Daniel C. Tsui
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Daniel C. Tsui
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1998
Born: 28 February 1939, Henan, China
Affiliation at the time of the award: Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
Prize motivation: “for their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations”
Prize share: 1/3
Work
The Hall effect refers to the fact that if an electrical current flows lengthwise through a metal band and a magnetic field is placed against the surface of the band at a right angle, a charge arises diagonally in the band. In interfaces in certain materials a quantum Hall effect occurs. Klaus von Klitzing discovered that changes in the magnetic field result in changes in what is known as Hall conductance that vary in steps of whole-number multiples of a constant. Subsequently, Daniel Tsui and Horst Störmer discovered in 1982 that there also are steps that represent fractions of the constant.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
