arXiv subjects

Jianyun Zhao

Publications and source records attributed to Jianyun Zhao.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

Interplay between fractional quantum Hall liquid and crystal phases at low filling

The nature of the state at low Landau-level filling factors has been a longstanding puzzle in the field of the fractional quantum Hall effect. While theoretical calculations suggest that a crystal is favored at filling factors $ν\lesssim 1/6$, experiments show, at somewhat elevated temperatures, minima in the longitudinal resistance that are associated with fractional quantum Hall effect at $ν=$ 1/7, 2/11, 2/13, 3/17, 3/19, 1/9, 2/15 and 2/17, which belong to the standard sequences $ν=n/(6n\pm 1)$ and $ν=n/(8n\pm 1)$. To address this paradox, we investigate the nature of some of the low-$ν$ states, specifically $ν=1/7$, $2/13$, and $1/9$, by variational Monte Carlo, density matrix renormalization group, and exact diagonalization methods. We conclude that in the thermodynamic limit, these are likely to be incompressible fractional quantum Hall liquids, albeit with strong short-range crystalline correlations. This suggests a natural explanation for the experimentally observed behavior and a rich phase diagram that admits, in the low-disorder limit, a multitude of crystal-FQHE liquid transitions as the filling factor is reduced.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Crystallization in the Fractional Quantum Hall Regime Induced by Landau-level Mixing

The interplay between strongly correlated liquid and crystal phases for two-dimensional electrons exposed to a high transverse magnetic field is of fundamental interest. Through the non-perturbative fixed phase diffusion Monte Carlo method, we determine the phase diagram of the Wigner crystal in the $ν-κ$ plane, where $ν$ is the filling factor and $κ$ is the strength of Landau level mixing. The phase boundary is seen to exhibit a striking $ν$ dependence, with the states away from the magic filling factors $ν=n/(2pn+1)$ being much more susceptible to crystallization due to Landau level mixing than those at $ν=n/(2pn+1)$. Our results explain the qualitative difference between the experimental behaviors observed in n-doped and p-doped GaAs quantum wells, and, in particular, the existence of an insulating state for $ν<1/3$ and also for $1/3 <ν< 2/5$ in low density p-doped systems. We predict that in the vicinity of $ν=1/5$ and $ν=2/9$, increasing LL mixing causes a transition not into an ordinary electron Wigner crystal but rather into a strongly correlated crystal of composite fermions carrying two vortices.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Density functional theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect

A conceptual difficulty in formulating the density functional theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect is that while in the standard approach the Kohn-Sham orbitals are either fully occupied or unoccupied, the physics of the fractional quantum Hall effect calls for fractionally occupied Kohn-Sham orbitals. This has necessitated averaging over an ensemble of Slater determinants to obtain meaningful results. We develop an alternative approach in which we express and minimize the grand canonical potential in terms of the composite fermion variables. This provides a natural resolution of the fractional-occupation problem because the fully occupied orbitals of composite fermions automatically correspond to fractionally occupied orbitals of electrons. We demonstrate the quantitative validity of our approach by evaluating the density profile of fractional Hall edge as a function of temperature and the distance from the delta dopant layer and showing that it reproduces edge reconstruction in the expected parameter region.

cond-mat.str-el↗