NBIA Colloquium by Klaus von Klitzing

(Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, Stuttgart)

Physics and Application of Quantum Hall Effect

Basic research on the most important device in microelectronics, a silicon field effect transistor, led in 1980 to the discovery of the Quantum Hall Effect (QHE). Electrical measurements on such a device demonstrated, that a new type of electrical resistor can be realized, a resistor with a well defined value which depends exclusively on fundamental constants. Today, the word QHE is a synonym for the more general topic of electrons in strong magnetic fields with connections not only to semiconductor physics but also to other research areas like astrophysics (edge states in gravity and black hole physics), high energy physics (quantum Hall quarks), new fields in solid state physics (topological quantum computation and topological insulator) and metrology (fundamental constants). This broad interest in QHE physics explains the high publication rate in this field with more than one publication per day during the past 20 years.
The talk starts with a historical review and will focus on two topics, the application of the QHE in connection with our international system of units (SI units) and some new developments in quantum Hall physics related to exciton condensation.

Refreshments will be available in the NBIA lounge after the
colloquium.