 31 December 1974.

From 1949 until 1971 I held lectures on the basic principles of electron optics and electron microscopy at both the Free University and the Technical University of Berlin. My publications in the area of electron optics and electron microscopy include several contributions to books and over 100 original scientific papers.

(added by the editor): Ernst Ruska died on May 25, 1988.

Autobiography: Gerd Binnig

I was born in Frankfurt, W. Germany, on 7.20., '47 as the first of two sons. My childhood was very much influenced by the Second World War, which had only just ended. We children had great fun playing among the ruins of the demolished buildings, but naturally were too young to realize that much more than just buildings had been destroyed.

Until the age of 31, I lived partly in Frankfurt and partly in Offenbach, a nearby city. I attended school in both cities, and it was in Frankfurt that I started to study physics. Already as a child about 10 years of age, I had decided to become a physicist without actually knowing what it involved. While studying physics, I started to wonder whether I had really made the right choice. Especially theoretical physics seemed so technical, so relatively unphilosophical and unimaginative. In those years, I concentrated more on playing music with friends in a beat-band rather than on physics. My mother had introduced me to classical music very early in life, and I believe this played an important role in my subsequent development. Unfortunately, I started playing the violin rather late, at the age of 15 only, but thoroughly enjoyed being a member of our school orchestra. My brother was responsible for my transition from classics to beat by his perpetually immersing me with the sounds of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, until I finally really liked that kind of music, and even started composing songs and playing in various beat-bands. In this way, I first learned how difficult teamwork can be, how much fun it is to be creative, and how unpredictable the reaction of an audience can be.

My education in physics gained some significance when I began my diploma work in Prof. Dr. W. Martienssen's group, under Dr. E. Hoenig's guidance. I realized that actually doing physics is much more enjoyable than just learning it. Maybe 'doing it' is the right way of learning, at least as far as I am concerned.

I have always been a great admirer of Prof. Martienssen, especially of his ability to grasp and state the essence of the scientific context of a problem. Dr. Hoenig introduced me to experimenting, and exhibited great patience when I asked him very stupid questions in trying to catch up on what I had missed over all the previous years.

In 1969, Lore Wagler became my wife. We had both been studying for quite a long time - Lore is now a psychologist - so only recently did we decide to have children: a daughter born in Switzerland in 1984, and a son born in California in 1986. This was the absolute highlight and most wonderful experience of my whole life. However, fatherhood is not without its sacrifice. For the time being, nearly all my hobbies, like music (singing, playing the guitar and the violin), and sports (soccer, tennis, skiing, sailing and playing golf) have had to take a back seat.

It was in 1978 that Lore - my private psychotherapist - convinced me to accept an offer from the IBM Zürich Research Laboratory to join a physics group. This turned out to be an extremely important decision, as it was here I met Heinrich Rohrer. His way of viewing physics, combined with his humanity and sense of humor, fully restored my somewhat lost curiosity in physics. My years at Ruschlikon, and in IBM Research in general, have been very exciting, not only because of the development of the STM, but also because of the stimulating and pleasant atmosphere created by the people working there, and by those responsible. Working together in a team with Heinrich Rohrer, Christoph Gerber and Edmund Weibel was an extraordinarily delightful experience, and one for which I shall be eternally grateful. It is also extremely gratifying that our work was recognized far afield. We were first awarded the German Physics Prize, the Otto Klung Prize, the Hewlett Packard Prize, the King Faisal Prize, and now the ultimate crown, the Nobel Prize for Physics. Life certainly does not become easier for a scientist once his work has exceeded a certain significance. But while prizes do add some complications, I must admit they also have their compensations!

(added in 1991:)

In 1990 I joined the Supervisory Board of the Daimler Benz Holding and presently I am involved in a few political activities.

Autobiography: Heinrich Rohrer

I was born in Buchs, St. Gallen, Switzerland on 6.6., '33 as the third child, half an hour after my twin sister. We were fortunate to enjoy a carefree childhood with a sound mixture of freedom, school and farm work. In 1949, the family moved to Zürich and our way of life changed from country to town. My finding to physics was rather accidental. My natural bent was towards classical languages and natural sciences, and only when I had to register at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in autumn 1951, did I decide in favor of physics. In the next four years, Professors G. Busch, W. Pauli, and P. Scherrer taught me the rudiments. In autumn 1955, I started work on my Ph.D. Thesis and it was fortuitous that Jörgen Lykke Olsen trusted me to measure the length changes of superconductors at the magnetic-field-induced superconducting transition. He had already pioneered the field with measurements on the discontinuity of Young's modulus. Following in his footsteps, I lost all respect for angstroms. The mechanical transducers were very vibration sensitive, and I learned to work after midnight, when the town was asleep. My four graduate years were a most memorable time, in a group of distinguished graduate students always receptive for fun, and including the interruptions by my basic training courses in the Swiss mountain infantry.

In summer 1961, Rose-Marie Egger became my wife, and her stabilizing influence has kept me on an even keel ever since. Our honeymoon trip led us to the United States where I spent two post-doe years working on thermal conductivity of type-II superconductors and metals in the group of Professor Bernie Serin at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Then in the summer of 1963, Professor Ambros Speiser, Director of the newly founded IBM Research Laboratory in Rüschlikon, Switzerland, made me an offer to join the physics effort there. Encouraged by Bruno Lüthi, who later became a Professor at the University of Frankfurt, and, at the time, strongly recommended the hiring of Gerd Binnig, I accepted to start in December 1963, after having responded to the call of the wild in the form of a four-month camping trip through the USA.

My first couple of years in Rüschlikon were spent studying mainly Kondo systems with magnetoresistance in pulsed magnetic fields. End of the sixties, Keith Blazey interested me to work on GdAlO₃, an antiferromagnet on which he had done optic experiments. This started a fruitful cooperation on magnetic phase diagrams, which eventually brought me into the field of critical phenomena. Encouraged by K. Alex Müller, who had pioneered the critical-phenomena effort in our Laboratory, I focused on the bicritical and tetracritical behavior and finally on the random-field problem. These were most enjoyable years, during which so many patient colleagues taught me physics. I left them with some regret, when I ventured with Gerd to discover new shores. We found them. Thank you, Gerd.

In 1974/75, I spent a sabbatical year with Professor Vince Jaccarino and Dr. Alan King at the University of California in Santa Barbara, to get a taste of nuclear magnetic resonance. We solved a specific problem on the bicritical point of MnF₂, their home-base material. We traded experience, NMR and critical phenomena. Rose-Marie and I also took the opportunity at the beginning and end of my sabbatical to show the USA to our two daughters, Doris and Ellen, on two extended camping trips from coast to coast.

In all the years with IBM Research, I have especially appreciated the freedom to pursue the activities I found interesting, and greatly enjoyed the stimulus, collegial cooperation, frankness, and intellectual generosity of two scientific communities, namely, in superconductivity and critical phenomena. I should also like to take this opportunity to thank the many, many friends, teachers, and seniors who have contributed towards my scientific career in any way whatsoever, and most particularly my mother for her unstinting aid and assistance, especially when times were difficult.