Jean-Baptiste Franck

Jean-Baptiste Franck was a French physicist known for his work in atomic physics and spectroscopy. He is most famous for discovering the Franck-Hertz experiment with Gustav Hertz in 1914, which provided crucial evidence for the quantum theory by showing that electrons collide with atoms in discrete energy levels. This experiment supported the idea that energy is quantized, meaning atoms can only exist in specific energy states. Franck’s research greatly advanced our understanding of atomic structure and quantum mechanics, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1925 for this pioneering work.