Friedrich Carl Alwin Pockels (1865–1913) was a German physicist. He was born in Italy to Captain Theodore Pockels and Alwine Becker. He obtained a doctorate from the University of Göttingen in 1888, and from 1900 to 1913 he was professor of theoretical physics at the University of Heidelberg.
In 1893 he discovered that a steady electric field applied to certain birefringent materials causes the refractive index to vary, approximately in proportion to the strength of the field. The coefficient of proportionality is of the order of 10×10−10 V−1 to 10×10−12 V−1. This phenomenon is now called the Pockels effect.
His sister Agnes Pockels (1862-1935) was also a physicist.
|
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Pockels, Friedrich Carl Alwin |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 1865 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | 1913 |
| Place of death | |
Famous quotes containing the words friedrich and/or carl:
“The essence of the modern state is that the universal be bound up with the complete freedom of its particular members and with private well-being, that thus the interests of family and civil society must concentrate themselves on the state.... It is only when both these moments subsist in their strength that the state can be regarded as articulated and genuinely organized.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“Oh no, it wasn’t the aviators, it was beauty that killed the beast.”
—James Creelman, screenwriter, Ruth Rose, screenwriter, Merian Cooper, and Ernest Schoedsack. Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong)