arXiv subjects

H. A. Fertig

Publications and source records attributed to H. A. Fertig.

116 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv1995

The Hofstadter Spectrum and Photoluminescence

The observability of the Hofstadter spectrum generated by a Wigner crystal using photoluminescence techniques is studied. Itinerant hole geometries are examined, in which a hole may combine directly with electrons in the lattice. It is found that when the effect of lattice distortions of the WC due to interactions with the hole are accounted for, only the largest Hofstadter gaps are observable. To overcome the problems of lattice distortion, a novel geometry is proposed, involving a two layer system with electrons in one layer forming a WC and in the other a full Landau level. It is found that recombination of electrons in the full Landau level with {\it localized} holes reflects the full Hofstadter spectrum of the lattice.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1994

Wigner crystal states for the two-dimensional electron gas in a double quantum well system

Using the Hartree-Fock approximation, we calculate the energy of different Wigner crystal states for the two-dimensional electron gas of a double quantum well system in a strong magnetic field. Our calculation takes interlayer hopping as well as an in-plane magnetic field into consideration. The ground The ground state at small layer separations is a one-component triangular lattice Wigner state. As the layer separation is increased, the ground state first undergoes a transition to two stacked square lattices, and then undergoes another transition at an even larger layer separation to a two-component triangular lattice. The range of the layer separation at which the two-component square lattice occurs as the ground state shrinks, and eventually disappears, as the interlayer hopping is increased. An in-plane magnetic field induces another phase transition from a commensurate to a incommensurate state, similar to that of $ν=1$ quantum Hall state observed recently. We calculate the critical value of the in-plane field of the transition and find that the anisotropy of the Wigner state, {\it i.e.,}, the relative orientation of the crystal and the in-plane magnetic field, has a negligible effect on the critical value for low filling fractions. The effect of this anisotropy on the low-lying phonon energy is discussed. A novel exerimental geometry is proposed in which the parallel magnetic field is used to enhance the orientational correlations in the ground state when the crystal is subject toa random potential.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1994

Topological Defects, Orientational Order, and Depinning of the Electron Solid in a Random Potential

We report on the results of molecular dynamics simulation (MD) studies of the classical two-dimensional electron crystal in the presence disorder. Our study is motivated by recent experiments on this system in modulation doped semiconductor systems in very strong magnetic fields, where the magnetic length is much smaller than the average interelectron spacing $a_0$, as well as by recent studies of electrons on the surface of helium. We investigate the low temperature state of this system using a simulated annealing method. We find that the low temperature state of the system always has isolated dislocations, even at the weakest disorder levels investigated. We also find evidence for a transition from a hexatic glass to an isotropic glass as the disorder is increased. The former is characterized by quasi-long range orientational order, and the absence of disclination defects in the low temperature state, and the latter by short range orientational order and the presence of these defects. The threshold electric field is also studied as a function of the disorder strength, and is shown to have a characteristic signature of the transition. Finally, the qualitative behavior of the electron flow in the depinned state is shown to change continuously from an elastic flow to a channel-like, plastic flow as the disorder strength is increased.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1994

Shakeup Effects on Photoluminescence from the Wigner Crystal

We develop a method to compute shakeup effects on photoluminescence in a Wigner crystal from localized holes. Our method treats the lattice electrons and the tunneling electron on an equal footing, and uses a quantum-mechanical calculation of the collective modes that is realistic throughout the Brillouin zone. We find that shakeup produces a series of sidebands that may be identified with maxima in the collective mode density of states, and definitively distinguishes the crystal state from a liquid state. We also find a shift in the main luminescence peak, that is associated with lattice relaxation in the vicinity of a vacancy.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1994

Electron-Electron Interactions and the Hall-Insulator

Using the Kubo formula, we show explicitly that a non-interacting electron system can not behave like a Hall-insulator, {\it ie.,} a DC resistivity matrix $ρ_{xx}\rightarrow\infty$ and $ρ_{xy}=$finite in the zero temperature limit, as has been observed recently in experiment. For a strongly interacting electron system in a magnetic field, we illustrate, by constructing a specific form of correlations between mobile and localized electrons, that the Hall resistivity can approximately equal to its classical value. A Hall-insulator is realized in this model when the density of mobile electrons becomes vanishingly small. It is shown that in non-interacting electron systems, the zero-temperature frequency-dependent conductacnce generally does not give the DC conductance.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1994

Orientational Order and Depinning of the Disordered Electron Solid

We study the ground state of two-dimensional classical electron solids under the influence of modulation-doped impurities by using a simulated annealing molecular dynamics method. By changing the setback distance as a parameter, we find that in the strong disorder limit the ground state configuration contains both isolated dislocations and disclinations, whereas in the weak disorder regime only dislocations are present. We show, via continuum elasticity theory, that the ground state of the lattice should be unstable against a proliferation of free disclinations above a critical dislocation density. Associated with this, the behavior of the threshold electric field as a function of the setback distance changes.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1994

Quantum Correlated Interstitials and the Hall Resistivity of the Magnetically Induced Wigner Crystal

We study a trial wavefunction for an interstitial in a Wigner crystal. We find that the electron correlations, ignored in a conventional Hartree-Fock treatment, dramatically lower the interstitial energy, especially at fillings close to an incompressible liquid state. The correlation between the interstitial electron and the lattice electrons at $ν<1/m$ is introduced by constructing a trial wave- function which bears a Jastrow factor of a Laughlin state at $ν=1/m$. For fillings close to but just below $ν=1/m$, we find that a perfect Wigner crystal becomes unstable against formation of such interstitials. It is argued that conduction due to correlated interstitials in the presence of weak disorder leads to the {\it classical} Hall resistivity, as seen experimentally.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1993

Theory of Photoluminescence from a Magnetic Field Induced Two-dimensional Quantum Wigner Crystal

We develop a theory of photoluminescence using a time-dependent Hartree-Fock approximation that is appropriate for the two-dimensional Wigner crystal in a strong magnetic field. The cases of localized and itinerant holes are both studied. It is found that the photoluminescence spectrum is a weighted measure of the single particle density of states of the electron system, which for an undisturbed electron lattice has the intricate structure of the Hofstadter butterfly. It is shown that for the case of a localized hole, a strong interaction of the hole with the electron lattice tends to wipe out this structure. In such cases, a single final state is strongly favored in the recombination process, producing a single line in the spectrum. For the case of an itinerant hole, which could be generated in a wide quantum well system, we find that electron-hole interactions do not significantly alter the density of states of the Wigner crystal, opening the possibility of observing the Hofstadter gap spectrum in the electron density of states directly. At experimentally relevant filling fractions, these gaps are found to be extremely small, due to exchange effects. However, it is found that the hole, which interacts with the periodic potential of the electron crystal, has a Hofstadter spectrum with much larger gaps. It is shown that a finite temperature experiment would allow direct probing of this gap structure through photoluminescence.

cond-mat↗