Louis Georges Gouy (February 19, 1854 – January 27, 1926) was a French

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

. He is the namesake of the

Gouy balance The Gouy balance, invented by the French physicist Louis Georges Gouy, is a device for measuring the magnetic susceptibility of a sample. Background Amongst a wide range of interest in optics, Brownian motion, and experimental physics, Gouy als ...

, the Gouy–Chapman electric double layer model (which is a relatively successful albeit limited model that describes the electrical double-layer which finds applications in vast areas of studies from physical chemistry to biophysics) and the

Gouy phase In optics, a Gaussian beam is a Light beam, beam of electromagnetic radiation with high Monochrome, monochromaticity whose Envelope (waves), amplitude envelope in the transverse plane is given by a Gaussian function; this also implies a Gaussi ...

. Gouy was born at

Vals-les-Bains Vals-les-Bains (; oc, Vals) is a commune in the Ardèche department in southern France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and te ...

Ardèche Ardèche (; oc, Ardecha; frp, Ardecha) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It is named after the river Ardèche and had a population of 328,278 as of 2019.Académie des sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...

in 1901, and a member in 1913.

Topics investigated

His principal scientific work was related to the following subjects: * The propagation velocity of light waves in dispersive media. * Propagation of spherical waves of small radius. * Distant

diffraction Diffraction is defined as the interference or bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/aperture. The diffracting object or aperture effectively becomes a s ...

(angles of dispersion reaching 150°) *

Electrostatics Electrostatics is a branch of physics that studies electric charges at rest (static electricity). Since classical times, it has been known that some materials, such as amber, attract lightweight particles after rubbing. The Greek word for amber ...

: Inductive capacity of dielectrics * Surface charge * Effect of the magnetic field on the discharge in rarefied gases * Electrocapillarity * Emission capacity of absorbent of the coloured flames * Brownian motion * Measurement of magnetic susceptibility of transition metal complexes with

* The

gouy phase shift In optics, a Gaussian beam is a Light beam, beam of electromagnetic radiation with high Monochrome, monochromaticity whose Envelope (waves), amplitude envelope in the transverse plane is given by a Gaussian function; this also implies a Gaussi ...

, a feature of

Gaussian beam In optics, a Gaussian beam is a beam of electromagnetic radiation with high monochromaticity whose amplitude envelope in the transverse plane is given by a Gaussian function; this also implies a Gaussian intensity (irradiance) profile. Thi ...

Topics investigated

See also

References

Further reading