Rise to prominence[edit]
Schön's field of research was condensed matter physics and
nanotechnology.[3] He received his Ph.D. from the University of Konstanz in
1997. In late 1997 he was hired by Bell Labs, located in New Jersey, United
States. There, he worked on electronics in which conventional semiconducting
elements (such as silicon) were replaced by crystalline organic materials.
Specific organic materials can conduct electrical currents, and in a so-
called field-effect transistor (a refined implementation of the transistor
effect, which was pioneered in 1947 in the same laboratory) the conductance
can be switched on or off, a basic function in the field of electronics. Sch
ön, however, claimed spectacular on/off behavior, far beyond anything
achieved thus far with organic materials. His measurements in most cases
confirmed various theoretical predictions, for example that the organic
materials could be made to display superconductivity or be used in lasers.
The findings were published in prominent scientific publications, including
the journals Science and Nature, and gained worldwide attention. However, no
research group anywhere in the world succeeded in reproducing the results
claimed by Schön.[4]
In 2001 he was listed as an author on an average of one newly published
research paper every eight days.[3] In that year he announced in Nature that
he had produced a transistor on the molecular scale. Schön claimed to
have used a thin layer of organic dye molecules to assemble an electric
circuit that, when acted on by an electric current, behaved as a transistor.
The implications of his work were significant. It would have been the
beginning of a move away from silicon-based electronics and towards organic
electronics. It would have allowed chips to continue shrinking past the
point at which silicon breaks down, and therefore continue Moore's Law for
much longer than is currently predicted. It also would have drastically
reduced the cost of electronics.
A key element in Schön's claimed successful observation of various
physical phenomena in organic materials was in the transistor setup,
specifically, a thin layer of aluminium oxide which Schön incorporated
in the transistors using lab-facilities of the University of Konstanz in
Germany. Although the equipment and materials used were commonly used by
laboratories all over the world, no one succeeded in preparing aluminium
oxide layers of similar quality as claimed by Schön.[4]
Allegations and investigation[edit]
As recounted by Dan Agin in his book Junk Science, soon after Schön
published his work on single-molecule semiconductors, others in the physics
community alleged that his data contained anomalies. Lydia Sohn, then of
Princeton University, noticed that two experiments carried out at very
different temperatures had identical noise.[3] When the editors of Nature
pointed this out to Schön, he claimed to have accidentally submitted
the same graph twice. Paul McEuen of Cornell University then found the same
noise in a paper describing a third experiment. More research by McEuen,
Sohn, and other physicists uncovered a number of examples of duplicate data
in Schön's work. This triggered a series of reactions that quickly led
Lucent Technologies (which ran Bell Labs) to start a formal investigation.[5]
In May 2002, Bell Labs set up a committee to investigate with Malcolm
Beasley of Stanford University as chair.[6] The committee obtained
information from all of Schön's coauthors, and interviewed the three
principal ones (Zhenan Bao, Bertram Batlogg and Christian Kloc).[7] It
examined electronic drafts of the disputed papers which included processed
numeric data. The committee requested copies of the raw data but found that
Schön had kept no laboratory notebooks. His raw-data files had been
erased from his computer. According to Schön the files were erased
because his computer had limited hard drive space. In addition, all of his
experimental samples had been discarded, or damaged beyond repair.[3][6]
On September 25, 2002, the committee publicly released its report.[6] The
report contained details of 24 allegations of misconduct. They found
evidence of Schön's scientific misconduct in at least 16 of them. They
found that whole data sets had been reused in a number of different
experiments. They also found that some of his graphs, which purportedly had
been plotted from experimental data, had instead been produced using
mathematical functions.[6]
The report found that all of the misdeeds had been performed by Schön
alone. All of the coauthors (including Bertram Batlogg who was the head of
the team) were exonerated of scientific misconduct. This sparked widespread
debate[8] in the scientific community on how the blame for misconduct should
be shared among co-authors, particularly when they share significant part
of the credit.[6]
Aftermath and sanctions[edit]
Schön acknowledged that the data were incorrect in many of these papers
.[6] He claimed that the substitutions could have occurred by honest mistake
. He admitted to having falsified some data and stated he did so to show
more convincing evidence for behaviour that he observed.
Experimenters at Delft University of Technology and the Thomas J. Watson
Research Center have since performed experiments similar to Schön's,
without achieving similar results.[3] Even before the allegations had become
public, several research groups had tried to reproduce most of his
spectacular results in the field of the physics of organic molecular
materials without success.[5][9]
Schön returned to Germany and took a job at an engineering firm.[9] In
June 2004 the University of Konstanz issued a press release stating that Sch
ön's doctoral degree had been revoked due to "dishonourable conduct".
Department of Physics spokesman Wolfgang Dieterich called the affair the "
biggest fraud in physics in the last 50 years" and said that the "
credibility of science had been brought into disrepute".[10] Schön
appealed the ruling, but on October 28, 2009 it was upheld by the University
.[11] In response, Schön sued the University, and appeared in court to
testify on September 23, 2010. The court overturned the University's
decision on September 27, 2010. However, in November 2010 the University
moved to appeal the court's ruling.[12] The state court ruled in September
2011 that the university was correct in revoking his doctorate.[13] The
Federal Administrative Court upheld the state court's decision in July 2013,
[14] and the Federal Constitutional Court confirmed it in September 2014.[15]
In the meantime, in October 2004, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG,
the German Research Foundation) Joint Committee announced sanctions against
him. The former DFG post-doctorate fellow was deprived of his active right
to vote in DFG elections or serve on DFG committees for an eight-year period
. During that period, Schön will also be unable to serve as a peer
reviewer or apply for DFG funds.[16]
Withdrawn journal papers[edit]
On October 31, 2002, Science withdrew eight papers written by Schön:[17]
J. H. Schön; S. Berg; Ch. Kloc; B. Batlogg (2000). "Ambipolar Pentacene
Field-Effect Transistors and Inverters". Science. 287 (5455): 1022–3.
Bibcode:2000Sci...287.1022S. doi:10.1126/science.287.5455.1022. PMID
10669410. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; Ch. Kloc; R. C. Haddon; B. Batlogg (2000). "A
Superconducting Field-Effect Switch". Science. 288 (5466): 656–8. doi:10.
1126/science.288.5466.656. PMID 10784445. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; Ch. Kloc; B. Batlogg (2000). "Fractional Quantum Hall
Effect in Organic Molecular Semiconductors". Science. 288 (5475): 2338–40.
doi:10.1126/science.288.5475.2338. PMID 17769842. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; Ch. Kloc; A. Dodabalapur; B. Batlogg (2000). "An Organic
Solid State Injection Laser". Science. 289 (5479): 599–601. Bibcode:2000Sci
...289..599S. doi:10.1126/science.289.5479.599. PMID 10915617. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; Ch. Kloc; B. Batlogg (2000). "A Light-Emitting Field-
Effect Transistor". Science. 290 (5493): 963–6. Bibcode:2000Sci...290..963S
. doi:10.1126/science.290.5493.963. PMID 11062124. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; Ch. Kloc; H. Y. Hwang; B. Batlogg (2001). "Josephson
Junctions with Tunable Weak Links". Science. 292 (5515): 252–4. doi:10.1126
/science.1058812. PMID 11303093. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; A. Dodabalapur; Ch. Kloc; B. Batlogg (2001). "High-
Temperature Superconductivity in Lattice-Expanded C60". Science. 293 (5539):
2432–4. Bibcode:2001Sci...293.2432S. doi:10.1126/science.1064773. PMID
11533443. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; Ch. Kloc; A. Dodabalapur; B. Batlogg (2001). "Field-Effect
Modulation of the Conductance of Single Molecules". Science. 294 (5549):
2138–40. doi:10.1126/science.1066171. PMID 11701891. (Retracted)
On December 20, 2002, Physical Review withdrew six papers written by Sch&
ouml;n:[18][19]
J. H. Schön; Ch. Kloc; B. Batlogg (2001). "Hole transport in pentacene
single crystals". Physical Review B. 63: 245201. Bibcode:2001PhRvB..63x5201S
. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.63.245201. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; Ch. Kloc; R. Laudise; B. Batlogg (1998). "Electrical
properties of single crystals of rigid rodlike conjugated molecules".
Physical Review B. 58: 12952. Bibcode:1998PhRvB..5812952S. doi:10.1103/
PhysRevB.58.12952. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; Ch. Kloc; B. Batlogg (2000). "Mobile iodine dopants in
organic semiconductors". Physical Review B. 61: 10803. Bibcode:2000PhRvB..
6110803S. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.61.10803. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; Ch. Kloc; D. Fichou; B. Batlogg (2001). "Conjugation
length dependence of the charge transport in oligothiophene single crystals"
. Physical Review B. 64: 035209. Bibcode:2001PhRvB..64c5209S. doi:10.1103/
PhysRevB.64.035209. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; Ch. Kloc; B. Batlogg (2001). "Low-temperature transport in
high-mobility polycrystalline pentacene field-effect transistors". Physical
Review B. 63: 125304. Bibcode:2001PhRvB..63l5304S. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.63.
125304. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; Ch. Kloc; B. Batlogg (2001). "Universal Crossover from
Band to Hopping Conduction in Molecular Organic Semiconductors". Physical
Review Letters. 86 (17): 3843–6. Bibcode:2001PhRvL..86.3843S. doi:10.1103/
PhysRevLett.86.3843. PMID 11329338. (Retracted)
On February 24, 2003, Applied Physics Letters withdrew four papers written
by Schön:[20][21][22][23]
J. H. Schön; Z. Bao (2002). "Nanoscale organic transistors based on
self-assembled monolayers". Applied Physics Letters. 80 (5): 847. Bibcode:
2002ApPhL..80..847S. doi:10.1063/1.1445804. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; C. Kloc (2001). "Fast organic electronic circuits based on
ambipolar pentacene field-effect transistors". Applied Physics Letters. 79
(24): 4043. Bibcode:2001ApPhL..79.4043S. doi:10.1063/1.1426684. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön (2001). "Plastic Josephson junctions". Applied Physics
Letters. 79 (4): 2208. Bibcode:2001ApPhL..79.2208S. doi:10.1063/1.1408277. (
Retracted)
J. H. Schön; C. Kloc; B. Batlogg (2000). "Perylene: A promising organic
field-effect transistor material". Applied Physics Letters. 77 (23): 3776.
Bibcode:2000ApPhL..77.3776S. doi:10.1063/1.1329634. (Retracted)
On May 2, 2003, Science withdrew another paper written by Schön:[24]
J. H. Schön; M. Dorget; F. C. Beuran; X. Z. Xu; E. Arushanov; M. Lagu&
euml;s; C. Deville Cavellin (2001). "Field-Induced Superconductivity in a
Spin-Ladder Cuprate". Science. 293 (5539): 2430. Bibcode:2001Sci...293.2430S
. doi:10.1126/science.1064204. (Retracted)
On March 20, 2003, Advanced Materials withdrew two papers written by Sch&
ouml;n:[25]
J.H. Schön; H. Meng; Z. Bao (2002). "Self-Assembled Monolayer
Transistors". Advanced Materials. 14 (4): 323–326. doi:10.1002/1521-4095(
20020219)14:4<323::AID-ADMA323>3.0.CO;2-5. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; C. Kloc; J. Wildeman; G. Hadziinoannou (2001). "Gate-
Induced Superconductivity in Oligophenylenevinylene Single Crystals".
Advanced Materials. 13 (16): 1273–1274. doi:10.1002/1521-4095(200108)13:16<
1273::AID-ADMA1273>3.0.CO;2-P. (Retracted)
On March 5, 2003, Nature withdrew seven papers written by Schön:[26]
J. H. Schön; M. Dorget; F. C. Beuran; X. Z. Zu; E. Arushanov; C.
Deville Cavellin; M. Laguës (2001). "Superconductivity in CaCuO2 as a
result of field-effect doping". Nature. 414 (6862): 434–6. Bibcode:
2001Natur.414..434S. doi:10.1038/35106539. PMID 11719801. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; Ch. Kloc; T. Siegrist; M. Steigerwald; C. Svensson; B.
Batlogg (2001). "Superconductivity in single crystals of the fullerene C70."
. Nature. 413 (6858): 831–3. Bibcode:2001Natur.413..831S. doi:10.1038/
35101577. PMID 11677603. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; H. Meng; Z. Bao (2001). "Self-assembled monolayer organic
field-effect transistors.". Nature. 413 (6857): 713–6. Bibcode:2001Natur.
413..713S. doi:10.1038/35099520. PMID 11607026. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; A. Dodabalapur; Z. Bao; Ch. Kloc; O. Schenker; B. Batlogg
(2001). "Gate-induced superconductivity in a solution-processed organic
polymer film.". Nature. 410 (6825): 189–92. Bibcode:2001Natur.410..189S.
doi:10.1038/35065565. PMID 11242074. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; Ch. Kloc; B. Batlogg (2000). "Superconductivity at 52 K in
hole-doped C60.". Nature. 408 (6812): 549–52. Bibcode:2000Natur.408..549S.
doi:10.1038/35046008. PMID 11117735. (Retracted)
J. H. Schön; Ch. Kloc; B. Batlogg (2000). "Superconductivity in
molecular crystals induced by charge injection.". Nature. 406 (6797): 702–4
. Bibcode:2000Natur.406..702S. doi:10.1038/35021011. PMID 10963589. (
Retracted)
J. H. Schön; Ch. Kloc; E. Bucher; B. Batlogg (2000). "Efficient organic
photovoltaic diodes based on doped pentacene.". Nature. 403 (6768): 408–10
. Bibcode:2000Natur.403..408S. doi:10.1038/35000172. PMID 10667788. (
Retracted)
