Experimental determination of fractional chargee/qfor quasiparticle excitations in the fractional quantum Hall effect

Abstract

The Laughlin-Haldane prediction that the charge $e^{\mathrm{*}}$ of quasiparticles excited across the energy gap of fractional quantum Hall-effect ground states at ν=p/q is $e^{\mathrm{*}}$=±e/q, a new fundamental quantum of nature, is found to be consistent with experiment. The experimental probe of $e^{\mathrm{*}}$ is ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{xx}}^c$, obtained from the extrapolated 1/T=0 intercept of the activated region of the Arrhenius plot, which is shown to be constant for p/q fractions of the same q and scale as 1/$q^2$ for q=3, 5, 7, and 9.