This article is about historical crystal detectors. For modern crystal detectors, see Diode § Radio demodulation.
Galena cat whisker detector used in early crystal radioPrecision crystal detector with iron pyrite crystal, used in commercial wireless stations, 1914. The crystal is inside the metal capsule under the vertical needle (right). The leaf springs and thumbscrew allow fine adjustment of the pressure of the needle on the crystal.
The "asymmetric conduction" of electric current across electrical contacts between a crystal and a metal was discovered in 1874 by Karl Ferdinand Braun.[6] Crystals were first used as radio wave detectors in 1894 by Jagadish Chandra Bose in his microwave experiments.[7][8] Bose first patented a crystal detector in 1901.[9] The crystal detector was developed into a practical radio component mainly by G. W. Pickard,[4][10][11] who discovered crystal rectification in 1902 and found hundreds of crystalline substances that could be used in forming rectifying junctions.[2][12] The physical principles by which they worked were not understood at the time they were used,[13] but subsequent research into these primitive point contact semiconductor junctions in the 1930s and 1940s led to the development of modern semiconductor electronics.[1][4][14][15]
The unamplified radio receivers that used crystal detectors are called crystal radios.[16] The crystal radio was the first type of radio receiver that was used by the general public,[14] and became the most widely used type of radio until the 1920s.[17] It became obsolete with the development of vacuum tube receivers around 1920,[1][14] but continued to be used until World War II and remains a common educational project today thanks to its simple design.
^ abcdCite error: The named reference Braun was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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^Cite error: The named reference Hickman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Seitz, Frederick; Einspruch, Norman (4 May 1998). The Tangled History of Silicon in Electronics. Silicon Materials Science and Technology: Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Silicon Materials Science and Technology, Vol. 1. San Diego: The Electrochemical Society. pp. 73–74. ISBN9781566771931. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
^U.S. patent 755,840 Jagadis Chunder Bose, Detector for Electrical Disturbances, filed: 30 September 1901, granted 29 March 1904
^U.S. patent 836,531 Greenleaf Whittier Pickard, Means for Receiving Intelligence Communicated by Electric Waves, filed: 30 August 1906, granted: 20 November 1906
^"...crystal detectors have been used [in receivers] in greater numbers than any other [type of detector] since about 1907." Marriott, Robert H. (September 17, 1915). "United States Radio Development". Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers. 5 (3): 184. doi:10.1109/jrproc.1917.217311. S2CID51644366. Retrieved 2010-01-19.