The Quantum Hall Effect and Hydrostatic Pressure

Hydrostatic pressure is a widely used tool that provides a great deal of insight into condensed matter physics. By shrinking the lattice constant in crystalline systems, pressure changes the Bloch wavefunction and the band structure. As a result, pressure permits us to tune material parameters in ways not possible with other techniques. In particular, we may tune the energy scales of the fractional quantum Hall states and gather information about these states from their response to pressure. Setting up a pressure measurement for cryogenic temperatures is not trivial, and many techniques must be considered to accurately apply and measure the pressure.