Walter H. Schottky

Walter H. Schottky
Schottky, c. 1920
Born	Walter Hans Schottky 23 July 1886 (1886-07-23) Zürich, Switzerland
Died	4 March 1976 (1976-03-05) (aged 89) Forchheim, West Germany[1]
Nationality	German
Alma mater	University of Berlin
Known for	Schottky diode Schottky effect Schottky barrier Schottky defect Schottky anomaly Schottky–Mott rule Mott–Schottky equation Mott–Schottky plot Band bending Screen-grid vacuum tube Ribbon microphone Ribbon loudspeaker Theory of field emission Shot noise Solid state ionics Time-symmetric interpretations of quantum mechanics
Awards	Hughes medal (1936) Werner von Siemens Ring (1964)
Scientific career
Fields	Physicist
Institutions	University of Jena University of Würzburg University of Rostock Siemens Research Laboratories
Thesis	Zur relativtheoretischen Energetik und Dynamik (1912)
Doctoral advisor	Max Planck Heinrich Rubens
Notable students	Werner Hartmann

Walter Hans Schottky (23 July 1886 – 4 March 1976) was a German physicist who played a major early role in developing the theory of electron and ion emission phenomena,^[2] invented the screen-grid vacuum tube in 1915 while working at Siemens,^[3] co-invented the ribbon microphone and ribbon loudspeaker along with Dr. Erwin Gerlach in 1924^[4] and later made many significant contributions in the areas of semiconductor devices, technical physics and technology.

The Schottky effect (a thermionic emission, important for vacuum tube technology), the Schottky diode (where the depletion layer occurring in it is called the Schottky barrier), the Schottky vacancies (or Schottky defects), the Schottky anomaly (a peak value of the heat capacity) and the Mott-Schottky equation (also Langmuir-Schottky space charge law) were named after him. He conducted research on electrical noise mechanisms (shot noise), space charge, especially in electron tubes, and the barrier layer in semiconductors, which were important for the development of copper oxide rectifiers and transistors.