Leo Esaki
E35746
Leo Esaki is a Japanese physicist and Nobel laureate renowned for his pioneering work on quantum tunneling and the invention of the Esaki (tunnel) diode.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Leo Esaki canonical | 11 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T262319 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Leo Esaki Context triple: [University of Tokyo, hasNotableAlumni, Leo Esaki]
-
A.
Ivar Giaever
Ivar Giaever is a Norwegian-American physicist and Nobel laureate recognized for his pioneering work on quantum tunneling in superconductors.
-
B.
Sin-Itiro Tomonaga
Sin-Itiro Tomonaga was a Japanese theoretical physicist renowned for his fundamental contributions to quantum electrodynamics, for which he shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics.
-
C.
John Bardeen
John Bardeen was an American physicist and electrical engineer, uniquely renowned for being the only person to win the Nobel Prize in Physics twice for his work on the transistor and superconductivity.
-
D.
John Robert Schrieffer
John Robert Schrieffer was an American physicist and Nobel laureate best known as one of the co-creators of the BCS theory of superconductivity.
-
E.
Yoshio Nishina
Yoshio Nishina was a pioneering Japanese physicist often regarded as the father of modern physics research in Japan, known for his foundational work in quantum electrodynamics and nuclear physics.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Leo Esaki Target entity description: Leo Esaki is a Japanese physicist and Nobel laureate renowned for his pioneering work on quantum tunneling and the invention of the Esaki (tunnel) diode.
-
A.
Ivar Giaever
Ivar Giaever is a Norwegian-American physicist and Nobel laureate recognized for his pioneering work on quantum tunneling in superconductors.
-
B.
Sin-Itiro Tomonaga
Sin-Itiro Tomonaga was a Japanese theoretical physicist renowned for his fundamental contributions to quantum electrodynamics, for which he shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics.
-
C.
John Bardeen
John Bardeen was an American physicist and electrical engineer, uniquely renowned for being the only person to win the Nobel Prize in Physics twice for his work on the transistor and superconductivity.
-
D.
John Robert Schrieffer
John Robert Schrieffer was an American physicist and Nobel laureate best known as one of the co-creators of the BCS theory of superconductivity.
-
E.
Yoshio Nishina
Yoshio Nishina was a pioneering Japanese physicist often regarded as the father of modern physics research in Japan, known for his foundational work in quantum electrodynamics and nuclear physics.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Japanese physicist
ⓘ
Nobel laureate in Physics ⓘ human ⓘ physicist ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
Nobel Prize
ⓘ
Nobel Prize in Physics ⓘ Order of Culture ⓘ Order of the Rising Sun ⓘ |
| birthName | Esaki Reona ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | Japan ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1925-03-12 ⓘ |
| degree | PhD in physics ⓘ |
| educatedAt | University of Tokyo ⓘ |
| employer |
IBM
ⓘ
IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center ⓘ Sony ⓘ |
| familyName | Esaki ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
physics
ⓘ
quantum mechanics ⓘ semiconductor physics ⓘ solid-state physics ⓘ |
| gender | male ⓘ |
| givenName | Reona ⓘ |
| hasLanguage |
English
ⓘ
Japanese ⓘ |
| knownFor |
Esaki diode
ⓘ
Esaki–Tsu relation ⓘ quantum tunneling in semiconductors ⓘ superlattices ⓘ tunnel diode ⓘ |
| memberOf |
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
ⓘ
Japan Academy ⓘ National Academy of Engineering ⓘ |
| name | Leo Esaki self-link ⓘ |
| nativeName | 江崎 玲於奈 ⓘ |
| NobelPrizeCategory | Physics ⓘ |
| NobelPrizeMotivation | for experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors ⓘ |
| NobelPrizeYear | 1973 ⓘ |
| notableInvention |
Esaki diode
ⓘ
Esaki diode ⓘ
surface form:
tunnel diode
|
| placeOfBirth |
Osaka Prefecture
ⓘ
Osaka ⓘ
surface form:
Osaka, Japan
|
| positionHeld |
president of Shibaura Institute of Technology
ⓘ
president of University of Tsukuba ⓘ |
| researchContribution |
demonstration of electron tunneling in heavily doped p–n junctions
ⓘ
development of semiconductor superlattice concept ⓘ |
| sharedNobelPrizeWith |
Brian David Josephson
ⓘ
Ivar Giaever ⓘ |
| workLocation |
Japan
ⓘ
United States of America ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Leo Esaki Description of subject: Leo Esaki is a Japanese physicist and Nobel laureate renowned for his pioneering work on quantum tunneling and the invention of the Esaki (tunnel) diode.
Referenced by (11)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Reona Esaki
subject surface form:
Reona Esaki