The highest-field plateau is labelled , so it is the plateau in the filling factor, with the longitudinal resistivity returning to approximately zero after the transition near 10 T. The odd integer indicates a resolved spin branch at these fields; assuming a permanent twofold spin degeneracy for every orbital Landau level would misidentify the plotted sequence.
For a nominal exactly filled state at a chosen field , the density target is . Combining this with the same gate capacitor model gives the required gate-voltage change relative to the original ungated-density reference:
Taking as the graph's onset-scale estimate gives and
Relative to the positive 0.2 V setting in part (v), this is an additional change of approximately . An absolute laboratory gate voltage cannot be obtained without its initial offset or threshold; the calculated quantities are voltage changes.
There is a graphical/model qualification: a quantum Hall plateau occupies a finite field interval, and its onset is not an exact statement that at that edge. The plot identifies from about 10 T onward but does not specify a unique plateau-centre field or the gate setting at which the trace was recorded. The boxed formula gives the result for any selected target field. For comparison, the nominal exact-filling fields are 12.39 T at the original density and 18.34 T at the unchanged positive 0.2 V density. Thus the graph must not be combined silently with the latter density as if its onset uniquely fixed the same gate bias.
A high-mobility modulation-doped GaAs-AlGaAs electron gas is grown by molecular beam epitaxy as a clean layered semiconductor heterostructure. An undoped gallium arsenide region is followed by an undoped aluminium gallium arsenide spacer and a donor-doped barrier region, commonly with a protective cap. The closely matched crystal structures allow a high-quality heterojunction. The spacer supplies a crucial separation: the mobile electrons reside away from the ionized donors, reducing impurity scattering compared with putting the donors directly in the conducting layer.
The larger conduction band energy on the aluminium gallium arsenide side permits donor electrons to transfer into gallium arsenide. The resulting charge separation creates band bending; together with the band offset, it forms a roughly triangular quantum well at the interface. The normal-direction wavefunction is confined, while motion parallel to the interface remains approximately free:
When only the lowest confinement subband is occupied, this is a two-dimensional electron gas. It is the quantized normal motion, not a physically zero layer thickness, that makes the low-energy system two-dimensional.
Figure 1.
Remote donors supply a clean interface channel with quantized normal motion
. Details.
At zero magnetic field, one occupied spin-degenerate parabolic subband has constant density of states per area per energy, above its edge. A perpendicular field quantizes the in-plane orbital motion into Landau levels:
Here is the material's effective spin factor and is the positive elementary charge; no free-electron assumption is made for this semiconductor. Each resolved spin branch contains states per unit area. The ideal density of states becomes
with Landau-level broadening in a real sample. The Landau filling factor
counts the carrier density in units of one spin-resolved level's degeneracy. Two unresolved spin branches have twice that degeneracy; resolved branches must not each be counted twice.
Disorder localizes states in the broadened level tails, while extended states occur near level centres. As varies, occupation of localized states can change without changing the number of current-carrying edge channels. This produces a finite-width quantum Hall plateau, rather than quantization only at isolated fields. In a mobility gap, longitudinal resistivity approaches zero and the Hall magnitude is for occupied transmitting branches. When the chemical potential passes through extended states, longitudinal dissipation peaks and the Hall value changes to another plateau. A spectral density of states can remain nonzero where transport is localized. Very strong disorder can destroy the resolved quantum Hall regime; the statement is not that any amount of disorder improves it.
Figure 2.
Broadened Landau levels and an illustrative integer Hall staircase with longitudinal peaks
. Details.
The original plot is schematic, not fitted data. At fixed sheet density, increasing decreases Landau filling factor, so the Hall magnitude climbs through plateaus while longitudinal peaks separate the plateaus. The signed Hall voltage depends on carrier and probe conventions.
For the gate calculation, the target sheet density is fixed by the desired Landau filling factor:
Use top-gate density tuning in the parallel-plate approximation. The geometric capacitance per unit area is
Therefore
The gate must become more negative relative to the electron gas, reducing its density. The voltage is the change from the gate setting associated with the stated initial density; if that setting is defined as zero, it is the required gate voltage. Work-function offsets, trapped charge and quantum capacitance are neglected. An absolute voltage referenced to some other uncalibrated potential cannot be inferred from geometry alone. Numerical values use exact SI and , and .[ref]
For the subsequently specified five-channel plateau, the chemical potential between the fifth and sixth resolved branches means , not ten. The physical contact order in the PDF is along one side of the mesa. Use ideal equilibrating Ohmic contacts and the Landauer-Büttiker formula, rather than inferring a longitudinal measurement merely from the contacts being drawn on one edge.
Choose one field polarity so the chiral order is . With ,
Contacts 2 and 4 are voltage probes, so . With , this gives , , and . Hence
for this circulation. Reversing the field reverses the contact order and gives with the same voltage ordering. The resistance magnitude is ; it is not zero. Contact 2 samples the outgoing source potential and contact 4 the outgoing drain potential for the chosen chirality.
The antidot is a depleted island supporting closed quantum Hall edge states. Tunnelling between those states and opposite propagating edges can produce resonant backscattering and resistance peaks as varies. One electronic Aharonov-Bohm phase winds by when flux through a fixed effective orbit area changes by . Using the supplied area as that effective area,
With the two spin-split branches of the lowest orbital level occupied, the common Coulomb-dominated antidot oscillation model has two charge rearrangements per added flux. Both branches contribute to charge buildup; screening and their capacitive coupling can make tunnelling through the outer edge occur twice during the cycle. It then gives
This is two electron-tunnelling resonances per flux cycle, not evidence that the mobile particles have charge . The primary charging model specifically addresses this two-spin regime.[ref]
Figure 3.
Chiral reservoir potentials and the distinction between flux period and two-spin charging resonances
. Details.
The sketch shows resistance peaks in a weak-backscattering configuration, with arbitrary height and linewidth because tunnel couplings and temperature are unspecified. A two-spin count alone does not force two independent noninteracting resonance series to be exactly half a flux period apart: their relative positions also depend on spin splitting and confinement. Thus describes the stated charging-model interpretation; is the single-electron fixed-area flux period. The actual enclosed edge-orbit area can differ from the geometrically depleted area.
For bulk filling two and total forward transmission in spin-resolved units, ideal chiral probes give the longitudinal four-terminal resistance
Resonant loss of transmission therefore gives peaks. Their size, background and detailed shape cannot be calculated from the supplied area and bulk filling alone. If the gates instead make a tunnelling path that enhances forward transmission, the resonant contrast can be reversed; the plotted peak convention is explicitly the backscattering one.
In the quantum Hall effect, a two-dimensional electron system at low temperature in a strong perpendicular magnetic field has transverse conductivity of quantized magnitude . On a plateau with negligible longitudinal conductivity, quantum Hall conductivity tensor inversion gives and ; the Hall sign depends on the carrier and orientation convention. The filling factor is when all spin-resolved states are counted.
For the integer quantum Hall effect, filled Landau levels and a mobility gap give integer . Disorder-localized states allow the density or field to vary without changing the number of extended occupied channels, producing a quantum Hall plateau rather than quantization only at isolated fields. Quantum Hall edge states provide an equivalent transport picture. In a Hall bar, separate voltage leads measure transverse and longitudinal voltages while a known current flows; sweeping the field reveals both the plateau and the resistance minimum. The von Klitzing-Dorda-Pepper quantum Hall experiment established this integer quantization.
The fractional quantum Hall effect requires electron correlations within a partially filled Landau level. An incompressible correlated state can occur at fractions such as ; a noninteracting partially filled level does not account for the associated gap. The Laughlin wavefunction at , odd , contains a factor , suppressing close electron approaches while retaining fermionic antisymmetry. Its charged collective excitations can carry magnitude ; the constituent electrons still have charge . The Tsui-Störmer-Gossard fractional Hall experiment observed the fractional Hall feature together with a longitudinal-resistance minimum, providing the experimental distinction from an arbitrary rational filling of an ordinary conducting state.
Tsui-Störmer-Gossard fractional Hall experiment Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Daniel Tsui, Horst Störmer and Arthur Gossard reported the effect in 1982. They grew gallium arsenide–aluminium gallium arsenide layers by molecular beam epitaxy, separating the two-dimensional electron gas from its semiconductor doping. They cut Hall bars and made indium contacts. Low-field measurements established number density and charge carrier mobility. A perpendicular magnetic field sweep measured transverse and longitudinal sheet resistivities at several temperatures. Cooling sharpened the plateau near and the longitudinal minimum at filling factor ; integer plateaus provided an internal comparison. The longitudinal minimum remained finite at the lowest temperature: zero-temperature vanishing was unresolved. This established anomalous transport, without directly measuring excitation electric charge.[ref]
Figure 1.
Separate transverse and longitudinal readouts of a fractional quantum Hall effect experiment
. Original functional Hall bar schematic, with chosen contact labels and no historical dimensions. The inset separates the two-dimensional electron gas from semiconductor doping; the two meters distinguish transverse electrical resistance from longitudinal dissipation. No trace or measured value is reconstructed. Details.
The two readouts test different statements. A single intersection with would also occur on the smooth classical relation at . A quantum Hall plateau instead persists over a magnetic field interval. Comparing transverse and longitudinal signals helps distinguish that plateau from a contact-placement artefact; the quantum Hall conductivity tensor inversion quantifies the contamination when longitudinal sheet resistivity is nonzero.
Later, 1997 shot noise measurements associated with quantum tunnelling at filling factor tested the excitation electric charge separately, finding . That is a different observable from a Hall plateau.[ref]
Two-electron Laughlin relative probability Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Consider the original two-electron example obtained by taking in the Laughlin wavefunction, with no additional polynomial for the centre of mass. Introduce , relative complex coordinate , separation , and dimensionless separation . Since , the probability density factorizes:
Integrating out leaves an isotropic relative probability density. Define per unit dimensionless area and per unit dimensionless separation:
The physical areal probability density is . The probability of a separation between and is . The extra comes from the Jacobian determinant in polar coordinates: a thin annulus has area . Omitting that factor changes the question being answered.
Figure 1.
Pair avoidance and the annular Jacobian determinant in a two-electron Laughlin wavefunction
. Original normalized model curves for chosen odd exponents and . Left: relative probability density per unit dimensionless area. Right: probability density of dimensionless separation, including the annular factor . Markers identify the respective maxima. These finite two-particle curves are not measured data or the pair distribution of an infinite fluid. Details.
Both wavefunction normalization and the peak shift can be checked exactly. The substitution gives the Gamma function integral
For , logarithmic differentiation gives
Consequently the areal maximum lies at , while the most probable separation lies farther out, at . For these are and ; for , and . The same substitution gives , so the root mean square separations are and respectively. The distinction between a probability density maximum and a radial maximum therefore has a directly calculable geometric origin.
This two-electron model explains exchange and pair avoidance. It does not establish a nonzero many-particle spectral gap, an extended quantum Hall plateau, or the topological properties of a fluid in the thermodynamic limit. Those require additional many-electron reasoning and experimental tests.