Leo Esaki (江崎 玲於奈; correct transcription Esaki Reona; also known as Esaki Leona) (born March 12, 1925) is a Japanese physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 with Ivar Giaever and Brian David Josephson for his discovery of the phenomenon of electron tunneling . He is known for his invention of the Esaki diode , which exploited that phenomenon.
He was born in Osaka, Japan. Studying physics at the University of Tokyo, he received his B.S. in 1947 and his Ph.D. in 1959. His Nobel prize was awarded for research he had conducted around 1958 regarding electron tunneling in solids. He moved to the United States in 1960 and joined the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, where he became an IBM Fellow in 1967.
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