William Bradford Shockley (born 13.02.1910) - an American physicist, a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1951). Born in London. Graduated from the California Institute of Technology (1932). In 1936—55 he worked at the Bell Telephone Laboratories. In 1955 —58 he was director of the semiconductor laboratory of Beckman Instruments Incorporated, in 1958 —60 president of Shockley Transistor Corporation, in 1960—63 director of Shockley Transistor, and in 1963 — 75 professor at Stanford University.
His work was in the field of solid-state physics and semiconductor physics (energy levels in solids, the theory of dislocations and grain boundaries, experiments and theory on ferromagnetic domains, transistor physics, the theory of vacuum tubes). Discovered the “field effect”, which was of great importance for the invention of the transistor (1948). Proposed a recombination mechanism based on the assumption that defects in a crystal serve as a kind of catalyst for the process of recombination. Proved experimentally the participation of minority carriers in transport processes in solids, and observed the drift and diffusion of holes. Invented a method of producing a diffused base electrode (the diffused-base transistor). Carried out a detailed study of the amplification effect and of the controlled injection of charge carriers in semiconductors and began a large series of studies of the properties of germanium and silicon. In 1949, together with J. Haynes, he carried out an experiment that made it possible to determine directly the mobility and lifetime of minority charge carriers in germanium (the Haynes — Shockley experiment); with G. Suhl he discovered the influence of a magnetic field on the concentration of holes and electrons. In 1949 he predicted the possibility of a triode with a p — n junction, derived the formula for the total current density in a p — n junction (the Shockley equation) and, proceeding from his theory of the p — n junction, proposed the p — n — p transistor. Predicted (1951) the saturation effect in semiconductors and proposed a method of determining effective mass.
Nobel Prize (1956).