Bell'S Nobels

In its 80 years, Bell Labs has garnered six prizes in physics

1937—wave Nature Of Matter

By firing an electron beam at a nickel crystal, Clinton J. Davisson showed that the ricocheting electrons diffracted just like electromagnetic waves. His demonstration of the electron's wave nature eventually led to solid-state physics. George P. Thomson shared the prize.

1956—the Transistor

Put semiconductors together the right way and you can make them amplify and switch signals. The invention of the transistor by John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William B. Shockley made all digital devices possible.

1977—electrons In Imperfect Crystals

How do electrons behave inside metal alloys and noncrystalline materials like glass? Philip W. Anderson came up with a quantum mechanical model, work that earned him a Nobel prize, shared with Nevill F. Mott and John H. van Vleck. It found practical applications with the development of memory chips and other solid-state devices.

1978—cosmic Microwave Background

Probing the sky with a radio antenna originally developed for satellite communications, Arno A. Penzias and Robert W. Wilson detected a faint microwave echo of the universe's birth. Their discovery provided key support for the big bang theory.

1997—laser Cooling

By shining converging laser beams at a group of atoms, Steven Chu was able to slow the atoms and reduce their temperature almost to absolute zero. This "optical molasses" effect led to atomic lasers and to improved atomic clocks and navigation devices. Chu shared the prize with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips.

1998—the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect

Using a powerful magnetic field, Horst L. Störmer, Robert B. Laughlin, and Daniel C. Tsui put electrons into a quantum state with liquidlike properties. The phenomenon, called the "fractional quantum Hall effect," is shedding light on the behavior of electrons and other elementary particles.