German-born American physicist Hans Georg Dehmelt won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1989. Dehmelt developed techniques for isolating and studying individual atoms and particles.
Hans Georg Dehmelt, born in 1922, German American physicist and Nobel Prize winner. Dehmelt is noted for developing techniques for isolating and studying individual atoms and particles, enabling researchers to better study fundamental atomic properties. For this work, he shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in physics with German physicist Wolfgang Paul and American physicist Norman Foster Ramsey.
Born in Görlitz, Germany, Dehmelt earned his Ph.D. degree in 1950 at the University of Göttingen. He was a research fellow for several years at Hans Kopfermann's Institute in Göttingen. In 1952 Dehmelt went to the United States, where he conducted research at Duke University. In 1955 he joined the faculty of the University of Washington, where he continues his research and teaching.
Building on the work of Wolfgang Paul, Dehmelt experimented with a three-dimensional electric field (the Paul trap) to suspend ions in a small area. By adding a strong magnetic field to the device, Dehmelt in 1973 was able to isolate and store a single electron. He used this device, called a Penning trap, to study the magnetic properties and spin states of electrons. Dehmelt also developed a technique to cool the particles being studied to slow down their movement, which improved the accuracy of the measurements being taken. These measurements proved to be so precise that they provided verification of fundamental theories in quantum theory (the science relating to mass and electromagnetic radiation in atoms).
Dehmelt continued to perfect his techniques for studying atomic particles. He improved the accuracy of his magnetic measurements in electrons, achieving an accuracy of just a few parts in a trillion. In 1980 he successfully isolated, cooled, and photographed a single ion in the Penning trap. Numerous other researchers have put this technique to use in studying the mass of atoms and atomic particles.
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