Robert Willett
Bell Labs Fellow at Nokia Bell Labs
Murray Hill, NJ, USA
Biography
Dr. Robert L. Willett is a Bell Labs Fellow at Nokia Bell Labs where he leads topological quantum computing research. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from MIT in 1988, where his dissertation work included discovery of the 5/2 fractional quantum hall (FQH) state. He then joined Bell Laboratories to continue his research in correlated two-dimensional electron systems. He has contributed several major advances in the probing, understanding, and manipulation of even-denominator FQH states, including discovery and confirmation of composite fermion Fermi surface formation at half filling, and more recently the first-ever experimental demonstration of a non-Abelian state in 2011 and discovery of Fibonacci anyons in 2023. He is an expert in nanofabrication and experimental condensed matter physics. Dr. Willett is an APS Fellow, AAAS Fellow, and recipient of the 2002 Oliver E. Buckley Prize in Condensed Matter Physics.
- Ph.D., Physics, M.I.T.
- M.D., University of California, San Francisco
- S.B., Physics, M.I.T.
- “Observation of an even-denominator quantum number in the fractional quantum Hall effect” Physical Review Letters. 1987
- “Experimental demonstration of a Fermi surface at one-half filling of the lowest Landau level” Physical Review Letters. 1993
- "Experimental Demonstration of Fermi Surface Effects at Filling Factor 5/2" Physical Review Letters. 2002.
- “Measurement of filling factor 5/2 quasiparticle interference with observation of charge e/4 and e/2 period oscillations” PNAS. 2009
- “Magnetic-Field-Tuned Aharonov-Bohm Oscillations and Evidence for Non-Abelian Anyons at 𝜈 =5/2” Physical Review Letters. 2013
- “Interference Measurements of Non-Abelian 𝑒/4 & Abelian 𝑒/2 Quasiparticle Braiding” Physical Review Letters. 2023
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