USIAS Distinguished Lecture: Klaus von Klitzing
From Quantum Hall Effect to a New System of Units
The quantized Hall resistance (Nobel Prize 1985) plays a crucial role in the implementation of a new international system of units (SI units) since this quantum resistance can be used not only for high precision realizations of electrical standards on the basis of fundamental constants but also for a new realization of a kilogram by comparing electrical and mechanical forces with the Watt balance.
The lecture will give an overview about the development of our present SI system and summarizes the application of the quantum Hall effect in metrology (science of measurement) with a focus on the replacement of the kilogram by a fixed value for the Planck constant.
Professor Klaus von Klitzing is best known for discovery of the integer quantum Hall Effect, for which he was awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Klaus von Klitzing completed his PhD thesis on Galvanomagnetic Properties of Tellurium in Strong Magnetic Fields in 1972 at the University of Würzburg, followed by his habilitation in 1978. He then moved to Clarendon Laboratory in Oxford and to Grenoble High Magnetic Field Laboratory in France (now LNCMI), where he continued to work until becoming a professor at the Technical University of Munich in 1980. Von Klitzing has been a director of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart since 1985.
Today, von Klitzing's research focuses on the properties of low-dimensional electronic systems, typically in low temperatures and in high magnetic fields.
With support from the Labex NIE and the Faculty of Physics and Engineering
