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Charles H. Henry was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, on May 6, 1937. He received an MS. degree in physics in 1959 from the University of Chicago, and a PhD degree in physics in 1965 from the University of Illinois, under the direction of Charlie Slichter. In March, 2008, he was featured in an article in the ''Physics Illinois News'',〔(Article ), ''Physics Illinois News'', 2008.〕 a publication of the Physics Department of the University of Illinois. Henry's entire professional career was spent in the research area of Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. He joined Bell Laboratories in 1965 as a member of technical staff. From 1971 to 1975, he was head of the Semiconductor Electronics Research Department. He retired from Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories in 1997 as a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff. He has published 133 technical papers and holds 28 patents, including a 1976 patent covering what is now called the quantum well laser. Throughout his career, Henry worked at the forefront of semiconductor-based optical technologies and science: light-emitting diodes, semiconductor lasers, and photonic integrated circuits. He was an inventor as well as an experimenter, with a particular interest in understanding the theory underlying semiconductor optical devices. ==Quantum wells== The idea of the quantum well occurred to Henry in late 1972. While thinking about optical waveguides, Henry suddenly realized that a double heterostructure is a waveguide for electrons, and that a heterostructure with a thin central active layer would have discrete electron modes. Such a heterostructure was later named a quantum well, and the modes are the electron states of the quantum well.〔The name quantum well was introduced into semiconductor laser physics in the late 1970s in the papers of N. Holonyak and his students.〕 Henry further realized that these discrete electron states would greatly alter the optical absorption edge of the semiconductor. Instead of the absorption being a smooth curve steeply rising with optical energy, it would consist of a series of steps. In early 1973, he proposed to R. Dingle that he look for these steps, and they were observed and reported in 1974 in a paper the pair wrote with W. Wiegmann.〔R. Dingle, W. Wiegmann, and C. H. Henry, "Quantum States of Confined Carriers in Very Thin AlxGa(1–x)As-GaAs-AlxGa(1–x)As Heterostructures," ''Phys. Rev. Lett.'' 33, 827 (1974).〕 After Dingle’s experiment showed the reality of Henry's predicted quantum effects, Henry realized that the quantum well structure would alter the density of states of the semiconductor and result in an improved semiconductor laser. He also realized that the laser wavelength could be changed merely by changing the thickness of the thin quantum well layers, whereas in a conventional laser, a change in wavelength requires a change in layer composition. On March 7, 1975, Henry and Dingle filed a patent entitled "Quantum Effects in Heterostructure Lasers," which was issued on Sept. 21, 1976.〔U.S. Patent No. 3,982,207, filed on March 7, 1975, issued Sept. 21, 1976, "Quantum Effects in Heterostructure Lasers"; inventors Raymond Dingle and Charles Howard Henry.〕 The story of the origin of the quantum well laser is told by Henry in the foreword to ''Quantum Well Lasers'', edited by Peter S. Zory, Jr. (1993).〔Charles H. Henry, Foreword, "The Origin of Quantum Wells and the Quantum Well Laser," in ''Quantum Well Lasers'', ed. Peter S. Zory, Jr. (San Diego, California, Academic Press, 1993), of the series ''Quantum Electronics—Principles and Applications'', ISBN 0-12-781890-1.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Charles H. Henry」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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