Observation of the e/3 Fractionally Charged Laughlin Quasiparticles

TL;DR

This paper experimentally confirms the existence of e/3 fractional charge quasiparticles in the fractional quantum Hall regime by measuring shot noise, providing direct evidence supporting Laughlin's theoretical predictions.

Contribution

It provides the first direct experimental measurement of fractional quasiparticle charge e/3 in the fractional quantum Hall effect using shot noise analysis.

Findings

Confirmed e/3 quasiparticle charge via shot noise

Demonstrated shot noise to Johnson-Nyquist noise crossover

Supported Laughlin's theoretical model of fractional charge

Abstract

The existence of fractional charges carrying the current is experimentally demonstrated. Using a 2-D electron system in high magnetic field, we measure the shot noise associated with tunneling in the fractional quantum Hall regime at Landau level filling factor 1/3. The noise gives a direct determination of the quasiparticle charge, which is found to be e*=e/3 as predicted by Laughlin. The existence of e/3 Laughlin quasiparticles is unambiguously confirmed by the shot noise to Johnson-Nyquist noise cross-over found for temperature e*V/2k.