Leo Esaki

Reona Esaki (江崎 玲於奈 Esaki Reona, born March 12, 1925), also known as Leo Esaki, is a Japanese physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 with Ivar Giaever and Brian David Josephson for his work in electron tunneling in semiconductor materials which finally led to his invention of the Esaki diode, which exploited that phenomenon. This research was done when he was with Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (now known as Sony). He has also contributed in being a pioneer of the semiconductor superlattices. Early life and education Esaki was born in Takaida-mura, Nakakawachi-gun, Osaka Prefecture (now part of Higashiōsaka City) and grew up in Kyoto, near by Kyoto Imperial University and Doshisha University. He first had contact with American culture in . After graduating from the Third Higher School, he studied physics at Tokyo Imperial University, where he had attended Hideki Yukawa's course in nuclear theory in October 1944. Also, he lived through the Bombing of Tokyo while he was at college. Esaki received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in 1947 and 1959, respectively, from the University of Tokyo (UTokyo). Career