Abstract
Basically, the quantum Hall effect (QHE) has nothing to do with atomic physics. Semiconductors are normally used to observe this quantum phenomenon, and the 1023 atoms per cubic centimeter of a semiconductor represent such a complicated system of interacting atoms that its electronic properties are normally described by phenomenological quantities and cannot be deduced from the properties of the isolated atoms. Nevertheless, our measurements on semiconductors demonstrate that the quantity h/e2 (h = Planck constant, e = elementary charge) can be determined with an uncertainty of less than 10−6. Since the fine-structure constant α is directly proportional to e2/h (the proportional constant depends mainly on the well known velocity of light c), one can use the QHE for the determination of α with an uncertainty smaller than that resulting from high-precision measurements of the fine-structure and hyperfine-structure splitting of a hydrogen atom.
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© 1983 Plenum Press, New York
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v. Klitzing, K. (1983). The Quantum Hall Effect. In: Lindgren, I., Rosén, A., Svanberg, S. (eds) Atomic Physics 8. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4550-3_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4550-3_4
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