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Russell Ohl
 
 
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Russell Ohl (1898 - 1987) was an American engineer who is generally recognized for patent
Patent

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor or his assignee for a term of patent in exchange for a disclosure of an invention....
ing the modern solar cell
Solar cell

A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is a device that converts sunlight directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. Sometimes the term solar cell is reserved for devices intended specifically to capture energy from sunlight, while the term photovoltaic cell is used when the source is unspecified....
 (US Patent 2402662, "Light sensitive device"). Ohl was a notable semiconductor
Semiconductor

A semiconductor is a material that has electrical conductivity between those of a Electrical conductor and an electrical insulation; it can vary over that wide range either permanently or dynamically....
 researcher prior to the invention of the transistor
Transistor

In electronics, a transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used to Electronic amplifier or switch Electronics signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit....
. He is also known as Russell Shoemaker Ohl or R.S. Ohl.

Russell Ohl’s specialized area of research was into the behavior of certain types of crystal
Crystal

A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions....
s. He worked on materials research in the 1930’s at AT&T
AT&T

AT&T Inc. is the largest US provider of both local and long distance telephone services, and Digital subscriber line Internet access. AT&T is the second largest provider of wireless service in the United States, with over 77 million wireless customers, and more than 150 million total customers....
's Bell Labs
Bell Labs

Bell Laboratories is the research organization of Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company .Bell Laboratories has had its headquarters at Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, and it has research and development facilities throughout the world....
’ Holmdel facility, investigating diode detectors suitable for high-frequency wireless
Wireless

Wireless communication is the transfer of information over a distance without the use of electrical conductors or "wires". The distances involved may be short or long ....
, broadcasting
Broadcasting

Broadcasting is distribution of Sound and/or video Signalling s which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults....
, and military
Military

A military is an organization authorized by its nation to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or Threat of force ....
 radar
Radar

Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic radiation waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain....
.






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Encyclopedia


Russell Ohl (1898 - 1987) was an American engineer who is generally recognized for patent
Patent

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor or his assignee for a term of patent in exchange for a disclosure of an invention....
ing the modern solar cell
Solar cell

A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is a device that converts sunlight directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. Sometimes the term solar cell is reserved for devices intended specifically to capture energy from sunlight, while the term photovoltaic cell is used when the source is unspecified....
 (US Patent 2402662, "Light sensitive device"). Ohl was a notable semiconductor
Semiconductor

A semiconductor is a material that has electrical conductivity between those of a Electrical conductor and an electrical insulation; it can vary over that wide range either permanently or dynamically....
 researcher prior to the invention of the transistor
Transistor

In electronics, a transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used to Electronic amplifier or switch Electronics signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit....
. He is also known as Russell Shoemaker Ohl or R.S. Ohl.

Russell Ohl’s specialized area of research was into the behavior of certain types of crystal
Crystal

A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions....
s. He worked on materials research in the 1930’s at AT&T
AT&T

AT&T Inc. is the largest US provider of both local and long distance telephone services, and Digital subscriber line Internet access. AT&T is the second largest provider of wireless service in the United States, with over 77 million wireless customers, and more than 150 million total customers....
's Bell Labs
Bell Labs

Bell Laboratories is the research organization of Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company .Bell Laboratories has had its headquarters at Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, and it has research and development facilities throughout the world....
’ Holmdel facility, investigating diode detectors suitable for high-frequency wireless
Wireless

Wireless communication is the transfer of information over a distance without the use of electrical conductors or "wires". The distances involved may be short or long ....
, broadcasting
Broadcasting

Broadcasting is distribution of Sound and/or video Signalling s which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults....
, and military
Military

A military is an organization authorized by its nation to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or Threat of force ....
 radar
Radar

Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic radiation waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain....
. His work was only understood by a handful of scientists in the organization, one of whom was Dr. Walter Brattain (one of the trio who invented the germanium bipolar transistor in 1947, and who would be awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956).

Ohl, in 1939, discovered the PN barrier (or as it became known, the “P–N junction”). At the time hardly anyone knew anything about the impurities within these crystals, but Russell Ohl discovered the mechanism by which it worked. It was the impurities which made some sections more resistant to electrical flow than others, and thus it was the "barrier" between these areas of different purity that made the crystal work. Ohl later found that super-purifying germanium
Germanium

Germanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is a lustrous, hard, greyish-white metalloid in the carbon group, chemically similar to its group neighbors tin and silicon....
 was the key to making repeatable and usable semiconductor material for diode
Diode

In electronics, a diode is a two-terminal device .Diodes have two active electrodes between which the signal of interest may flow, and most are used for their unidirectional electric current property....
s. All diodes (incl. LEDs, laser diodes etc) are descendants of Ohl's work. His work with diodes led him later to develop the first silicon solar cells.

See also


  • Battery
    Battery (electricity)

    In electronics, a battery or voltaic cell is a combination of one or more electrochemical cell Galvanic cells which store chemical energy that can be converted into electric potential energy, creating electricity....
  • Solar cell
    Solar cell

    A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is a device that converts sunlight directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. Sometimes the term solar cell is reserved for devices intended specifically to capture energy from sunlight, while the term photovoltaic cell is used when the source is unspecified....
  • Transistor
    Transistor

    In electronics, a transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used to Electronic amplifier or switch Electronics signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit....


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