Letter abstract
Nature Physics 4, 116 - 119 (2008)
Published online: 16 December 2007 | doi:10.1038/nphys810
Subject Categories: Condensed-matter physics | Electronics, photonics and device physics | Nanotechnology
Charge fractionalization in quantum wires
Hadar Steinberg1, Gilad Barak1, Amir Yacoby1,2, Loren N. Pfeiffer3, Ken W. West3, Bertrand I. Halperin2 & Karyn Le Hur4
Although the unit of charge in nature is a fundamental constant, the charge of individual quasiparticles in some low-dimensional systems may be fractionalized. Quantum one-dimensional (1D) systems, for instance, are theoretically predicted to carry charge in units smaller than the electron charge e. Unlike 2D systems, the charge of these excitations is not quantized and depends directly on the strength of the Coulomb interactions. For example, in a 1D system with momentum conservation, it is predicted that the charge of a unidirectional electron that is injected into the wire decomposes into right- and left-moving charge excitations carrying fractional charges f0e and (1-f0)e respectively1, 2. f0 approaches unity for non-interacting electrons and is less than one for repulsive interactions. Here, we provide the first experimental evidence for charge fractionalization in one dimension. Unidirectional electrons are injected at the bulk of a wire and the imbalance in the currents detected at two drains on opposite sides of the injection region is used to determine f0. Our results elucidate further3, 4 the collective nature of electrons in one dimension.
- Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
- Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
- Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, 700 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974, USA
- Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
Correspondence to: Amir Yacoby1,2 e-mail: yacoby@physics.harvard.edu
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