Luigi Puccianti (; 11 June 1875 – 9 June 1952) was an Italian physicist.
Career
In 1899–1900, Puccianti constructed a highly sensitive
spectrograph
An optical spectrometer (spectrophotometer, spectrograph or spectroscope) is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify mate ...
, with which he studied the infrared absorption of many compounds and attempted to correlate the spectra with molecular structure. He studied the
emission spectra
The emission spectrum of a chemical element or chemical compound is the spectrum of frequencies of electromagnetic radiation emitted due to an electron making a atomic electron transition, transition from a high energy state to a lower energy st ...
of metals and
halogen
The halogens () are a group in the periodic table consisting of five or six chemically related elements: fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), iodine (I), astatine (At), and tennessine (Ts). In the modern IUPAC nomenclature, this group is ...
s and proposed measuring the wavelength of
X-rays
An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 Picometre, picometers to 10 Nanometre, nanometers, corresponding to frequency, ...
by using a diffraction grating at large angles of incidence.
Puccianti was, at one time, the academic advisor to
Nobel prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
winner
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and ...
. He once said there was little he could teach Fermi, and often asked Fermi to teach him something instead.
References
20th-century Italian physicists
1875 births
1952 deaths
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