von Klitzing-Dorda-Pepper quantum Hall experiment

Klaus von Klitzing, G. Dorda and M. Pepper reported a silicon MOSFET measurement in 1980. Its gate controlled an semiconductor inversion layer; transverse contacts measured the Hall voltage and separate longitudinal contacts measured dissipation. One sweep held $B=18\mathrm{T}$, $T=1.5\mathrm{K}$ and $I=1\mu \mathrm{A}$ fixed while varying gate voltage. Hall plateaus accompanied small longitudinal voltages. Device-geometry comparisons and high-input-impedance voltage measurements helped test whether contact placement or electrical loading produced the result.^[ref]

This original functional diagram separates transverse and longitudinal readouts; it does not reproduce the historical device's dimensions. The gate inset explains how a field-effect transistor provides an adjustable two-dimensional electron gas. A longitudinal voltage close to zero is a useful check because accidental longitudinal separation between Hall contacts can otherwise contaminate the transverse measurement.

A Hall bar is a strip with current contacts at its ends and additional voltage contacts along its sides. Opposite-side contacts measure a transverse electric potential difference; same-side contacts at different longitudinal positions measure a longitudinal electric potential difference. Separate voltage leads reduce the influence of current-contact electrical resistance when their input electric currents are negligible.

Voltage contacts separated along the current direction measure longitudinal resistance, even when the device is called a Hall bar. For an approximately uniform rectangular strip, $R_{xx}\simeq {\rho }_{xx}L/W$. Transverse contacts measure $R_{xy}$ instead. Shubnikov-de Haas effect oscillations in $R_{xx}$ need not be Hall-resistance plateaus; in the integer quantum Hall effect, longitudinal minima accompany quantized transverse plateaus.