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| Frank Steglich | |
|---|---|
| Name | Frank Steglich |
| Birth date | 29 October 1942 |
| Birth place | Wiesbaden, Germany |
| Fields | Condensed matter physics, Solid state physics |
| Institutions | Goethe University Frankfurt, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Brookhaven National Laboratory |
| Alma mater | University of Göttingen, Technische Universität Darmstadt |
| Known for | Discovery of heavy-fermion superconductivity in CeCu2Si2 |
| Awards | Max Planck Medal, Nobel Prize considerations |
Frank Steglich
Frank Steglich is a German condensed matter physicist noted for the discovery of unconventional superconductivity in heavy-fermion materials. His work at institutions such as Goethe University Frankfurt, the Max Planck Institute, and international laboratories bridged experiment and theory in studies of correlated electrons, magnetism, and low-temperature physics. Steglich's discovery of superconductivity in CeCu2Si2 transformed research on rare-earth intermetallics, Kondo lattices, and quantum criticality.
Born in Wiesbaden, Steglich studied physics at the University of Göttingen and completed doctoral work at Technische Universität Darmstadt. During his formative years he interacted with researchers associated with the Max Planck Society, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and the Physikalisches Institut, while engaging with experimental groups at the Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Hahn-Meitner-Institut. His early mentors and contemporaries included scientists connected to the University of Heidelberg, the University of Munich, and the University of Cologne, facilitating collaborations with laboratories affiliated with the European Physical Society and the German Physical Society.
Steglich's career encompassed positions at Goethe University Frankfurt, the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, and visiting appointments at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Bell Labs, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. He collaborated with theorists and experimentalists from institutions such as the University of Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Tokyo, and the IBM Research Division. His network extended to researchers at the Royal Society, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, enabling cross-disciplinary work with neutron scattering groups at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and muon-spin rotation teams at PSI and RIKEN.
In 1979 Steglich led the experimental identification of superconductivity in the heavy-fermion compound CeCu2Si2, synthesizing intermetallic samples and measuring specific heat, resistivity, and magnetic susceptibility at millikelvin temperatures. The finding connected phenomena studied in the Kondo problem, the Anderson impurity model, and the Doniach phase diagram with superconducting states previously associated with BCS theory, prompting comparisons with work on uranium-based superconductors such as UBe13 and UPt3. This discovery influenced research in related materials including CeIn3, CeCoIn5, YbRh2Si2, and PuCoGa5, and stimulated theoretical developments by groups led by P. W. Anderson, N. Read, P. Coleman, A. J. Leggett, and S. Doniach.
Steglich pioneered techniques in crystal growth, low-temperature calorimetry, and transport measurements, employing dilution refrigerators, SQUID magnetometry, and ultrasonic attenuation to probe quasiparticle masses, Fermi surfaces, and order-parameter symmetries. His experiments informed models involving Kondo lattice physics, spin-fluctuation mediated pairing, antiferromagnetic quantum critical points, and emergent heavy quasiparticles studied using dynamical mean field theory, renormalization group approaches, and slave-boson methods. Collaborators and interlocutors included researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, ETH Zurich, Princeton University, the Weizmann Institute, and the Kavli Institute, linking his work to developments in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy at SLAC, neutron spectroscopy at Institut Laue-Langevin, and scanning tunneling microscopy at Cornell University.
Steglich received recognition from organizations such as the German Physical Society, the Max Planck Society, and international academies including the Leopoldina and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. His honors encompass prizes and medals awarded by institutions like the Humboldt Foundation, the European Physical Society, and national science foundations in Germany and abroad; his work has been cited in Nobel Prize discussions and celebrated at symposia organized by the American Physical Society and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. He has held honorary positions and visiting professorships at universities including the University of Cambridge, the University of Tokyo, and the École Normale Supérieure.
Steglich’s legacy is evident in the careers of students and postdocs who joined faculties at institutions such as the University of Michigan, Columbia University, and the University of British Columbia, and in research programs at national laboratories including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. His experimental discoveries continue to inform studies of unconventional superconductivity, quantum criticality, and strongly correlated electrons pursued by groups at CERN-related institutes, national academies, and major research universities worldwide. He is remembered alongside contemporaries in condensed matter such as Bertram Batlogg, David Pines, John K. Hulm, G. R. Stewart, and H. v. Löhneysen for transforming understanding of intermetallic superconductors and correlated-electron materials.
Category:German physicists Category:Condensed matter physicists Category:20th-century physicists Category:21st-century physicists