Role of interactions in an electronic Fabry-Perot interferometer operating in the quantum Hall effect regime

Interference of edge channels is expected to be a prominent tool for studying statistics of charged quasiparticles in the quantum Hall effect (QHE). We present here a detailed study of an electronic Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) operating in the QHE regime [C. Chamon, et al. (1997) Phys Rev B 55:...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 107; no. 12; pp. 5276 - 5281
Main Authors Ofek, Nissim, Bid, Aveek, Heiblum, Moty, Stern, Ady, Umansky, Vladimir, Mahalu, Diana
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 23.03.2010
National Acad Sciences
Subjects
Electric potential
Electrical phases
Electronics
Electrons
Fabry Perot interferometers
Integers
Interferometers
Magnetic fields
Magnetic flux
Measuring instruments
Periodicity
Physical Sciences
Quantum physics
Quasiparticles
statistics
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Interference of edge channels is expected to be a prominent tool for studying statistics of charged quasiparticles in the quantum Hall effect (QHE). We present here a detailed study of an electronic Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) operating in the QHE regime [C. Chamon, et al. (1997) Phys Rev B 55:2331-2334], with the phase of the interfering quasiparticles controlled by the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Our main finding is that Coulomb interactions among the electrons dominate the interference, even in a relatively large area FPI, leading to a strong dependence of the area enclosed by the interference loop on the magnetic field. In particular, for a composite edge structure, with a few independent edge channels propagating along the edge, interference of the outmost edge channel (belonging to the lowest Landau level) was insensitive to magnetic field--suggesting a constant enclosed flux. However, when any of the inner edge channels interfered, the enclosed flux decreased when the magnetic field increased. By intentionally varying the enclosed area with a biased metallic gate and observing the periodicity of the interference pattern, charges e (for integer filling factors) and e/3 (for a fractional filling factor) were found to be expelled from the FPI. Moreover, these observations provided also a novel way of detecting the charge of the interfering quasiparticles.
Bibliography:SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 14
ObjectType-Article-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
N.O., A.B., and M.H. designed research; N.O., A.B. V.U., and D.M. performed research; N.O. and A.B. analyzed data; and N.O., A.B., M.H., and A.S. wrote the paper.
Edited by Klaus von Klitzing, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany, and approved February 5, 2010 (received for review November 5, 2009)
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0912624107