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| Kukushkin, Igor |
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Max Planck Research Award for Physics |
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Quantum Leap towards new Semiconductor Components |
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Two-dimensional electron layers in semiconductors display fascinating properties which are of significant importance for fundamental research in physics, but also in meteorology (precision measurement) and in microelectronics. The discovery of the quantum Hall effect was twice honoured with the Nobel prize. In 1985, Klaus von Klitzing received the award for his finding that the resistance of an electrical conductor is, under certain circumstances, quantised, i.e., it changes in steps and not continuously. The plateaus shown by these quantum leaps prove to be a multiple of the same number in each case (von Klitzing constant). Thus, another term for it is whole-number quantum Hall effect. The significance of the quantum Hall effect is its universality: it is a fundamental physical constant and a universal reference point for measuring resistances. Ever since Klitzing's discovery, electric resistance can be represented with an enormous measuring accuracy which was hitherto unknown.
The finding that it is not details of solids but fundamental physical constants which determine certain electrical properties of semiconductor components has far-reaching implications: not only for describing resistances but also for experimental and theoretical research of solids and for quantum electrodynamics.
Igor Kukushkin is one of the most renowned scientists in international terms in the field of the quantum Hall effect. He developed new optical methods for measuring what is called the fractional quantum Hall effect which allow to receive a magneto-optical fingerprint (energy spectrum) of the fractional quantum Hall effect. His magneto-optical experiments with two-dimensional electron systems contributed considerably towards a closer understanding of multiple particle stimulation in the field of both quantum Hall effects. The most important result of his research was the experimental proof of the Wigner crystallisation of the two-dimensional electron gas both in gallium-arsenide heterostructures and in gallium-aluminum-arsenide heterostructures. Wigner crystals consist of nothing but electrons and could lead to the design of completely new electronic components in the future.
Kukushkin's latest publications deal with the spin split of so-called "composite fermions", i.e., new quasi-particles which suggest attributing the fraction-number quantum Hall effect to the whole-number one, and with spin wave excitations in the field of the fractional quantum Hall effect.
Igor Kukushkin was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1958. He took his doctor's degree in 1990 at the Institute of Solid State Physics RAS in Chernogolovka in solid-state physics and was appointed as a professor to Moscow State University and to Moscow Physical Technical University in 1996. In 1987 he was awarded the Soviet National Prize as best young scientist and in 1995 the Russian State Award for Physics. Back in 1987 he closely cooperated with Klaus von Klitzing at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany, holding an Alexander von Humboldt scholarship. |
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