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James F. Ziegler (1935–2024)

James F. Ziegler died on 14 May 2024, aged 89 [O24]. A great deal of what the field of ion stopping shares today, its compiled measurements, its bibliography, its reference books and its best-known simulation program, exists because of his work. lindhard builds on that legacy, as an independent implementation written from the published physics. This page records his professional life and work. It is not written or endorsed by Ziegler or his estate, and nothing here implies that they endorse lindhard.

Life and career

Ziegler was born on 20 April 1935 in Gary, Indiana [O24]. He studied at Yale University, where he completed a Ph.D. in physics in 1967 [B-JFZ]. The obituary adds that he began in electrical engineering, served in the US Navy, and studied physics at the University of Cincinnati before returning to Yale [O24].

He joined IBM Research in 1967 and stayed until 2000, mostly at Yorktown Heights, New York. He worked on ion channeling, ion implantation for making semiconductor devices, and radiation damage, and from 1975 to 2000 managed IBM’s radiation science group [B-JFZ]. He then taught as a professor at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland [B-JFZ, O24].

He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society (1980) and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (1996), and received a von Humboldt Senior Scientist prize (1987) for work on the theory of ion implantation [B-JFZ, O24].

Work

The Stopping and Ranges of Ions in Matter series. Between 1977 and 1985 Ziegler wrote or co-wrote a run of volumes that collected stopping powers and range distributions for ions in all elements, with Andersen (hydrogen), himself (helium), and Littmark (range distributions) [AZ77, Z78, LZ80, Z80]. The first volume of the series, with Biersack and Littmark, is The Stopping and Range of Ions in Solids (Pergamon, 1985) [ZBL85]. It contains the universal interatomic potential known as ZBL and the computational methods behind SRIM; lindhard’s ZBL potential is taken from the published description of it.

SRIM. With Biersack and other co-authors he developed the program, first TRIM [BH80] and then SRIM, that made Monte Carlo calculation of ion ranges routine in laboratories and fabs [ZZB10]. SRIM has been distributed since the mid-1980s. The SRIM site, srim.org, also carries his historical review of the field [S03]; see the history chapter.

Compiled measurements. He assembled, over decades, a bibliography of published measurements of stopping and range, and used the measurements it indexes in his stopping-power volumes [Z77]. Preserving that literature is part of why this chapter exists.

Cosmic rays and electronics. In 1979 Ziegler and Lanford showed that cosmic-ray secondaries can flip bits in computer memories at sea level [ZL79]. Ziegler returned to the subject for years afterwards [Z96], and the 1979 paper became a starting point for the study of soft errors in terrestrial electronics [B-JFZ].

  • Obituary, The Block Island Times, 7 June 2024, on Legacy.com: O24. “New Shoreham, RI” there is the newspaper’s location, not his. This page does not use the family or guestbook sections of the obituary, which are for the reader to visit there.
  • Professional biography on srim.org: live URL (not found at the time of writing), Internet Archive copy, 2024-08-10 [B-JFZ].
  • srim.org: home page and historical review.

References

  • [AZ77] H. H. Andersen and J. F. Ziegler, Hydrogen Stopping Powers and Ranges in All Elements (Pergamon, New York, 1977). (No DOI; title and series as listed in the srim.org review and Ziegler’s biography; no library record checked.)
  • [BH80] J. P. Biersack and L. G. Haggmark, Nucl. Instrum. Methods 174, 257 (1980), doi:10.1016/0029-554X(80)90440-1.
  • [B-JFZ] “James F. Ziegler, professional biography,” srim.org (Internet Archive copy of 2024-08-10, linked above).
  • [LZ80] U. Littmark and J. F. Ziegler, Handbook of Range Distributions for Energetic Ions in All Elements (Pergamon, New York, 1980). (No DOI; as for [AZ77].)
  • [O24] Obituary of James Ziegler, The Block Island Times, 7 June 2024. (The page returned an access-denied status to an automated fetch, so the facts taken from it were supplied by the project operator from a copy of the obituary, and those that also appear in [B-JFZ] were cross-checked there.)
  • [S03] J. F. Ziegler, “Historical review,” srim.org; see the history chapter.
  • [Z77] J. F. Ziegler, Bibliography of Experimental Range and Stopping Power Data (Pergamon, 1977), as listed in [B-JFZ]. (No DOI; no library record checked.)
  • [Z78] J. F. Ziegler, Helium Stopping Powers and Ranges in All Elements (Pergamon, New York, 1978). (No DOI; as for [AZ77].)
  • [Z80] J. F. Ziegler, Handbook of Stopping Cross-Sections for Energetic Ions in All Elements (Pergamon, New York, 1980). (No DOI; as for [AZ77].)
  • [Z96] J. F. Ziegler, “Terrestrial cosmic rays,” IBM J. Res. Dev. 40, 19 (1996), doi:10.1147/rd.401.0019.
  • [ZBL85] J. F. Ziegler, J. P. Biersack, U. Littmark, The Stopping and Range of Ions in Solids, vol. 1 of The Stopping and Ranges of Ions in Matter (Pergamon, New York, 1985); see the history chapter [Z85].
  • [ZL79] J. F. Ziegler and W. A. Lanford, “Effect of cosmic rays on computer memories,” Science 206, 776 (1979), doi:10.1126/science.206.4420.776.
  • [ZZB10] J. F. Ziegler, M. D. Ziegler, J. P. Biersack, “SRIM – The stopping and range of ions in matter (2010),” Nucl. Instrum. Methods B 268, 1818 (2010), doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2010.02.091.