Erwin Wilhelm Müller

see also Erwin Müller

Erwin Wilhelm Müller (or Mueller) (June 13, 1911, in Berlin – May 17, 1977, in Washington D.C.) was a German physicist who invented the field emission microscope, the field ion microscope, and the atom probe. He was the first person to experimentally observe atoms.

Müller studied at the Technical University in Berlin, under Gustav Hertz. He received his degree in engineering in 1935 and his doctorate in 1936. Müller worked at the Siemens Research Laboratory, where he invented the field emission microscope in 1936 that allowed resolutions of 2 nanometers.

Müller married Klara Thüssing in 1939, and their only daughter Jutta was born in 1940. He survived the firebombing of Dresden in 1944. Due to the circumstances of war, he also worked at the Stabilovolt Company, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry, and the Free University of Berlin before taking a teaching appointment at the Technical University in Berlin in 1950 after finally having completed the required habilitation. It was at Technical University Berlin where Müller invented the field ion microscope (which, with a resolution of 0.25 nm, was the first instrument used to observe atoms).

Müller joined the faculty at Pennsylvania State University in 1952, where he remained until his death. He invented the atom probe at Penn State.