Understanding the physics of a possible non-Abelian fractional quantum hall effect state.

Abstract

We wish to present in this report experimental results from a one-year Senior Council Tier-1 LDRD project that focused on understanding the physics of a possible non-Abelian fractional quantum Hall effect state. We first give a general introduction to the quantum Hall effect, and then present the experimental results on the edge-state transport in a special fractional quantum Hall effect state at Landau level filling {nu} = 5/2 - a possible non-Abelian quantum Hall state. This state has been at the center of current basic research due to its potential applications in fault-resistant topological quantum computation. We will also describe the semiconductor 'Hall-bar' devices we used in this project. Electron physics in low dimensional systems has been one of the most exciting fields in condensed matter physics for many years. This is especially true of quantum Hall effect (QHE) physics, which has seen its intellectual wealth applied in and has influenced many seemingly unrelated fields, such as the black hole physics, where a fractional QHE-like phase has been identified. Two Nobel prizes have been awarded for discoveries of quantum Hall effects: in 1985 to von Klitzing for the discovery of integer QHE, and in 1998 to Tsui, Stormer, and Laughlinmore » for the discovery of fractional QHE. Today, QH physics remains one of the most vibrant research fields, and many unexpected novel quantum states continue to be discovered and to surprise us, such as utilizing an exotic, non-Abelian FQHE state at {nu} = 5/2 for fault resistant topological computation. Below we give a briefly introduction of the quantum Hall physics.« less