Physicists have directly imaged Landau Levels – the quantum
levels that determine electron behaviour in a strong magnetic field – for the
first time since they were theoretically conceived of by Nobel prize winner Lev
Landau in 1930.
Using scanning tunnelling spectroscopy - a spatially
resolved probe that interacts directly with the electrons - scientists at
institutions including the University of Warwick and Tohoku University have
revealed the internal ring-like structure of these Landau Levels at the surface
of a semiconductor.