Experimental determination of fractional charge<i>e/q</i>for 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 \ensuremath{\nu}=p/q is ${e}^{\mathrm{*}}$=\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}e/q, a new fundamental quantum of nature, is found to be consistent with experiment. The experimental probe of ${e}^{\mathrm{*}}$ is ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\mathrm{xx}}^{c}$, 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.