Editing Walter Houser Brattain (section)

==Scientific work==

From 1927 to 1928 Brattain worked for the [[National Bureau of Standards]] in Washington, D.C., where he helped to develop [[piezoelectric]] frequency standards.  In August 1929 he joined Joseph A. Becker at [[Bell Telephone Laboratories]] as a research physicist.<ref name="OralHistory"/> The two men worked on the heat-induced flow of [[charge carrier]]s in [[Metal rectifier|copper oxide rectifiers]].<ref name=Bardeen1994/>{{rp|72}} Brattain was able to attend a lecture by [[Arnold Sommerfeld]].<ref name="OralHistory"/>  Some of their subsequent experiments on [[thermionic emission]] provided experimental validation for the [[Free electron model|Sommerfeld theory]].  They also did work on the surface state and [[work function]] of [[tungsten]] and the [[adsorption]] of [[thorium]] atoms.<ref name=Bardeen1994/>{{rp|74}} Through his studies of rectification and photo-effects on the semiconductor surfaces of cuprous oxide and silicon, Brattain discovered the photo-effect at the free surface of a semiconductor. This work was considered by the Nobel prize committee to be one of his chief contributions to solid state physics.<ref name=prize/>

At the time, the telephone industry was heavily dependent on the use of [[vacuum tubes]] to control electron flow and amplify current. Vacuum tubes were neither reliable nor efficient, and Bell Laboratories wanted to develop an alternative technology.<ref name=Levine>{{cite web|last1=Levine|first1=Alaina G.|title=John Bardeen, William Shockley, Walter Brattain Invention of the Transistor – Bell Laboratories|website=APS Physics|date=2008|url=http://www.aps.org/programs/outreach/history/historicsites/transistor.cfm|access-date=March 4, 2015}}</ref>  As early as the 1930s Brattain worked with William B. Shockley on the idea of a semiconductor amplifier that used copper oxide, an early and unsuccessful attempt at creating a [[field effect transistor]].  Other researchers at Bell and elsewhere were also experimenting with semiconductors, using materials such as [[germanium]] and [[silicon]], but the pre-war research effort was somewhat haphazard and lacked strong theoretical grounding.<ref name=BraunMacdonald>{{cite book|last1=Braun|first1=Ernest|last2=Macdonald|first2=Stuart|title=Revolution in miniature : the history and impact of semiconductor electronics|date=1982|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0521289030|edition=2nd.}}</ref>

During [[World War II]], both Brattain and Shockley were separately involved in research on magnetic detection of submarines with the [[National Defense Research Committee]] at [[Columbia University]].<ref name=NWDA/> Brattain's group developed [[magnetometer]]s sensitive enough to detect anomalies in the [[Earth's magnetic field]] caused by [[submarine]]s.<ref name=Fire/>{{rp|104}}<ref name="OralHistory">{{cite web|title=Oral History interview transcript with Walter Brattain January 1964 & 28 May 1974|url=http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/4532_1.html|website=Niels Bohr Library and Archives|publisher=[[American Institute of Physics]]|date=March 4, 2015}}</ref> As a result of this work, in 1944, Brattain patented a design for a magnetometer head.<ref name=PatentMagnetometer>{{cite web|title=Integral-drive magnetometer head US 2605072 A|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US2605072|access-date=March 5, 2015}}</ref>

In 1945, Bell Labs reorganized and created a group specifically to do fundamental research in solid state physics, relating to communications technologies. Creation of the sub-department was authorized by the vice-president for research, [[Mervin Kelly]].<ref name=BraunMacdonald/> An interdisciplinary group, it was co-led by Shockley and [[Stanley O. Morgan]].<ref name=Bardeen1994/>{{rp|76}} The new group was soon joined by [[John Bardeen]].<ref name=BraunMacdonald/> Bardeen was a close friend of Brattain's brother Robert, who had introduced John and Walter in the 1930s.<ref name=Fire>{{cite book|last1=Riordan|first1=Michael |last2=Hoddeson |first2=Lillian|title=Crystal fire : the invention of the transistor and the birth of the information age|date=1998|publisher=Norton|location=New York [u.a.]|isbn=9780393318517|page=78|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SZ6wm5ZSUmsC&pg=PA304|access-date=March 4, 2015}}</ref> They often played bridge and golf together.<ref name=Bardeen1994/>{{rp|77}} Bardeen was a quantum physicist, Brattain a gifted experimenter in materials science, and Shockley, the leader of their team, was an expert in solid-state physics.<ref name=Isaacson>{{cite news|last1=Isaacson|first1=Walter|title=Microchips: The Transistor Was the First Step|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-12-04/microchips-the-transistor-was-the-first-step|access-date=March 4, 2015|work=Bloomberg Business|date=December 4, 2014}}</ref>

[[Image:Replica-of-first-transistor.jpg|thumb|A stylized replica of the first transistor]]
[[File:Bardeen Shockley Brattain 1948.JPG|thumb|right|[[John Bardeen]], [[William Shockley]] and Walter Brattain at [[Bell Labs]], 1948]]

According to theories of the time, Shockley's field effect transistor, a cylinder coated thinly with silicon and mounted close to a metal plate, should have worked. He ordered Brattain and Bardeen to find out why it wouldn't. During November and December the two men carried out a variety of experiments, attempting to determine why Shockley's device wouldn't amplify.<ref name=Levine/> Bardeen was a brilliant theorist;<ref name=IllinoisAlumni>{{cite news|last1=Hoddeson|first1=Lillian|title=Gentle Genius UI professor John Bardeen won two Nobel prizes – so why don't more people know about him?|url=http://www.uiaa.org/illinois/news/illinoisalumni/0805b.html|access-date=March 6, 2015|work=University of Illinois Alumni Association}}</ref> Brattain, equally importantly, "had an intuitive feel for what you could do in semiconductors".<ref name=BraunMacdonald/>{{rp|40}}  Bardeen theorized that the failure to conduct might be the result of local variations in the [[surface state]] which trapped the [[charge carriers]].<ref name=Maze>{{cite book|last1=Hoddeson|first1=Lillian|title=Out of the crystal maze : chapters from the history of solid state physics|date=1992|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0195053296|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WCpPPHhMdRcC&pg=PA467|access-date=March 4, 2015}}</ref>{{rp|467–468}}  Brattain and Bardeen eventually managed to create a small level of amplification by pushing a gold metal point into the silicon, and surrounding it with distilled water. Replacing silicon with germanium enhanced the amplification, but only for low frequency currents.<ref name=Levine/>

On December 16, Brattain devised a method of placing two gold leaf contacts close together on a germanium surface.<ref name=Isaacson/> Brattain reported: "Using this double point contact, contact was made to a germanium surface that had been anodized to 90 volts, electrolyte washed off in H2O and then had some gold spots evaporated on it. The gold contacts were pressed down on the bare surface. Both gold contacts to the surface rectified nicely... One point was used as a grid and the other point as a plate. The bias (D.C.) on the grid had to be positive to get amplification"<ref name=Maze/>

As described by Bardeen, "The initial experiments with the gold spot suggested immediately that holes were being introduced into the germanium block, increasing the concentration of holes near the surface.  The names emitter and collector were chosen to describe this phenomenon.  The only question was how the charge of the added holes was compensated.  Our first thought was that the charge was compensated by surface states. Shockley later suggested that the charge was compensated by electrons in the bulk and suggested the junction transistor geometry... Later experiments carried out by Brattain and me showed that very likely both occur in the point-contact transistor."<ref name=Maze/>{{rp|470}}

On December 23, 1947, Walter Brattain, John Bardeen, and William B. Shockley demonstrated the first working [[transistor]] to their colleagues at Bell Laboratories. Amplifying small electrical signals and supporting the processing of digital information, the transistor is "the key enabler of modern electronics".<ref name=Lundstrom>{{cite book|last1=Lundstrom|first1=Mark|title=Essential Physics of Nanoscale Transistors.|volume=06|date=2014|publisher=World Scientific Pub Co Inc|isbn=978-981-4571-73-9|doi=10.1142/9018|series=Lessons from Nanoscience: A Lecture Notes Series}}</ref>  The three men received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 "for research on semiconductors and the discovery of the transistor effect."<ref name=NWDA/>

Convinced by the 1947 demonstration that a major breakthrough was being made, Bell Laboratories focused intensively on what it now called the ''Surface States Project''.  Initially, strict secrecy was observed. Carefully restricted internal conferences within Bell Labs shared information about the work of Brattain, Bardeen, Shockley and others who were engaged in related research.<ref name=Maze/>{{rp|471}} Patents were registered, recording the invention of the point-contact transistor by Bardeen and Brattain.<ref name=WPost1997/> There was considerable anxiety over whether [[Ralph Bray]] and [[Seymour Benzer]], studying resistance in germanium at [[Purdue University]], might make a similar discovery and publish before Bell Laboratories.<ref name=BraunMacdonald/>{{rp|38–39}}

On June 30, 1948, Bell Laboratories held a press conference to publicly announce their discovery. They also adopted an open policy in which new knowledge was freely shared with other institutions. By doing so, they avoided classification of the work as a military secret, and made possible widespread research and development of transistor technology. Bell Laboratories organized several symposia, open to university, industry and military participants, which were attended by hundreds of scientists in September 1951, April 1952, and 1956. Representatives from international as well as domestic companies attended.<ref name=Maze/>{{rp|471–472, 475–476}}

Shockley believed (and stated) that he should have received all the credit for the discovery of the transistor.<ref name=WPost1997>{{cite news|last1=Kessler|first1=Ronald|title=Absent at the Creation; How one scientist made off with the biggest invention since the light bulb|url=http://www1.hollins.edu/faculty/richter/327/AbsentCreation.htm|access-date=March 5, 2015|work=The Washington Post Magazine|date=April 6, 1997|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150224230527/http://www1.hollins.edu/faculty/richter/327/AbsentCreation.htm|archive-date=February 24, 2015}}</ref><ref name=Cavendish>{{cite book|title=Inventors and inventions.|date=2007|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|location=New York|isbn=978-0761477617|pages=57–68|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Is_rosCeKUC&pg=PA57|access-date=March 5, 2015}}</ref><ref name=Transistorized>{{cite web|title=Shockley, Brattain and Bardeen|url=https://www.pbs.org/transistor/album1/addlbios/egos.html|website=Transistorized|publisher=PBS|access-date=March 5, 2015}}</ref> He actively excluded Bardeen and Brattain from new areas of research,<ref name=Stuff/> in particular the [[junction transistor]], which Shockley patented.<ref name=WPost1997/> Shockley's theory of the junction transistor was an "impressive achievement", pointing the way to future solid-state electronics, but it would be several years before its construction would become practically possible.<ref name=BraunMacdonald/>{{rp|43–44}}

Brattain transferred to another research group within Bell Laboratories, working with C. G. B. Garrett, and P. J. Boddy.  He continued to study the surface properties of solids and the "transistor effect", so as to better understand the various factors underlying semiconductor behavior.<ref name=Bardeen1994/>{{rp|79–81}}<ref name=Carey>{{cite book|last1=Carey|first1=Charles W. Jr.|title=American Scientists|date=2006|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0816054992|pages=39–41|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=00r9waSNv1cC&pg=PA39|access-date=March 5, 2015}}</ref> Describing it as "an intolerable situation", Bardeen left Bell Laboratories in 1951 to go to the [[University of Illinois]],  where he eventually won a second Nobel Prize for his theory of [[superconductivity]].<ref name=WPost1997/>  Shockley  left Bell Laboratories in 1953 and went on to form the [[Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory]] at [[Arnold Orville Beckman|Beckman Instruments]].<ref name=Stuff>{{cite web|title=Walter Houser Brattain|url=http://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/famous-scientists/physicists/walter-houser-brattain-info.htm|website=How Stuff Works|access-date=March 5, 2015|date=July 2010}}</ref><ref name=IEEE20131129>{{cite journal|last=Brock|first=David C.|title=How William Shockley's Robot Dream Helped Launch Silicon Valley|journal=IEEE Spectrum|date=November 29, 2013|url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/innovation/how-william-shockleys-robot-dream-helped-launch-silicon-valley|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131201061757/http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/innovation/how-william-shockleys-robot-dream-helped-launch-silicon-valley|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 1, 2013|access-date=April 10, 2014}}</ref>

In 1956, the three men were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics by [[Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden|King Gustaf VI Adolf]] of Sweden "for research on semiconductors and the discovery of the transistor effect."<ref name=NWDA/> Bardeen and Brattain were included for the discovery of the point-contact transistor; Shockley for the development of the junction transistor. Walter Brattain is credited as having said, when told of the award, "I  certainly appreciate the honor. It is a great satisfaction to have done something in life and to have been recognized for it in this way. However, much of my good fortune comes from being in the right place, at the right time, and having the right sort of people to work with."<ref name=BELLNOBEL/> Each of the three gave a lecture.  Brattain spoke on ''Surface Properties of Semiconductors'',<ref name=NobelBrattain>{{cite journal|last1=Brattain|first1=Walter H.|title= Surface Properties of Semiconductors|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1956/brattain-lecture.html|journal=Science|publisher=Nobelprize.org|date=December 11, 1956|volume=126|issue=3265|pages=151–3|doi=10.1126/science.126.3265.151|pmid=17743910}}</ref> Bardeen on ''Semiconductor Research Leading to the Point Contact Transistor'',<ref name=NobelBardeen>{{cite web|last1=Bardeen|first1=John|title=Semiconductor Research Leading to the Point Contact Transistor|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1956/bardeen-lecture.html|website=Nobel Lecture|publisher=Nobelprize.org|date=December 11, 1956}}</ref>  and Shockley on ''Transistor Technology Evokes New Physics''.<ref name=NobelShockley>{{cite web|last1=Shockley|first1=William|title=Transistor Technology Evokes New Physics|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1956/shockley-lecture.html|website=Nobel Lecture|publisher=Nobelprize.org|date=December 11, 1956}}</ref>

Brattain later collaborated with P. J. Boddy and P. N. Sawyer on several papers on electrochemical processes in living matter.<ref name=Bardeen1994/>{{rp|80}} He became interested in [[blood clotting]] after his son required heart surgery. He also collaborated with Whitman chemistry professor [[David Frasco]], using [[Lipid bilayer|phospholipid bilayers]] as a model to study the surface of living cells and their absorption processes.<ref name=Stuff/>