Investigating Energy Scales of Fractional Quantum Hall States using Scanning Gate Microscopy

Abstract

We use the voltage biased tip of a scanning force microscope at a temperature of 35\,mK to locally induce the fractional quantum Hall state of $\nu =1/3$ in a split-gate defined constriction. Different tip positions allow us to vary the potential landscape. From temperature dependence of the conductance plateau at $G=1/3\times e^2/h$ we determine the activation energy of this local $\nu =1/3$ state. We find that at a magnetic field of 6\,T the activation energy is between 153\,$\mu$eV and 194\,$\mu$eV independent of the shape of the confining potential, but about 50\% lower than for bulk samples.