Microwave photons emitted by fractionally charged quasiparticles

International audienceStrongly correlated low-dimensional systems can host exotic elementary excitations carrying a fractional charge q and potentially obeying anyonic statistics. In the fractional quantum Hall effect, their fractional charge has been successfully determined owing to low frequency shot noise measurements. However, a universal method for sensing them unambiguously and unraveling their intricate dynamics was still lacking. Here, we demonstrate that this can be achieved by measuring the microwave photons emitted by such excitations when they are transferred through a potential barrier biased with a dc voltage V$_{dc}$. We observe that only photons at frequencies f below qV$_{dc}$/h are emitted. This threshold provides a direct and unambiguous determination of the charge q, and a signature of exclusion statistics. Derived initially within the Luttinger model, this feature is also predicted by universal non-equilibrium fluctuation relations which agree fully with our measurements. Our work paves the way for further exploration of anyonic statistics using microwave measurements