Peter Andreas Grünberg ( German: Peter Andreas Grünberg ; May 18, 1939 , Plzen , present Czech Republic - April 7, 2018 , Jülich , Germany [1] ) is a German physicist specializing in solid-state physics. His most famous discovery is the effect of giant magnetoresistance (EHMS), for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2007 (together with Albert Fert ) [2]
| Peter Grunberg | |
|---|---|
| Peter Andreas Grünberg | |
 | |
| Date of Birth | May 18, 1939 |
| Place of Birth | Pilsen , Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia |
| Date of death | April 7, 2018 (78 years old) |
| Place of death | Julich , Germany |
| A country |  Germany |
| Scientific field | physics |
| Place of work | |
| Alma mater | |
| Academic degree | |
| Awards and prizes |  Nobel Prize in Physics ( 2007 )  |
Biography
After moving to Germany, Grünberg lived with his parents in the city of Lauterbach in the federal state of Hesse . In 1959, he passed the university entrance exams (Abitur). Since 1962, he studied at Frankfurt University and at the University of Darmstadt Technical University . From 1966 to 1969 Grünberg completed postgraduate studies with Professor Stefan Güfner on the topic “Spectroscopic studies of some rare-earth garnets” and defended his thesis in 1969, receiving a Ph.D. He then spent three years at Carleton University in Ottawa . Since 1972, he worked as a research fellow at the Julich Research Center . Since retiring in 2004, Grünberg has worked as a visiting scholar at the Jülich Research Center at the Institute for the Study of the Solid State, Department of Electronic Properties.
Works
Grünberg was one of the first to study the magnetic properties of thin films. This area of research studies the spin properties of materials and is called spintronics . The research results allowed us to create new, smaller electronic devices. In 1986, Grünberg discovered an anti-ferromagnetic relationship in the layers of iron and chromium . At the end of 1987, Grünberg discovered, almost simultaneously with Albert Firth , the giant magnetoresistance effect, with the help of which in the late 1990s it was possible to sharply increase the capacity of hard disk drives. The principle of operation of the majority of information recording / reading heads as of 2007 was based on this effect. The license fee for the use of patents (starting with patent DE 3.820.475 “magnetic field sensors with a thin ferromagnetic layer”, application date 06/16/1988) is received at the Institute in Yulich and amounts to double-digit millionths.
Awards and titles
- International Award for New Materials (1994)
- Europhysics Prize (1997)
- Wolf Prize in Physics (2006/7)
- Nobel Prize in Physics (2007)
- Japan Prize (2007)
Notes
Links
- Biography on the website of the Julich Research Center (German)
- Gruenberg article in the journal Phys. Rev. B, describing EGMS. (Article in the public domain)
- P.A. Grunberg . "From spin waves to giant magnetoresistance and beyond." Nobel Lecture , Physics-Uspekhi , Volume 178, Issue 12, December 2008