PHYCS 489 - Spring 2003 - Solid State Physics I
Final Project

The task...
(posted 04/15/2003)
Pick, read (and re-read) carefully one of the research articles from the list given below.
Produce a succinct account of the physics that the article presents.
Your account should be roughly 2,000 words in length.
Pitch the level of your discussion so that it is likely to be intelligible to a fellow graduate student
(even one who has not read the article).

Some dos and don'ts...
In your account, be sure to identify and explain
- the core mission of the article,
- the essential methods used, and
- the central findings, experimental or theoretical.
Feel free to discuss the article you have selected with your colleagues and others.
Use any formatting you like: TeX, LATeX, Word,... .
Don't spend a lot of time deriving formulæ.
Above all, though, be sure to write an account in your own words.
(You may be asked to explain the contents of your report.)

The choices...
- New method for high-accuracy determination of the fine-structure constant based on quantized Hall resistance, K. von Klitzing, G. Dorda, and M. Pepper, Phys. Rev. Lett. 45, 494 (1980)
- Quantized Hall conductivity in two dimensions, R. B. Laughlin, Phys. Rev. B 23, 5632 (1981)
- Zero-resistance states induced by electromagnetic-wave excitation in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures, R. G. Man, J. H. Smet, K. von Klitzing, V. Narayanamurti, W. B. Johnson, and V. Umansky, Nature 420, 646 (2002)
- Metallic phase with long range orientational order and no translational symmetry, D. Schechtman, I. Blech, D. Gratias, and J. Cahn, Phys. Rev. Lett. 53, 1951 (1984)