The Chemical Heritage Foundation has completed processing the papers of American physicist, inventor and electronics engineer, L. Arthur D’Asaro (1927-2013). The collection spans 91 linear feet and documents D’Asaro’s broad research and development activities at Bell Laboratories and Princeton Optronics, Inc.
From 1955 to 2000, D’Asaro was a member of the research staff at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where he distinguished himself as a pioneer in semiconductor devices and solid-state electronics. His early accomplishments at Bell Laboratories included building a stepping transistor (a precursor to the integrated circuit).
D’Asaro also played an instrumental role in the firm’s development of semiconductor laser technology. In this capacity he contributed mightily to the development of gallium arsenide field effect transistors (FETs), self electro-optic effect devices (SEEDs), and vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). After leaving Bell Laboratories in 2000, he served as a consultant at Princeton Optronics, a manufacturer of VCSELs, based in Mercerville, New Jersey.
The collection is now open for research and a complete finding aid is available at www.chemheritage.org.