The KFN mourns pioneers

In the last weeks, three grand experimental physicists and neutron researchers died: Prof. Dr. Erich Steichele, Prof. Dr. Johann Peisl and Prof. Dr. Otto Schärpf, SJ. We want to commemorate them and their merits. Erich Steichelebuilt the first neutron guides on the basis of float gas and directed the construction of the first tim-of-flight diffractometer with a 150 m long neutron guide at the Atom-Egg in Garching. His contribution to the first instrumentation of FRM II was substantial. Optimation of the beam tube tips, the "Tanzboden" and the flipped neutron guides of REFSANS are based on his ideas and work. As did Erich Steichele, also Otto Schärpf dedicated his career to neutron research. At ILL he advanced the development of polarized neutrons from 1979 on. There, he realized a completely new type of instrument for the analysis of cold neutrons. As member of the Jesuit order, he als gave spiritual assistance to his collegues and their families. Johann Peisl held the chair of experimental physics at the LMU München from 1974 to 2000 and conducted research in a broad spectrum of structure analysis on solid phases, defects and interfaces with X-ray and neutron scattering. Many of his students are today in important positions using scattering with neutrons and synchrotron radiation. He was founding member of the first KFN (1987-1990). [more]