Klaus von Klitzing

Klaus-Olaf von Klitzing (born June 28, 1943 in Schroda , Reichsgau Wartheland ) is a German physicist . In 1985 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of the quantized Hall effect ” in the Grenoble high-field magnet laboratory on February 5, 1980.

family

He comes from the old Mittelmark noble family Klitzing , which was first mentioned in 1265, and is the son of Bogislaw von Klitzing (* 1907), chief forester at the Chamber of Agriculture , and Anny Ulbrich (* 1913).

His grandfather was the Poznan general landscape director Bogislaw von Klitzing , a member of the Prussian manor house .

Life

As a refugee, Klitzing and his family came to Lutten ( Vechta district ) in 1945 . From 1948 to 1951 the family lived in Oldenburg , where Klitzing started school in Brüderstraße in 1949. In 1951 the family moved to Essen ( Cloppenburg district ), where they lived on the upper floor of the town hall until 1968. Klitzing passed his Abitur in February 1962 at the Artland-Gymnasium Quakenbrück ( district of Osnabrück ).

Klitzing then studied physics at the Technical University of Braunschweig . He completed his studies in March 1969 with a diploma (diploma thesis with Franz-Rudolf Keßler).

Until November 1980 he worked with Gottfried Landwehr at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg . There he wrote his doctoral thesis in 1972 on the subject of galvanomagnetic properties of tellurium in strong magnetic fields , followed by his habilitation in 1978 .

He also worked on research from 1975 to 1976 at the Clarendon Laboratory in Oxford and from 1979 to 1980 at the High Field Magnetic Laboratory in Grenoble, where he made the decisive discovery for the quantum Hall effect.

As early as 1980, the Technical University of Munich appointed Klitzing to a professorship for solid state physics , and in spring 1985 he moved to Stuttgart as a member of the board of directors at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research . In the same year the University of Stuttgart appointed him honorary professor .

Since 1996 he has been a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , which has been the National Academy of Sciences since 2008.

Klitzing is a member of the jury for the German Business Innovation Prize . He is also the namesake and jury member of the Klaus von Klitzing Prize , a sponsorship prize for committed teachers of natural science subjects, which is awarded in cooperation by the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg and the EWE Foundation .

Klitzing is a passionate advertiser for basic research and tries again and again to arouse curiosity and enthusiasm for physics. He is a member of numerous scientific academies in several countries and holds honorary doctorates from universities in nine nations.

On May 20, 2019, a new definition of the units of measurement kilogram, ampere, kelvin and mole came into force, in which the Von Klitzing constant played a decisive role for the kilogram.

Nobel Prize

Klaus von Klitzing received the undivided Nobel Prize in Physics in 1985 for his discovery of the quantum Hall effect . The decisive measurement was made on the night of February 5, 1980 and brought the knowledge that the measured Hall resistances are integral parts of a quantity that is determined by two natural constants ( Planck's constant h and the elementary charge e ) and thus one again is a universal natural constant. Since it has the dimension of an electrical resistance , the Von Klitzing constant has since been used as a universal reference value for resistance that is the same all over the world. In 1990 an international agreement stipulated the implementation of the electrical unit of measurement, the ohm, using Von Klitzing's constant. The quantum Hall effect was also one of the starting points for nanoelectronics and the scientific research into the physical properties of semiconductors far below the order of magnitude of today's microelectronics . ${\ displaystyle R _ {\ mathrm {K}} = h / e ^ {2}}$

In an interview in 2016, von Klitzing expressed his pride in this discovery with the following words: “But the most important thing for me is the Von Klitzing constant. That remains, that is immortal, and that's why I'm not afraid of death. ”The quantum Hall effect is the first experimentally observed topological phase in a solid and thus the starting point for a variety of research activities, for example on topological insulators .

Fonts

with Gerhard Dorda , Michael Pepper New Method for High-Accuracy Determination of the Fine-Structure Constant Based on Quantized Hall Resistance , Phys. Rev. Letters, Volume 45, 1980, pp. 494-497, ( original article on the quantum Hall effect )

Limits of microelectronics: quantum phenomena in microstructured semiconductors . 1st edition. Univ.-Verl., Jena 1995. Series of publications Ernst-Abbe-Kolloquium Jena 11 ISBN 3-925978-47-X

Klaus von Klitzing (Ed.): Development of the working basis of a clean room laboratory for novel component structures: final report; Contract NT 2733 . Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart 1990.

" Preservation and representation of the unit of electrical resistance ohm ". Exhibit information sheet from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Hannover Messe '82, April 21, 1982

Honors and awards (selection)

1981 Walter Schottky Prize
1982 Hewlett Packard Prize
1985 Nobel Prize in Physics
1985 Directorate for life at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research
1986 Great Cross of Merit with Star and Shoulder Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany
1986 Medal of Merit from the State of Baden-Württemberg
1988 Honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Karl-Marx-Stadt
1988 Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art
1988 Dirac Medal
1990 member of the National Academy of Sciences
1994 Foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
1995 Full member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences
1998 Fellow of the American Physical Society
2000 honorary member of the German Physical Society
2003 Foreign member of the Royal Society
2005 Carl Friedrich Gauß Medal from the Braunschweig Scientific Society
2006 Honorary doctorate from the University of Oldenburg
2007 member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
2007 member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
2009 Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Art
2012 TUM Distinguished Affiliated Professor at the Technical University of Munich
2019 Order Pour le Mérite for Science and the Arts
In Quakenbrück and Essen / Oldenburg a Professor-von-Klitzing-Strasse is named after him and in Landau in the Palatinate the Klaus-von-Klitzing-Strasse .

literature

Genealogical manual of the nobility , noble houses A volume VIII, page 275, volume 38 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1966, ISSN 0435-2408

Web links

Commons : Klaus von Klitzing - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Member entry by Klaus von Klitzing (with picture and CV) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on July 15, 2016.

↑ 26th CGPM (2018) - Resolutions adopted / Résolutions adoptées. (PDF; 1.2 MB) Versailles 13–16 November 2018. In: bipm.org. Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, November 19, 2018, pp. 2–5 , accessed on April 28, 2019 (en / fr).

↑ Klaus von Klitzing, interviewed by Herlinde Koelbl: “I'm not afraid of death”. From the series: That was my salvation. In: ZEITMagazin No. 45/2016. Die ZEIT , November 17, 2016, accessed on November 9, 2018 .

^ DPG news. (PDF) Retrieved March 11, 2020 .

^ TU Chemnitz: Honorary doctorates

personal data
SURNAME	Klitzing, Klaus von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Klitzing, Klaus-Olaf von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German physicist
DATE OF BIRTH	June 28, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH	Schroda , Reichsgau Wartheland

[1] Member entry by Klaus von Klitzing (with picture and CV) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on July 15, 2016.