Electron avalanches visualized: Heinz Raether (1909-1986)

Work by Heinz Raether in the 1930s and 1940s, using a combination of cloud chamber techniques and fast-transmission-line generation of HV pulses to record charge carrier swarms in arrested discharges is briefly described. Raether was appointed professor and director of the Institute of Applied Physics at the University of Hamburg, where two main lines of research were followed: electron diffraction and gas breakdown development preceding and including breakdown. The work was summarized by Raether in several extensive review articles and a book that can be considered a classic in the field