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Anyonic interference and braiding phase in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer

Nature Physics (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Fractional quantum Hall states have long been predicted to be a testing ground of fractional—anyonic—exchange statistics. These topological states, which can have either an Abelian or non-Abelian character, harbour quasiparticles with fractional charges. The charge of the quasiparticles can be measured by shot noise measurements, whereas their quantum statistics can be revealed by appropriate interference experiments. The multipath Fabry–Pérot electronic interferometer is easier to fabricate, but it is often plagued by Coulomb interactions, area breathing with the magnetic field and fluctuating charges. Yet, recent experiments with an adequately screened Fabry–Pérot interferometer allowed the observation of anyonic interference at a bulk filling factor of ν = 1/3. Here we demonstrate the interference and braiding of anyons in an interaction-free two-path Mach–Zehnder interferometer tuned to bulk filling of ν = 2/5 with an outermost ν = 1/3 edge mode. Interference with this mode reveals a phase dependence that corresponds to the predicted anyonic braiding. This proves that a Mach–Zehnder interferometer is a powerful tool that probes the quantum statistics of complex anyonic states.

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Fig. 1: Device structure and conductance quantization.
Fig. 2: Integer and fractional AB interference patterns.
Fig. 3: Charge determination via shot noise measurements and temperature-dependent visibility.
Fig. 4: Visibility in the integer and fractional regimes.

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Source data are provided with this paper. All other data related to this paper are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge M. Banerjee, A. Das, D. E. Feldman, Y. Gefen, I. Neder and A. Stern for useful discussions, and the continuous support of the Sub-Micron Center staff. M.H. acknowledges support from the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC under grant agreement no. 713351 and the Minerva foundation under grant no. 713534.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Braun Center for Submicron Research, Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

    Hemanta Kumar Kundu, Sourav Biswas, Vladimir Umansky & Moty Heiblum

  2. Quantum Machines, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Nissim Ofek

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  1. Hemanta Kumar Kundu
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  2. Sourav Biswas
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  3. Nissim Ofek
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  4. Vladimir Umansky
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  5. Moty Heiblum
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Contributions

H.K.K. and S.B. designed and fabricated the devices. H.K.K. and S.B. performed the measurements and analysed the data with N.O. M.H. supervised the experiment and analysis. V.U. developed and grew the heterostructure supporting the two-dimensional electron gas. All the authors contributed to writing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Moty Heiblum.

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Kundu, H.K., Biswas, S., Ofek, N. et al. Anyonic interference and braiding phase in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Nat. Phys. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01899-z

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