Introduction

Abstract

Semiconductor science began in 1874. At the end of this year, Ferdinand Braun described his discovery of the rectifying properties of metal—semiconductor contacts in an article entitled Über die Stromleitung durch Schwefelmetalle.¹ This publication deals with an interface-controlled device and, in this, it is an excellent example of the intimate interaction between fundamental research of bulk, surface, as well as interface properties and device physics that has been a characteristic of semiconductor physics since then. The expression Halbleiter or semi-conductor was, most probably, first used by Koenigsberger and Weiss in 1911.