Erwin Wilhelm Müller


Erwin Wilhelm Müller was a German physicist who invented the Field Emission Electron Microscope (FEEM), the Field Ion Microscope (FIM), and the Atom-Probe Field Ion Microscope. He and his student, Kanwar Bahadur, were the first people to experimentally observe atoms.

Life and work

Müller was born in Berlin, where he studied at the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg under Gustav Hertz. He received his degree in engineering in 1935 and his doctorate in 1936. Müller worked at the Siemens Research Laboratory, where he invented the field emission microscope in 1936 that allowed resolutions of 2 nanometers.
Müller married Klara Thüssing in 1939, and their only daughter Jutta was born in 1940. Due to the circumstances of war, he also worked at the Stabilovolt Company.
In 1947, he was appointed to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry by Iwan N. Stranski. Here he developed the field ion microscope which, due to its resolution of 0.25 nm, was the first instrument used to observe atoms.
In 1950, he took a teaching appointment at Technische Universität Berlin after finally having completed the required Privatdozent. In 1951, he became professor at the Free University Berlin.
Müller joined the faculty at Pennsylvania State University in 1952, where he remained until his death in 1977. He co-invented the Atom-Probe Field Ion Microscope at Penn State in 1967. He died in Washington D.C.

Honors

Selected bibliography

  • Müller's first FIM paper. According to Melmed, " provided the world's first view of the atomic nature of solid matter and began an entirely new field of study."
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