Paper detail

Observation of quantum Hall interferometer phase jumps due to changing quasiparticle number

We measure the magneto-conductance through a micron-sized quantum dot hosting about 500 electrons in the quantum Hall regime. In the Coulomb blockade, when the island is weakly coupled to source and drain contacts, edge reconstruction at filling factors between one and two in the dot leads to the formation of two compressible regions tunnel coupled via an incompressible region of filling factor $ν=1$. We interpret the resulting conductance pattern in terms of a phase diagram of stable charge in the two compressible regions. Increasing the coupling of the dot to source and drain, we realize a Fabry-Pérot quantum Hall interferometer, which shows an interference pattern strikingly similar to the phase diagram in the Coulomb blockade regime. We interpret this experimental finding using an empirical model adapted from the Coulomb blockaded to the interferometer case. The model allows us to relate the observed abrupt jumps of the Fabry-Pérot interferometer phase to a change in the number of bulk quasiparticles. This opens up an avenue for the investigation of phase shifts due to (fractional) charge redistributions in future experiments on similar devices.