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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe THE THEORY OF THE FRACTIONAL QUANTUM HALL EFFECT IMPLIES THE EXISTENCE OF QUASIPARTICLES, COLLECTIVE ELECTRON STATES THAT HAVE FRACTIONAL
CHARGE. NEW EXPERIMENTS PROVIDE A DIRECT MEASUREMENT OF THE CHARGE OF THESE STRANGE STATES. One of the most basic features of the physical world is the quantization of charge in units of the
electron charge, _e_. The only exceptions are quarks, which have charges that are multiples of _e_/3, but they are inseparably confined inside nuclear particles. Otherwise, all observed
charges in nature are integer multiples of _e_. So it was quite a surprise when Robert Laughlin1, in his 1982 theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect, made the bold proposal that
objects with fractional charge, _e_/3, could exist inside tiny semiconductor devices. In the past 15 years nearly every aspect of Laughlin's theory has been experimentally confirmed,
but a direct observation of the fractional charge of the Laughlin quasiparticle has remained elusive. Now two groups (de-Picciotto _et al._ on page 162of this issue2, and Saminadayar _et
al._3) have performed a new class of experiments which probe shot noise in the quantum Hall effect, and provide compelling evidence for the fractional charge. This is a preview of
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ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support REFERENCES * Laughlin, R. B. _Phys. Rev. Lett._ 50, 1395–1398 (1982).
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(1990). Google Scholar * Goldman, V. J. & Su, B. _Science_ 267, 1010 (1995). Google Scholar * Chang, A. M. in _The Quantum Hall Effect_ (eds Prange, R. E. & Girvin, S. M.) 230
(Springer, New York, 1987). * Kane, C. L. & Fisher, M. P. A. _Phys. Rev. Lett._ 72, 724–729 (1994). Google Scholar Download references AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * the
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104, Pennsylvania, USA Charles L. Kane * Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kohn Hall Matthew P. A. Fisher *
University of California at Santa Barbara, California, 93106-4030, USA Matthew P. A. Fisher Authors * Charles L. Kane View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed
Google Scholar * Matthew P. A. Fisher View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE
CITE THIS ARTICLE Kane, C., Fisher, M. A shot in the arm for fractional charge. _Nature_ 389, 119–120 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/38104 Download citation * Issue Date: 11 September 1997
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