Horst L. Störmer
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Horst L. Störmer
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1998
Born: 6 April 1949, Frankfurt-on-the-Main, West Germany (now Germany)
Affiliation at the time of the award: Columbia University, New York, NY, 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, Horst Störmer and Daniel Tsui 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.
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