When the war ended, he and his parents left their home in Poland for West Germany. He went to school in Quakenbrück, and as a child he was interested in mathematics, something his parents encouraged. In 1962, he began studying at the Technical University Braunschweig, and it was here that he discovered his passion for physics. He had become somewhat disillusioned with mathematics, feeling that all too often it lacked a connection with the real world. By contrast, he found that physics allowed him to put maths to use in a practical way.

In 1969, he graduated with a diploma in physics and moved to the University of Würzburg to study for a doctorate, which he received in 1972. He stayed on at Würzburg until 1980, but during this period he spent time at other research institutions, including the Clarendon Laboratory at the University of Oxford from 1975 to 1976 and the High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Grenoble from 1979 to 1980.

At Grenoble, von Klitzing made an unexpected discovery that was eventually rewarded with the Nobel Prize. He was exploring a phenomenon observed more than a century earlier by American physicist Edwin Hall, who discovered that when electrons moving along a thin metal strip are subjected to a magnetic field at right angles to it, the electrons are pushed to one side, creating a voltage drop across the strip. This voltage drop, which was directly proportional to the strength of the magnetic field, became known as the Hall effect, and it became a standard tool in physics, used to measure conductivity properties in semiconductors.

However, when von Klitzing tried the same experiment, but this time placing a semiconductor with a two-dimensional layer of conducting material in strong magnetic fields and at temperatures close to absolute zero, the voltage dropped in a series of minute steps rather than smoothly and continuously. These steps occur at incredibly precise values of resistance, irrespective of the sample being investigated, depending instead on the fundamental constants of physics — e the electric charge and h Planck’s constant. So precise are these steps that von Klitzing’s experiment could be used to define the unit of electrical resistance. In honour of this, the ‘von Klitzing constant’, which provides values for electrical conductance, was named after him.

In 1980, von Klitzing left Würzburg to become a professor at the Technical University of Munich, where he remained until January 1985. He then accepted the position of director of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, where he remains today.

Since receiving the Nobel Prize, von Klitzing has continued his research into electronic systems at low temperatures and in high magnetic fields, as well as working in areas of nanotechnology. He is also a strong advocate of encouraging children to learn about science and the natural world at a young age. By nature, children are inquisitive and like to ask questions, he says, just like scientists.

Nobel Prize in Physics 1985
Klaus von Klitzing’s Nobel Lecture
Klaus von Klitzing’s departmental web site
Wikipedia: Klaus von Klitzing