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Observation of the fractional quantum Hall effect in graphene

Nature volume 462, pages 196–199 (2009)Cite this article

A Corrigendum to this article was published on 15 June 2011

Abstract

When electrons are confined in two dimensions and subject to strong magnetic fields, the Coulomb interactions between them can become very strong, leading to the formation of correlated states of matter, such as the fractional quantum Hall liquid1,2. In this strong quantum regime, electrons and magnetic flux quanta bind to form complex composite quasiparticles with fractional electronic charge; these are manifest in transport measurements of the Hall conductivity as rational fractions of the elementary conductance quantum. The experimental discovery of an anomalous integer quantum Hall effect in graphene has enabled the study of a correlated two-dimensional electronic system, in which the interacting electrons behave like massless chiral fermions3,4. However, owing to the prevailing disorder, graphene has so far exhibited only weak signatures of correlated electron phenomena5,6, despite intense experimental and theoretical efforts7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14. Here we report the observation of the fractional quantum Hall effect in ultraclean, suspended graphene. In addition, we show that at low carrier density graphene becomes an insulator with a magnetic-field-tunable energy gap. These newly discovered quantum states offer the opportunity to study correlated Dirac fermions in graphene in the presence of large magnetic fields.

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Figure 1: Electrical properties of suspended graphene at low magnetic field.
Figure 2: Magnetotransport at high magnetic fields.
Figure 3: Identifying additional fractional quantum Hall states.
Figure 4: The insulating state in graphene near zero density.

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Acknowledgements

We thank D. Abanin, A. Pinczuk and B. Feldman for discussions. We acknowledge A. Young, P. Cadden-Zimansky and V. Deshpande for careful reading of the manuscript. We especially thank E. Andrei for discussing her results and sample fabrication before publication. This research was supported by the Microsoft Project Q, DARPA and the Department of Energy (DOE).

Author Contributions K.I.B. and F.G. performed the experiments and analysed the data. M.D.S. assisted with fabrication. H.L.S. and P.K. conceived the project. All authors contributed to writing the manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. Kirill I. Bolotin

    Present address: Present address: Department of Physics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, USA.,

  2. Kirill I. Bolotin and Fereshte Ghahari: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics,,

    Kirill I. Bolotin, Fereshte Ghahari, Horst L. Stormer & Philip Kim

  2. Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA,

    Michael D. Shulman, Horst L. Stormer & Philip Kim

Authors
  1. Kirill I. Bolotin
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  2. Fereshte Ghahari
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  3. Michael D. Shulman
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  4. Horst L. Stormer
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  5. Philip Kim
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Philip Kim.

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Bolotin, K., Ghahari, F., Shulman, M. et al. Observation of the fractional quantum Hall effect in graphene . Nature 462, 196–199 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08582

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