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Aharonov–Bohm interference of fractional quantum Hall edge modes

Nature Physics volume 15, pages 563–569 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

The braiding statistics of certain fractional quantum Hall states can be probed via interferometry of their edge states. Practical difficulties—including loss of phase coherence—make this a challenging task. We demonstrate the operation of a small Fabry–Perot interferometer in which highly coherent Aharonov–Bohm oscillations are observed in the integer and fractional quantum Hall regimes. Careful design of the heterostructure suppresses Coulomb effects and promotes strong phase coherence. We characterize the coherency of edge-mode interference by the energy scale for thermal damping and determine the velocities of the inner and outer edge modes independently via selective backscattering of edge modes originating in the N = 0, 1, 2 Landau levels. We also observe clear Aharonov–Bohm oscillations at fractional filling factors ν = 2/3 and ν = 1/3, which indicates that our device architecture provides a platform for measurement of anyonic braiding statistics.

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Fig. 1: Heterostructure design and device layout.
Fig. 2: Scanning electron micrograph of the interferometer.
Fig. 3: Bulk magnetotransport and Coulomb blockade.
Fig. 4: Interference measurements at ν = 1.
Fig. 5: Edge-mode velocity measurements.
Fig. 6: Interference of fractional quantum Hall states.

Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under award number DE-SC0006671. Additional support for sample growth from the W. M. Keck Foundation and Nokia Bell Labs is gratefully acknowledged. We thank M. Heiblum, R. L. Willett and S. H. Simon for helpful comments that improved our manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    J. Nakamura, S. Fallahi, H. Sahasrabudhe, S. Liang & M. J. Manfra

  2. Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    J. Nakamura, S. Fallahi, S. Liang, G. C. Gardner & M. J. Manfra

  3. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    R. Rahman & M. J. Manfra

  4. Microsoft Station Q Purdue, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    G. C. Gardner & M. J. Manfra

  5. School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    M. J. Manfra

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  1. J. Nakamura
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Contributions

J.N. and M.J.M. designed the heterostructures and experiments. S.F., S.L. and G.C.G. conducted molecular beam epitaxy growth. J.N. fabricated the devices, performed the measurements and analysed the data with input from M.J.M. H.S. and R.R. performed numerical simulations. J.N. and M.M. wrote the manuscript with input from all authors.

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Correspondence to M. J. Manfra.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Journal peer review information: Nature Physics thanks Thomas Ihn and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Nakamura, J., Fallahi, S., Sahasrabudhe, H. et al. Aharonov–Bohm interference of fractional quantum Hall edge modes. Nat. Phys. 15, 563–569 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-019-0441-8

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