Daryl Chapin

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Daryl M. Chapin (born July 21, 1906 in Ellensburg , † January 19, 1995 ) was an American physicist. Together with Calvin S. Fuller and Gerald Pearson, he was one of the inventors of the solar cell (1954) at Bell Laboratories .

Life

Chapin graduated from Willamette University and the University of Washington ( Masters degrees ) and taught physics for a year at Oregon State College before joining Bell Laboratories in 1930. Initially he researched magnetic materials and, during World War II, researched underwater sound and magnetic recording.

In 1954, together with Calvin S. Fuller and Gerald Pearson, he developed the silicon solar cell, then called the solar battery. The initiator of the development was Chapin, who was specifically looking for semiconductors to generate energy from sunlight as a cheap energy source for transistorized telephone systems, which was principally known from the discovery of the photosensitivity of pn junctions by Russell S. Ohl at Bell Labs (1940). In order to have the largest possible surface area available in the pn junction, the recently developed technique of producing pn junctions with diffusion was ideal. The prototype was created at the end of 1953 by diffusing boron (p-type) into silicon (n-type). The launch of the solar cell by Bell Laboratories in 1954 was a major media event. It was soon used by the military and in 1958 in the Vanguard I satellite .

Even after his retirement at Bell Labs, he was active as an inventor, most recently for a board game for the blind.

In 2008 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame .

Fonts

  • DM Chapin, CS Fuller, GL Pearson: A New Silicon pn Junction Photocell for Converting Solar Radiation into Electrical Power . In: Journal of Applied Physics . tape 25 . American Institute of Physics, May 1954, pp. 676-677 ( aip.scitation.org [PDF]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Vast Power of the Sun Is Tapped By Battery Using Sand Ingredient . In: The New York Times . April 26, 1954, p.  1 ( nytimes.com [PDF]).
  2. ^ Mark Burgess: Diffusion Technologies at Bell Labs. 2010
personal data
SURNAME Chapin, Daryl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chapin, Daryl M.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Ellensburg
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 1995