Davisson, Clinton Joseph

Davisson, Clinton Joseph (dā`vĭsən), 1881–1958, American physicist, b. Bloomington, Ill. He joined the engineering department of the Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1917. Davisson worked on thermionics, magnetism, and electron diffraction. His demonstrations with L. H. Germer in 1927 confirmed Louis de Broglie's theory of the wave nature of moving electrons by means of diffraction by crystals. For this he shared with G. P. Thomson the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physics.

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Davisson, Clinton Joseph 

Born Nov. 22, 1881, in Bloomington, 111.; died Feb. 1, 1958, in Charlottesville, Va. American physicist.

Davisson received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and his doctorate degree from Princeton University (1911). From 1917 to 1946 he worked at the Bell Telephone laboratories in New York City. In 1946 he became a professor at the University of Virginia. In 1927 he and L. H. Germer discovered the diffraction of electrons by a single crystal of nickel. Davisson also conducted research in thermal radiation, thermoelectronic and thermionic emissions, and electron optics. He received a Nobel Prize in 1937.

WORKS

“Diffraction of Electrons by a Crystal of Nickel.” Physical Review, 1927, vol. 30, no. 6. (With L. H. Germer.)
“Electrons and Quanta.” Journal of the Optical Society, 1929, vol. 18, no. 3.
“The Wave Properties of Electrons.” Science, 1930, vol. 71, no. 1852.
In Russian translation:
“Volny ill elektrony?” Uspekhi fizicheskikh nauk, 1928, vol. 8, issue 4.