Cotunneling in the \nu = 5/2 fractional quantum Hall regime

TL;DR

This paper investigates cotunneling processes in the 5/2 fractional quantum Hall regime to test the Moore-Read wave function and characterize fractional charge carriers, revealing distinctive signatures for quasiparticles.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical analysis of cotunneling currents for electrons and quasiparticles in the 5/2 regime, comparing Moore-Read and Laughlin states.

Findings

Quasiparticle tunneling shows signatures of the Moore-Read state.

Electron cotunneling is strongly suppressed.

Voltage dependence of tunneling is similar for Moore-Read and Laughlin states.

Abstract

We show that cotunneling in the 5/2 fractional quantum Hall regime allows us to test the Moore-Read wave function, proposed for this regime, and to probe the nature of the fractional charge carriers. We calculate the cotunneling current for electrons that tunnel between two quantum Hall edge states via a quantum dot and for quasiparticles with fractional charges e/4 and e/2 that tunnel via an antidot. While electron cotunneling is strongly suppressed, the quasiparticle tunneling shows signatures characteristic of the Moore-Read state. For comparison, we also consider cotunneling between Laughlin states, and find that electron transport between Moore-Read states and between Laughlin states at filling factor 1/3 have identical voltage dependences.