A team of US researchers has unveiled a device that can conduct electricity along its fractionally charged edges without losing energy to heat. Described in Nature Physics, the work, led by Xiaodong Xu at the University of Washington, marks the first demonstration of a “dissipationless fractional Chern insulator,” a long-sought state of matter with promising implications for future quantum technologies.
From quantum Hall to fractional phases
The quantum Hall effect emerges when electrons are confined to a two-dimensional material, cooled to extremely loow temperatures, and exposed to strong magnetic fields...
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