Proc. Nati. Acad. Sci. USA Vol. 84, pp.

4696-4697, July 1987 Symposium Paper

This paper was presented at a symposium "Interfaces and Thin Films," organized by John Armstrong, Dean E. Eastman, and George M. Whitesides, held March 23 and 24, 1987, at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.

The fractional quantum Hall effect

H. L. STORMERt AND D. C. Tsuit
tAT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ 07974-2070; and tPrinceton University, Princeton, NJ 08544

Introduction

The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) is an example of the new physics that has emerged in recent years as a result of research in quantum-confined carriers in semiconductor heterostructures. It was first observed (1) in a high-mobility, two-dimensional, modulation-doped (2) GaAs-(AlGa)As heterostructure prepared by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE). The experimental facts are simple. The Hall resistance px, is found to be quantized to pxy = h/ve2, where v is a rational fraction with exclusively odd denominators (3). Concomitant with the quantization of pxy, the resistivity Pxx of the specimen vanishes as the temperature T approaches T = 0. The FQHE is presently understood as the manifestation of the existence of a series of new electronic ground states (4) resulting from the strong correlation of the electronic motion in a high magnetic field. The experimentally observed transport phenomena are taken as evidence for the formation of fractionally charged quasi-particles separated in energy from the condensed ground state by finite gaps. Forefront theoretical many-particle physics and state-of-the-art experimental efforts are presently trying to unravel the remarkable properties of the novel electronic state. Application of a magnetic field perpendicular to a twodimensional electron system quantizes the carriers' in-plane motion and transforms their energy spectrum into a set of discrete, highly degenerate levels. In the lowest of these Landau levels, the carriers' kinetic energy becomes completely suppressed and their mutual Coulomb interaction dominates. Under such extreme circumstances, intriguing possibilities for the formation of an ordered ground state are to be expected. Experimental search for it was initially conducted in silicon MOSFETs (metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors) but did not become successful until the invention of MBE and the discovery of the integral quantum Hall effect (IQHE) (5) in silicon MOSFETs. MBE allowed the fabrication of nearly perfect semiconductor interfaces that, when combined with modulationdoping, brought about two-dimensional carrier systems with unprecedentedly high mobilities ranging presently in the several 106 cm2/V sec (J. English, A. C. Gossard, H.L.S., and K. Baldwin, unpublished data). The discovery of the IQHE led to a better understanding of the physics of two-dimensional systems in a high magnetic field and the importance and relative strength of electron localization. The IQHE is understood in terms of the motion of individual carriers, reflecting electron-electron interaction. Accordingly, the associated quantum numbers are integers reflecting the integrity of the single-particle picture. Research into electron-electron correlation effects in two dimensions reThe publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
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quired quasi-perfect planar transport unobstructed by impurities and interfacial defects, and MBE-grown, modulationdoped GaAs-(AlGa)As heterostructures provided an ideal medium.
Present Status

At the present time the FQHE is well documented (6). Many research groups have confirmed the initial data and are progressing in documenting the characteristics of this new electronic state. High-field, low-temperature transport experiments remain the preferred experimental method of research, although more recently optical tools (7) have been applied to the FQHE. The transport experiments have been pursued in magnetic fields as high as 30 T at temperatures as low as -0.06 K, uncovering an increasing number of rational fractions (8, 9). At the time of this writing, minima in the resistivity p,, have been observed in the vicinity of:

v= 1/3, 2/3, 4/3, 5/3, 7/3, 8/3 v 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5, 7/5, 8/5

v = 2/7, 3/7, 4/7, 9/7,9iLZ v =4/9, 5/9,1

Except for the underlined fractions, these minima are associated with plateaus in the Hall resistance quantized to py = h/ve2. It appears that only fractions of odd denominators are allowed. There is presently no strong evidence for fractions of even denominator (8). More recently, experimental efforts have focused on a determination of the strength of the FQHE characterized by the value of the excitation gap above the ground state. Activation energy measurements on the most pronounced minima reveal a strong magnetic field dependence (9, 10). From the experiments alone, the following statements may be made about the electronic states underlying the FQHE.
(i)
The states are formed when a Landau level is partially filled to a fraction v = p/q, where q is always odd. The states are sensitive to disorder and nonexistent in sufficiently disordered systems. The Hall resistance is quantized to py = h/ye2. The resistivity Pxx is thermally activated and vanishes as the temperature approaches T = 0. The activation energy is strongly magnetic field dependent and vanishes below a critical field that increases with increasing disorder. Attempts to interpret the FQHE phenomenologically in analogy to Laughlin's argument (11) for the IQHE require the postulate of quasi-particles with fractional

(ii)

(iii) (iv)
(v)

(vi)

Abbreviations: FQHE, fractional quantum Hall effect; IQHE, integral quantum Hall effect; MBE, molecular-beam epitaxy.

Symposium Paper: Stormer and Tsui

charges and the existence of energy gaps at fractional Landau level filling. (vii) These energy gaps must be of many-body origin because no gaps are expected at fractional filling within a single-particle picture.
Whereas the many-body origin of the FQHE was instantly recognized, a quantum-mechanical description of the highly correlated ground state was not available. A novel manyparticle wave function able to account for much of the experimental findings was finally constructed by Laughlin (4). This many-electron state has the following properties.

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 84 (1987)

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exceptional phenomena, fractionally charged quasi-particles, quasi-particle/quasi-hole excitations with roton character (17), the existence of an electron solid at very low Landaulevel filling, and three-dimensional electron crystallization in layered two-dimensional structures. None of these has yet been observed. To date only electrical measurements have been fully exploited. There exist tremendous opportunities for ingenious, though probably difficult, experiments to probe directly into the structure of the ground states, the dispersion of the excitation spectra, and the dynamics of the quasi-particles of the FQHE.
1. Tsui, D. C., Stormer, H. L. & Gossard, A. C. (1982) Phys. Rev. Lett. 48, 1559-1562. 2. Stormer, H. L., Dingle, R., Gossard, A. C. Wiegmann, W. & Sturge, M. D. (1979) Solid State Commun. 29, 705-709. 3. Stormer, H. L., Chang, A. M., Tsui, D. C., Hwang, J. C. M., Gossard, A. C. & Wiegmann, W. (1983) Phys. Rev. Lett. 50, 1953-1957. 4. Laughlin, R. B. (1983) Phys. Rev. Lett. 50, 1395-1399. 5. von Klitzing, K., Dorda, G. & Pepper, M. (1980) Phys. Rev. Lett. 45, 494-498. 6. Prange, R. E. & Girvin, S. M., eds. (1987) The Quantum Hall Effect (Springer, New York). 7. Kukushkin, I. V. & Timofeev, V. B. (1986) JETP Lett. 44, 228-230. 8. Clark, R. G., Nicholas, R. J., Usher, A., Foxon, C. T. & Harris, J. J. (1986) Solid State Commun. 60, 183-187. 9. Boebinger, G. S., Chang, A. M., Stormer, H. L. & Tsui, D. C. (1985) Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 1606-1610. 10. Gavrilov, M. G., Kvon, Z. D., Kukushkin, I. V. & Timofeev, V. B. (1904) JETP Lett. 39, 507-510. 11. Laughlin, R. B. (1981) Phys. Rev. B 23, 5623-5627. 12. Haldane, F. D. M. (1983) Phys. Rev. Lett. 51, 605-609. 13. Halperin, B. I. (1983) Helv. Phys. Acta 56, 75-82. 14. Laughlin, R. B. (1984) Surf. Sci. 142, 163-167. 15. McDonald, A. H., Liu, K. L., Girvin, S. M. & Platzman, P. M. (1985) Phys. Rev. B 33, 4014-4018. 16. Gold, A. (1986) Europhys. Lett. 1, 241-245. 17. Girvin, S. M., McDonald, A. H. & Platzman, P. M. (1986) Phys. Rev. B 33, 2481-2485.

(i) It is stable at Landau-level filling factors v = 1/m and v = 1 - 1/m with m = odd integers. (ii) Its pair correlation function indicates that it is a novel quantum liquid. (iii) Its elementary excitations are separated from the ground state by a gap that decreases with increasing m. (iv) These quasi-particles carry a fractional charge e* =

(v) The quantum liquid is incompressible and flows without dissipation at T = 0. (vi) For m 10, the quantum fluid is expected to crystallize into a solid. (vii) A hierarchical model independently developed by Haldane (12), Halperin (13), and Laughlin (14) is able to explain the higher-order FQI4E at filling factors v = p/q, where p and q are integers and q is odd.
In summary, current theory can account for all striking characteristics of the FQHE. Quantitative comparison with experiments requires a theoretical scheme that takes into account the effect of disorder, a problem that has only recently been addressed (15, 16). Future Experimental Challenges

e/ml.

Recent theory has derived a detailed description of the electronic processes underlying the FQHE that is rich in