Gustav Hertz Research Articles

My Life With Erwin: The Beginning of an Atom-Probe Legacy.

The atom-probe field ion microscope was introduced in 1967 at the 14th Field Emission Symposium held at the National Bureau of Standards (now, NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The atom-probe field ion microscope was, and remains, the only instrument capable of determining "the nature of one single atom seen on a metal surface and selected from neighboring atoms at the discretion of the observer". The development of the atom-probe is a story of an instrument that one National Science Foundation (NSF) reviewer called "impossible because single atoms could not be detected". It is also a story of my life with Erwin Wilhelm Müller as his graduate student in the Field Emission Laboratory at the Pennsylvania State University in the late 1960s and his strong and volatile personality, perhaps fostered by his pedigree as Gustav Hertz's student in the Berlin of the 1930s. It is the story that has defined by scientific career.

Helge Kragh. Niels Bohr and the Quantum Atom: The Bohr Model of Atomic Structures, 1913–1925. vi + 410 pp., illus., figs., tables, bibl., index. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. £18.99 (cloth).

Helge Kragh. <i>Niels Bohr and the Quantum Atom: The Bohr Model of Atomic Structures, 1913–1925</i>. vi + 410 pp., illus., figs., tables, bibl., index. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. £18.99 (cloth).

Cold War Kidnapping

On February 2, 1965, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam kidnapped Gustav Hertz, Chief of Public Administration for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Hertz’s captivity set in motion an intricate series of diplomatic gestures that involved several governments, including those of Algeria, Cambodia, and France, and numerous prominent individuals, such as Senator Robert Kennedy, Cambodian leader Norodom Sihanouk, and Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella, in an effort to win his release. This article examines the Hertz kidnapping to illustrate that South Vietnamese politics heavily influenced and thwarted U.S. nation-building efforts. The case reveals that when perpetuating the impression of South Vietnamese sovereignty conflicted with saving the life of a USAID leader, U.S. officials chose the first objective.

The Franck-Hertz Experiments, 1911–1914 Experimentalists in Search of a Theory

In 1911, James Franck and Gustav Hertz began a collaboration to investigate the nature of collisions of slow electrons with gas molecules that led to a series of carefully planned and executed experiments, culminating in their discovery of inelastic collisions of electrons with mercury vapor atoms in 1914. This paper tells the story of their collaboration and the eventual reinterpretation of their results as a confirmation of Niels Bohr’s new atomic theory, largely as a result of experiments done in North America during the Great War.

One hundred years of the Franck-Hertz experiment

The 1914 experiment of James Franck and Gustav Hertz provided a graphic demonstration of quantization properties of atoms, thereby laying the foundations of modern atomic physics. This article revisits the experiment on the occasion of its Centenary, compares traditional and modern interpretations, and focuses in particular on the link between microscopic processes, which are governed by the laws of quantum mechanics, and macroscopic phenomena as measured in the laboratory. A goal is to place the physics underlying the operation of the Franck-Hertz experiment within the context of contemporary gaseous electronics, and to that end we reach back even further in time to the 1872 kinetic equation of Ludwig Boltzmann. We also show how the experiment can be modelled using fluid equations and Monte Carlo simulation, and go further to show how non-local effects, resonances and striations in plasmas have much in common with the electron physics in the drift region of the Franck-Hertz experiment.

The Physical Tourist

We provide a tour of Leipzig, one of the cultural centers of Germany that contributed a significant chapter in the history of physics. In the nineteenth century the city and University of Leipzig were home to one of the oldest physical institutes in Germany, and in the late 1920s the arrival of Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976), Peter Debye (1884-1966), and Friedrich Hund (1896-1997) at the University’s Physical Institute led to a flowering of physics in Leipzig that lasted until the outbreak of World War II. After the war a rebirth occurred under the leadership of Waldemar Ilberg (1901-1967), Gustav Hertz (1887-1975), and others.

April 1915: Five future Nobel Prize–winners inaugurate weapons of mass destruction and the academic–industrial–military complex

Poison gas warfare was initiated in the Great War by a German military unit that included five future Nobel laureates: James Franck, Fritz Haber, Otto Hahn, Gustav Hertz and Walther Nernst. It was Haber's idea to use poison gas. To implement gas warfare he devised an organization that meshed the academy into the military–industrial complex. Later three other Nobel laureates, Emil Fischer, Heinrich Wieland and Richard Willstätter, contributed to the enterprise. Huge quantities of poisons were used by both sides during the war, because they were well adapted to static trench warfare, even though—which is a surprise to many—they were substantially less deadly than explosives.

From Propagation to Structure: The Experimental Technique of Bombardment as a Contributing Factor to the Emerging Quantum Physics

I observe that quantum physics emerged at the turn of the last century when physics had shifted its concern from propagation phenomena to questions of structure. This transition materialized with the development of a new experimental technique, the bombardment method. The transition is well exemplified by the move from the experimental studies of Heinrich Hertz to those of Ernest Rutherford, and from those of Heinrich Hertz and Philipp Lenard to those of James Franck and Gustav Hertz. I trace the history of Rutherford's experimental bombardment method as it emerged from nineteenth-century propagation studies. I then demonstrate the use of the bombardment method in another experimental context, namely, in the celebrated experiment of Franck and Hertz. I locate the root of this experiment in Lenard's experimental studies and analyze Franck and Hertz's flawed interpretation of it. I conclude by underlining the crucial role that Bohr's quantum theory of the atom played in helping to establish these bombardment experiments as milestones of modern physics.

A comprehensive thermodynamic theory of the cross-effect in isothermal diffusion (“Hertz effect”) in a multicomponent gas, liquid, or solid

The cross-effect between diffusion fluxes in a nonuniform, multicomponent mixture is the cause of diffusion of a component against its own concentration gradient. Gustav Hertz was the first to use this cross-effect for the separation of isotopes. The calculation of the magnitude of the cross-effect, which we call Hertz effect, is possible if all coefficients of the diffusion tensor of the mixture are known. For dilute gases, kinetic gas theory enables the calculation of the diffusion tensor, but calculation methods for dense gases, liquids, and solids require input of measured binary or tracer diffusion coefficients. This paper presents for the first time a calculation method for the magnitude of the Hertz effect without using input of any measured diffusion coefficient. Input is required from the equation-of-state of the mixture and from kinetic gas theory. The theory is based on the principle of a maximum number of possible microstates in the stationary, nonequilibrium state. The theory has been compared with all measured diffusion data of mixtures that can be represented by our phase-behavior package. There is fair to good agreement between measurement and theory, but the Hertz effect in these mixtures is small. A test against diffusion data of highly nonideal mixtures is therefore recommended.

Anecdotes from an Atom-Probe Original

Abstract The Atom-Probe Field Ion Microscope was introduced in 1967 at the 14th Field Emission Symposium in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The Atom-Probe was, and remains, the only instrument capable of determining “the nature of one single atom seen on a metal surface and selected from neighboring atoms at the discretion of the observer”. The development of the Atom-Probe is a story that highlights Erwin Muller's strong and sometimes volatile personality. It is a story of an instrument that one NSF proposal reviewer called “impossible” because “single atoms could not be detected”. It is also the story of the Field Emission Laboratory at Penn State in the late 1960s and the contributions of two superb technicians, Gerald Fowler and Brooks McLane, and two graduate students, Douglas Barofsky and John Panitz. The anecdotes from this time are colorful and reflect Erwin's pedigree as Gustav Hertz's student in the Berlin of the 1930s.

Originalarbeiten Zum 100. Geburtstag von Gustav Hertz

In an introductory passage some relations between Heinrich and Gustav Hertz are shown followed by some recollections of the course of his life at which the remarkable discoveries are mentioned. More fully are described the Franck and Hertz experiments as well as the scientific work of Giistav Hertz on isotope separation. At the end of the article some opinions of Gustav Hertz and about him are given concerning the effectiveness of research work. Further primary and secondary literature about Gustav Hertz is cited.

JAMES FRANCK † 21. 5. 1964

Annalen der PhysikVolume 470, Issue 1-2 p. 1-4 Article JAMES FRANCK † 21. 5. 1964 Gustav Hertz, Gustav HertzSearch for more papers by this author Gustav Hertz, Gustav HertzSearch for more papers by this author First published: 1965 https://doi.org/10.1002/andp.19654700102Citations: 2AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume470, Issue1-21965Pages 1-4 RelatedInformation