science · 17 November 2000 · 25 years ago
death
Died 17 Nov 2000 at age 95 (born 22 Nov 1904).
Louis-Eugène-Félix Néel was a French physicist who shared, (with the Swedish astrophysicist Hannes Alfvén) the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1970 for his pioneering studies of the magnetic properties of solids. His contributions to solid-state physics have found numerous useful applications, particularly in the development of improved computer memory units. About 1930 he suggested that a new form of magnetic behavior might exist - called antiferromagnetism. Above a certain temperature (the Néel temperature) this behaviour stops. Néel pointed out (1947) that materials could also exist showing ferrimagnetism. Néel has also given an explanation of the weak magnetism of certain rocks, making possible the study of the past history of the Earth's magnetic field.
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