Then he moved to Berlin where his family had a pharmacy and drugstore, where he started to work. Then he worked in several German laboratories and companies. During this period he studied chemistry in Charlottenburg Polytechnic in Berlin. He specialised in metal chemistry and his most important work involved introduction of aluminium to metal alloys.
The present-day Czochralski method was discovered in 1916. During the investigation of crystallisation rate of metals, he noted that a capillary dipped in a liquid of metal and then slowly lifted above the liquid causes its slow solidification. Using this method Czochralski obtained single crystal metal needles with diameters up to 1 mm. This method was forgotten until the end of the Second World War.
In 1950 the Americans, G.K. Teal and J.B. Little from the Bell Laboratory applied this method to grow germanium single crystals. Now this method is famous world-wide as the Czochralski method of growth single crystals on industrial and laboratory scale. The immense popularity of the Czochralski method today can simply be judged by going through the pages of the Journal of Crystal Growth.
During his stay in Germany, Czochralski wrote several papers, patents and books and was a member of several scientific societies. With his German friends he founded in 1919 German Society for Metals Science (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Metallkunde) and he was its president in 1925.
In 1929 the President of Poland, Ignacy Moscicki (a professor of chemistry) invited him to Poland and he received the position of a professor in the Faculty of Chemistry of the Warsaw University of Technology. At the same time he obtained honorary doctorates.
He invested his money in science and social purposes (his literary and artistic interest). All his research work was devoted to metallurgy and metals science. He did not forget his native Kcynia, where he spent holiday time with his wife, children and his mother in Kcynia.
After the Second World War Czochralski was considered as a collaborator of the Nazis. It should be pointed out he was acquitted of there allegations by the Polish Court. However, he was stripped of his position of a professor in the Warsaw University of Technology, and he came back to Kcynia where he produced cosmetics and household chemicals. He died on April 22, 1953 in Poznan and was buried in Kcynia.
Several publications have appeared on the life and work of Professor Jan Czochralski. Among others, in their Bulletins the American Association for Crystal Growth (Vol. 27, issue 2, autumn 1998, p. 12-18) and the Japanese Association for Crystal Growth (Vol. 26, 1999, p. 63) published articles written by P. E. Tomaszewski and A. Pajaczkowska.
« Back to main page
