Terahertz Pioneer: Robert J. Mattauch “Two Terminals Will Suffice”

Robert J. Mattauch did not intend to spend a large part of his technical career on the development of a device as deceptively simple as a Schottky barrier diode. However, that turned out to be case, and it was perhaps one of the best things to ever happen to the THz sensor community. From astronomers and physicists, to spectroscopists and chemists, almost no one who devoted their time towards making precise measurements in the submillimeter wavelength range failed to contact Bob Mattauch at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, to ask for his latest batch of detector diodes. In fact, those of you who were fortunate enough to be present at the Thursday Plenary session of the 39th International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves in Tucson, AZ, USA, this past September 18th, 2014, would have heard several appeals, and even an offer of significant money from Berkeley spectroscopist, Richard J. Saykally, to anyone who could deliver a batch of University of Virginia whisker contacted THz Schottky barrier diodes to his laboratory