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OCR for page 227
ERWIN WILHELM MUELLER
1911-1977
BY RUSTUM ROY
E RWIN W. MUELLER, Evan Pugh Research Professor Emeritus of
Physics at the Pennsylvania State University, died on May 17, 1977,
at the age of sixty-five following a stroke suffered at a National
Academy of Sciences meeting in Washington, D.C. He was the
inventor of the field-emission microscope, the field-ion micro-
scope, and the atom-probe field-ion microscope. It is no exaggera-
tion to state that Erwin W. Mueller was the first man to see an atom.
and the various micrographs he obtained with these microscopes
adorn virtually every elementary science school book, encyclope-
dias, and the world's great museums.
He was born on June 13, 1911, in Berlin, Germany, and had his
early education at the Technical University of Berlin. He studied
physics under Nobel Laureate Gustav Hertz and obtained his Dr.
Ing. in physics in the year 1936. Soon afterwards, he conceived the
idea of the field-emission microscope, which enabled him to image
the surface of submicroscopic metal crystals with a resolution of
about twenty angstroms. For the first time, the diffusion and
reconstruction of surface layers could be vividly seen. In 1941 he
discovered the principle of field Resorption, i.e., the removal of
surface atoms at low temperature by the application of a high
positive electric field. This laid the basis for his later concept of
the field-ion microscope. He had by then realized the use of field-
desorbed ions to image their sites at the specimen surface, to
improve the resolution of the field-emission microscope by an
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order of magnitude. However, he was quick to recognize the need
for a million-fold image intensification and prognosticated the
possibility of a field-desorption microscope if only an image inten-
sifier were available. It is only fitting that after nearly thirty years
this was made possible in his own laboratory when under his
direction his student R. I. Walko obtained the first field-desorption
micrograph using a channelplate image intensifier.
In 1951, while at the Fritz Haber Instsitute of the Max Planck
Society in Berlin, he invented the field-ion microscope by supply-
ing the absorbate continuously in the form of a neutral ambient
gas, which in turn could be continuously desorbed in the form of
ions to produce a projection image. However, it took him four
more years before he could finally achieve atomic resolution by
cryogenic cooling of the specimen. "It was a sticky day in August
1955, that I became the first person to see an atom," he often
recalled.
In 1952 he was invited to the United States for a lecture tour.
Immediately after conducting an inspiring colloquium, he was
invited to take a position in the Physics Department of the
Pennsylvania State University as a Professor of Physics. In 1956
he was made Research Professor of Physics and in 1969 he was
named Evan Pugh Research Professor.
In 1967 he introduced the atom-probe field-ion microscope—a
combination of a field-ion microscope with a time-of:flight mass
spectrometer—which opened a new dimension in I;eld-ion micros-
copy. Now, like the mythical Maxwell demon, he could not only see
an atom, but could also pull it out of the tip of the metal and pass it
through the mass spectrometer to ascertain its chemical identity.
This atom-probe microscope is in principle the ultimately sensitive
analytical tool, being capable of analyzing a single atom.
Erwin Mueller's numerous scientific contributions have been
described in his two books, four book chapters, three patents, and
more than 200 papers.
His scientific achievements were recognized by the science com-
munity with numerous awards, such as the Bronze Medal for
outstanding work by the Technical University of Berlin (19361; the
C. F. Gauss Medal, Braunschweig (Laudatio by M. V. Laue) (1952~;
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the Achievement Award by Instrument Society America (1960~;
the H. N. Potts Gold Medal by the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia
(1964~; the Centenary Lectureship Silver Medal by the American
Vacuum Society ~ 1 970~; the John Scott Medal by the City of
Philadelphia (1970~; and the Davisson-Germer Prize of the Ameri-
can Physical Society (1972~. He became the Scientific Member-at-
Large of the Max-Planck Institute, Berlin, in 1957; was elected as a
Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1961; as a Member of
Academy Deutscher Naturforscher, Leopoldina, in 1968; as Hon-
orary Fellow, Royal Microscopical Society, Oxford, in 1969; and as
a Member of the National Academy of Engineering and National
Academy of Sciences in 1975. He served the National Academy of
Engineering Committee on Membership, General Engineering
Peer Group.
Erwin Mueller participated at numerous national and interna-
tional scientific conferences by invitation. He was the Chairman of
the Annual Field Emission Symposium in the years 1957,1965, and
1973 and Chairman of the Division of Electron Physics, American
Physical Society, in 1962-63. He served as a Member of the
editorial boards of' the journals Physics Status Solidi and Surface
~ -
~caence.
An energetic scientific ambassador, he spent his summer vaca-
tions traveling in Europe, particularly France, Germany, and En-
gland, where he helped to establish programs of research in
field-emission and field-ion microscopy. Following invitations to
various institutes in Venezuela, Russia, Israel, Italy, India, and
Japan, he spent weeks lecturing at conferences and seminars in
these countries.
A hands-on scientist with undiminished energy till the end of' his
life, Erwin W. Mueller participated in the construction of' elaborate
instruments. His knowledge of' practical experimental techniques
was enormous. A student could not only benefit from discussing
scientific problems with him, but also learn from him practical
techniques such as glass-blowing of' elaborate apparatus.
His unexpected death was a great loss to his Pennsylvania State
University colleagues and to the scientific community.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
physical society
