Nevill Mott Research Articles

Address of the President Sir Alan Hodgkin at the Anniversary Meeting, 30 November 1972

The Copley Medal is awarded to Sir Nevill Mott, F.R.S. At an early stage in his career Mott had already established a reputation as a pioneer in the field of atomic collision theory based on the new wave mechanics. He was the first to show that Rutherford’s scattering law remains exactly valid when this mechanics is employed, and to point out the importance of symmetry in scattering problems. He was also the first to apply Dirac’s relativistic theory to these problems and showed that under certain conditions electrons may be polarized by double scattering. Even as early as 1932 he realized the importance of conservation laws in limiting reaction cross sections. All of this work was charac­terized by a remarkable degree of originality and physical insight combined with mathematical skill. When, at the age of 27, he became professor of theoretical physics at Bristol, he abandoned the study of atomic collisions to work on the theory of metals and alloys, in order that he might relate his work more closely to that of a new group of experimenters. Within a few years he was recognized as one of the leading inter­national authorities in this field, to which he contributed a number of important papers on electronic bands in metals and on the electrical conductivity of alloys and its temperature coefficient.

Reviews of books

Abstract Selected Scientific Papers. By A. BOUWERS. (North-Holland, 1969.) [Pp. xvi + 626.] Price £11 13s. 0d. Intermediate Energy Nuclear Physics. By W. O. LOCK and D. F. MEASDAY. (Methuen & Co., 1970.) [Pp. 320.] Price £4 5s. 0d. Electromagnetic Waves in Stratified Media. Revised edition including supplemented material. By JAMES R. WAIT. (Pergamon Press, 1970.) [Pp. 608.] Price £8 0s. 0d. Rutherford and Boltwood: Letters on Radioactivity. Edited by LAWRENCE BADASH. (Yale University Press, 1969.) [Pp. 378.] Price £5 12s. 6d. Electron Paramagnetic Resonance of Transition Ions. By A. ABRAGAM and B. BLEANEY. (Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press, 1970.) [Pp. 911.] Price £13 0s. 0d. Amorphous and Liquid Semiconductors. Proceedings of the International Conference on Amorphous and Liquid Semiconductors held in Cambridge, England, September 1969, Edited by NEVILL MOTT. Reprinted from Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids. Vol. 4. (North-Holland, 1970.) [Pp. 626.] Price £12 12s. 0d.

The Physics of Metals

Vol 1 Electrons J M Ziman Cambridge: University Press 1969 pp x + 433 price £4 10s This is the first volume of a two volume work on the physics of metals inspired by the desire to honour Sir Nevill Mott whose original books and papers laid the foundations of so much of that which is now understood. A book with such a motive sets itself thereby a high academic standard, and it is a pleasure to see a volume of reviews all of them both learned and readable.

Anniversary Dinner 1966

I am indeed honoured to have been given the opportunity of proposing the toast of the Royal Society on occasion of its 306th anniversary, and of being here tonight to celebrate the most ancient and famous scientific society of the world. It is for me a great pleasure to find here so many old friends among the members of the Royal as well as among the guests that came from many countries of the European continent and from various parts of the world, and in particular to have been invited by you, Mr President, to whom I am bound by long admiration and friendship. I have still vivid in my memory the recollection, of when, shortly after the end of my university studies, I attended the international conference on nuclear physics that was held in Rome, in 1931. Among the participants to the conference there were famous scientists such as Bohr, Bothe, Compton, Millikan and Mme M. Curie; among those coming from the U.K. there were Aston, Ellis, Fowler, Richardson and Townsend, all Fellows of the Royal Society. You were there, Mr President, and so was Nevill Mott; both of you, together with Fermi, Heisenberg and Pauli also present there, represented the new forces already fully established and still in their most productive and promising phase.

Plans for new Cavendish

Plans are being made to rebuild the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University. According to Sir Nevill Mott, holder of the Cavendish Chair of experimental physics, the department presently occupies 160 000 sq ft but could need up to 350 000 for advanced teaching and research and elementary laboratories.

Use of the bright field shadow technique to study superconductivity in the electron microscope

Abstract Our thanks are due to Professor Sir Nevill Mott, F.R.S., and Dr. W. H. Taylor, of the Cavendish Laboratory, and Professor G. Puppi, of the Institute of Physics of Bologna, for their encouragement. We are grateful to Dr. P. B. Hirsch, F.R.S., and Dr. M. J. Whelan for helpful discussions and suggestions. We also wish to thank Mr. F. Saddler, of the Royal Society Mond Laboratory, for advice on techniques and for provision of liquid helium. One of us (M. J. G.) is indebted to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research for a maintenance grant, and to Queens' College, Cambridge, for the award of a Research Studentship. The bright field shadow technique has been used to study the disturbance in the magnetic field of the objective lens of an electron microscope produced by a superconductor cooled in a liquid helium stage.