Gottfried K. Wehner

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Gottfried K. Wehner (born September 23, 1910 in Bärenwalde ; † July 13, 1996 in Gauting ) was a German physicist.

Wehner was a pastor's son and studied technical physics at the Technical University of Munich , graduating in 1936, where he received his doctorate in 1938 under Winfried Otto Schumann with a dissertation on plasma physics. From the work on his dissertation he then developed a klystron based on plasma oscillations from a mercury vapor arc at the aeronautical radio research institute Oberpfaffenhofen in Gauting while working on the 6 cm radar . After the Second World War he continued working in the USA. From 1955 he was at General Mills in Minneapolis and from 1968 until his retirement in 1991 he was a professor at the University of Minnesota . In retirement he moved to Gauting.

The destruction of cathode grids in tubes with low-pressure gas discharge by ions resulted in fundamental experimental investigations into sputtering (atomization of solids by ion bombardment). He was able to resolve an older scientific dispute between momentum transfer theory and evaporation theory in favor of momentum transfer and confirm it by observing Wehner spots (preferred emission of atomized atoms in densely packed lattice directions of single crystals).

Research on sputtering became important in semiconductor electronics, where it is used for the deposition of thin layers, but also for the understanding of radiation damage and the quantitative analysis of surfaces (he founded a company with two colleagues, Physical Electronics for applications in Auger electron spectroscopy ). .

In 1971 he received the Medard W. Welch Award and in 1981 the For pioneering work in sputtering award from Physical Electronics Industries Inc. together with Vera Yevgenyevna Jurassowa .

Fonts

  • Sputtering of Metal Single Crystals by Ion Bombardement, J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 26, 1955, pp. 1056-1057
  • Controlled Sputtering of Metals by Low-Energy Hg Ions, Phys. Rev., Vol. 102, 1956, pp. 690-704
  • with GS Anderson: The nature of physical sputtering, in Leon I. Maissel, Reinhard Glang, Handbook of thin film technology, McGraw Hill, 1970, chapter 3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lomonosov University Moscow : Кафедра физической электроники (accessed June 19, 2020).
personal data
SURNAME Wehner, Gottfried K.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Bear forest
DATE OF DEATH July 13, 1996
Place of death Gauting