Observation of Chiral Luttinger Behavior in Electron Tunneling into Fractional Quantum Hall Edges

Abstract

We measure the tunneling conductance ( $G$) and current-voltage ( $I\ensuremath{-}V$) characteristics for electron tunneling from a bulk doped-GaAs normal metal into the abrupt edge of a fractional quantum Hall effect. We observe clear power law behavior for both the $I\ensuremath{-}V$ relationship and the conductance versus temperature. For tunneling into the $\ensuremath{\nu}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1/3$ edge the power law persists for one decade in $V$ ( $T$), and 2.7 (1.7) decades in $I$ ( $G$). This strongly indicates the 1/3 edge behaves like a chiral Luttinger liquid. In contrast, the $\ensuremath{\nu}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1$ edge is essentially linear, while the 2/3 edge is slightly nonlinear.