Walter Houser Brattain was born on February 10, 1902, in Amoy (nowXiamen), China, to American parents, Ross R. Brattain and Ottilie Houser. His father was ofScottish descent, while his mother's parents were both immigrants fromStuttgart, Germany.[2][3] Ross was a teacher at the Ting-Wen Institute,[4]: 11 a private school for Chinese boys. Ottilie was a gifted mathematician.[5] Both were graduates ofWhitman College.[3]: 71 [6] Ottilie and baby Walter returned to the United States in 1903, and Ross followed shortly afterward.[4]: 12 The family lived for several years inSpokane, Washington, then settled on acattle ranch nearTonasket, Washington, in 1911.[4]: 12 [3]: 71
Brattain attended high school in Washington, spending one year atQueen Anne High School, two years atTonasket High School, and one year atMoran School for Boys.[7] He then attended Whitman College, where he studied under Benjamin H. Brown (physics) and Walter A. Bratton (mathematics). He received hisB.S. in 1924 with a double major in physics and mathematics.[8] Brattain and his classmatesWalker Bleakney,Vladimir Rojansky, andE. John Workman would all go on to have distinguished careers, later becoming known as "the four horsemen of physics".[3]: 71 Brattain's brotherRobert, who followed him at Whitman College, also became a physicist.[3]: 71
At the time, the telephone industry was heavily dependent on the use ofvacuum tubes to controlelectron flow and amplifycurrent. Vacuum tubes were neither reliable nor efficient, and Bell Labs wanted to develop an alternative technology.[11] As early as the 1930s Brattain worked withWilliam Shockley on the idea of a semiconductor amplifier that used copper oxide, an early and unsuccessful attempt at creating afield-effect transistor. Other researchers at Bell and elsewhere were also experimenting with semiconductors, using materials such asgermanium andsilicon, but the pre-war research effort was somewhat haphazard and lacked strong theoretical grounding.[12]
In 1945, Bell Labs reorganized and created a group specifically to do fundamental research in solid-state physics, relating to communications technologies. Creation of the sub-department was authorized by the vice-president for research,Mervin Kelly.[12] An interdisciplinary group, it was co-led by Shockley and Stanley O. Morgan.[3]: 76 The new group was soon joined byJohn Bardeen.[12] Bardeen was a close friend of Brattain's brother Robert, who had introduced John and Walter in the 1930s.[4] They often played bridge and golf together.[3]: 77 Bardeen was a quantum physicist, Brattain a gifted experimenter in materials science, and Shockley, the leader of their team, was an expert in solid-state physics.[14]
According to theories of the time, Shockley'sfield-effect transistor, a cylinder coated thinly with silicon and mounted close to a metal plate, should have worked. He ordered Brattain and Bardeen to find out why it wouldn't. During November and December, the two men carried out a variety of experiments, attempting to determine why Shockley's device wouldn't amplify.[11] Bardeen was a brilliant theorist;[15] Brattain, equally importantly, "had an intuitive feel for what you could do in semiconductors".[12]: 40 Bardeen theorized that the failure to conduct might be the result of local variations in thesurface state which trapped thecharge carriers.[16]: 467–468 Brattain and Bardeen eventually managed to create a small level of amplification by pushing a gold metal point into the silicon, and surrounding it with distilled water. Replacing silicon with germanium enhanced the amplification, but only for low frequency currents.[11]
On December 16, Brattain devised a method of placing two gold leaf contacts close together on a germanium surface.[14] Brattain reported: "Using this double point contact, contact was made to a germanium surface that had been anodized to 90 volts, electrolyte washed off in H2O and then had some gold spots evaporated on it. The gold contacts were pressed down on the bare surface. Both gold contacts to the surface rectified nicely... One point was used as a grid and the other point as a plate. The bias (D.C.) on the grid had to be positive to get amplification"[16]
As described by Bardeen, "The initial experiments with the gold spot suggested immediately that holes were being introduced into the germanium block, increasing the concentration of holes near the surface. The names emitter and collector were chosen to describe this phenomenon. The only question was how the charge of the added holes was compensated. Our first thought was that the charge was compensated by surface states. Shockley later suggested that the charge was compensated by electrons in the bulk and suggested the junction transistor geometry... Later experiments carried out by Brattain and me showed that very likely both occur in the point-contact transistor."[16]: 470
On December 23, 1947, Brattain, Bardeen, and Shockley demonstrated the first workingtransistor to their colleagues at Bell Labs. Amplifying small electrical signals and supporting the processing of digital information, the transistor is "the key enabler of modern electronics."[17]
Convinced by the 1947 demonstration that a major breakthrough was being made, Bell Labs focused intensively on what it now called theSurface States Project. Initially, strict secrecy was observed. Carefully restricted internal conferences within Bell Labs shared information about the work of Brattain, Bardeen, Shockley and others who were engaged in related research.[16]: 471 Patents were registered, recording the invention of thepoint-contact transistor by Bardeen and Brattain.[18] There was considerable anxiety over whether Ralph Bray andSeymour Benzer, studying resistance in germanium atPurdue University, might make a similar discovery and publish before Bell Labs.[12]: 38–39
On June 30, 1948, Bell Labs held a press conference to publicly announce their discovery. They also adopted an open policy in which new knowledge was freely shared with other institutions. By doing so, they avoided classification of the work as a military secret, and made possible widespread research and development of transistor technology. Bell Labs organized several symposia, open to university, industry and military participants, which were attended by hundreds of scientists in September 1951, April 1952, and 1956. Representatives from international as well as domestic companies attended.[16]: 471–472, 475–476
Shockley believed and stated that he should have received all the credit for the invention of the transistor.[18][19][20] He actively excluded Bardeen and Brattain from new areas of research,[21] in particular thejunction transistor, which Shockley patented.[18] Shockley's theory of the junction transistor was an "impressive achievement", pointing the way to futuresolid-state electronics, but it would be several years before its construction would become practically possible.[12]: 43–44
Brattain transferred to another research group within Bell Labs, working with C. G. B. Garrett, and P. J. Boddy. He continued to study the surface properties of solids and the "transistor effect," so as to better understand the various factors underlying semiconductor behavior.[3]: 79–81 [22] Describing it as "an intolerable situation," Bardeen left Bell Labs in 1951 to go to theUniversity of Illinois, where he eventually won a second Nobel Prize for his theory ofsuperconductivity.[18] Shockley left Bell Labs in 1953 and went on to formShockley Semiconductor Laboratory.[21][23]
In 1956, the three men were jointly awarded theNobel Prize in Physics byKing Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden "for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect."[8] Bardeen and Brattain were included for the discovery of the point-contact transistor; Shockley for the development of the junction transistor. Walter Brattain is credited as having said, when told of the award, "I certainly appreciate the honor. It is a great satisfaction to have done something in life and to have been recognized for it in this way. However, much of my good fortune comes from being in the right place, at the right time, and having the right sort of people to work with."[24] Each of the three gave a lecture. Brattain spoke onSurface Properties of Semiconductors,[25] Bardeen onSemiconductor Research Leading to the Point Contact Transistor,[26] and Shockley onTransistor Technology Evokes New Physics.[27]
Brattain later collaborated with P. J. Boddy and P. N. Sawyer on several papers on electrochemical processes in living matter.[3]: 80 He became interested inblood clotting after his son required heart surgery. He also collaborated with Whitman chemistry professor David Frasco, usingphospholipid bilayers as a model to study the surface of living cells and their absorption processes.[21]
Brattain taught atHarvard University as a visiting lecturer in 1952 and at Whitman College as a visiting lecturer in 1962 and 1963, and a visiting professor beginning in 1963. Upon formally retiring from Bell Laboratories in 1967, he continued to teach at Whitman, becoming an adjunct professor in 1972. He retired from teaching in 1976 but continued to be a consultant at Whitman.[8]
At Whitman, the Walter Brattain Scholarships are awarded on a merit basis to "entering students who have achieved high academic excellence in their college preparatory work." All applicants for admission are considered for the scholarship, which is potentially renewable for four years.[28]
Brattain married twice. His first wife was chemist Keren Gilmore. They were married in 1935 and had a son, William, in 1943. Keren died on April 10, 1957.[29] The following year, Brattain married Emma Jane (Kirsch) Miller, a mother of three children.[8]
^abSusan Heller Anderson (October 14, 1987)."Walter Brattain, Inventor, Is Dead".New York Times. RetrievedDecember 8, 2014.Walter H. Brattain, who shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in physics for the invention of the transistor, died yesterday of Alzheimer's Disease in a nursing home in Seattle. He was 85 years old. ...
^abcdefBraun, Ernest; Macdonald, Stuart (1982).Revolution in miniature : the history and impact of semiconductor electronics (2nd. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0521289030.
^Lundstrom, Mark (2014).Essential Physics of Nanoscale Transistors. Lessons from Nanoscience: A Lecture Notes Series. Vol. 06. World Scientific Pub Co Inc.doi:10.1142/9018.ISBN978-981-4571-73-9.
^"William Brattain Obituary - Tigard, OR".Dignity Memorial. RetrievedMarch 8, 2024.Son of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Walter H. Brattain [...] to inter his ashes beside his father in Pomeroy City Cemetery, Pomeroy, Washington.
