Thirtieth Anniversary of the Discovery of the Quantum Hall Effect

The discovery of the QHE 30 years ago was a by-product of basic research on silicon field effect transistors. 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 research 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 of about one publication per day.

The talk will cover historical aspects of the discovery of the QHE with a focus on applications in metrology but in addition some recent research activities in the field of quantum Hall physics will be presented.

Anyone outside NIST wishing to attend must be sponsored by a NIST employee and receive a visitor badge. For more information, call Kum J. Ham at 301-975-4203.

Colloquia are videotaped and available in the NIST Research Library.

Klaus v. Klitzing
1985 Nobel Laureate in Physics
Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung