Fractional Quantum Hall Effect - Evidence For Fractionally-charged Quasiparticles

Evidence For Fractionally-charged Quasiparticles

Experiments have reported results that specifically support the understanding that there are fractionally-charged quasiparticles in an electron gas under FQHE conditions.

In 1995, the fractional charge of Laughlin quasiparticles was measured directly in a quantum antidot electrometer at Stony Brook University, New York. In 1997, two groups of physicists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and at the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique laboratory near Paris, detected such quasiparticles carrying an electric current, through measuring quantum shot noise. Both of these experiments are somewhat controversial.

A more recent experiment, which measures the quasiparticle charge extremely directly, appears beyond reproach.

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