arXiv subjects

L. N. Pfeiffer

Publications and source records attributed to L. N. Pfeiffer.

At least 289 records · Page 16Linked to original sources

arXiv2009

Measurement of filling factor 5/2 quasiparticle interference: observation of charge e/4 and e/2 period oscillations

A standing problem in low dimensional electron systems is the nature of the 5/2 fractional quantum Hall state: its elementary excitations are a focus for both elucidating the state's properties and as candidates in methods to perform topological quantum computation. Interferometric devices may be employed to manipulate and measure quantum Hall edge excitations. Here we use a small area edge state interferometer designed to observe quasiparticle interference effects. Oscillations consistent in detail with the Aharanov-Bohm effect are observed for integer and fractional quantum Hall states (filling factors 2, 5/3, and 7/3) with periods corresponding to their respective charges and magnetic field positions. With these as charge calibrations, at 5/2 filling factor and at lowest temperatures periodic transmission through the device consistent with quasiparticle charge e/4 is observed. The principal finding of this work is that in addtion to these e/4 oscillations, periodic structures corresponding to e/2 are also observed at 5/2 and at lowest temperatures. Properties of the e/4 and e/2 oscillations are examined with the device sensitivity sufficient to observe temperature evolution of the 5/2 quasiparticle interference. In the model of quasiparticle interference, this presence of an effective e/2 period may empirically reflect an e/2 quasiparticle charge, or may reflect multiple passes of the e/4 quasiparticle around the interferometer. These results are discussed within a picture of e/4 quasiparticle excitations potentially possessing non-Abelian statistics. These studies demonstrate the capacity to perform interferometry on 5/2 excitations and reveal properties important for understanding this state and its excitations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Scaling in Plateau-to-Plateau Transition: A Direct Connection of Quantum Hall Systems with Anderson Localization Model

The quantum Hall plateau transition was studied at temperatures down to 1 mK in a random alloy disordered high mobility two-dimensional electron gas. A perfect power-law scaling with κ=0.42 was observed from 1.2K down to 12mK. This perfect scaling terminates sharply at a saturation temperature of T_s~10mK. The saturation is identified as a finite-size effect when the quantum phase coherence length (L_ϕ ~ T^{-p/2}) reaches the sample size (W) of millimeter scale. From a size dependent study, T_s \propto W^{-1} was observed and p=2 was obtained. The exponent of the localization length, determined directly from the measured κand p, is ν=2.38, and the dynamic critical exponent z = 1.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Role of electron-electron interactions in nonlinear transport in 2D electron systems

We study the temperature evolution of the non-linear oscillatory magnetoresistance in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron system subject to a strong dc electric field. We find that the decay of the oscillation amplitude with increasing temperature originates primarily from increasing quantum scattering rate entering the Dingle factor. We attribute this behavior to electron-electron interaction effects.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Engineering artificial graphene in a two-dimensional electron gas

At low energy, electrons in doped graphene sheets behave like massless Dirac fermions with a Fermi velocity which does not depend on carrier density. Here we show that modulating a two-dimensional electron gas with a long-wavelength periodic potential with honeycomb symmetry can lead to the creation of isolated massless Dirac points with tunable Fermi velocity. We provide detailed theoretical estimates to realize such artificial graphene-like system and discuss an experimental realization in a modulation-doped GaAs quantum well. Ultra high-mobility electrons with linearly-dispersing bands might open new venues for the studies of Dirac-fermion physics in semiconductors.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Wigner Crystallization in a Quasi-3D Electronic System

When a strong magnetic field is applied perpendicularly (along z) to a sheet confining electrons to two dimensions (x-y), highly correlated states emerge as a result of the interplay between electron-electron interactions, confinement and disorder. These so-called fractional quantum Hall (FQH) liquids form a series of states which ultimately give way to a periodic electron solid that crystallizes at high magnetic fields. This quantum phase of electrons has been identified previously as a disorder-pinned two-dimensional Wigner crystal with broken translational symmetry in the x-y plane. Here, we report our discovery of a new insulating quantum phase of electrons when a very high magnetic field, up to 45T, is applied in a geometry parallel (y-direction) to the two-dimensional electron sheet. Our data point towards this new quantum phase being an electron solid in a "quasi-3D" configuration induced by orbital coupling with the parallel field.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Current-induced nuclear-spin activation in a two-dimensional electron gas

Electrically detected nuclear magnetic resonance was studied in detail in a two-dimensional electron gas as a function of current bias and temperature. We show that applying a relatively modest dc-current bias, I_dc ~ 0.5 microAmps, can induce a re-entrant and even enhanced nuclear spin signal compared with the signal obtained under similar thermal equilibrium conditions at zero current bias. Our observations suggest that dynamic nuclear spin polarization by small current flow is possible in a two-dimensional electron gas, allowing for easy manipulation of the nuclear spin by simple switching of a dc current.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Edge-State Velocity and Coherence in a Quantum Hall Fabry-Perot Interferometer

We investigate nonlinear transport in electronic Fabry-Perot interferometers in the integer quantum Hall regime. For interferometers sufficiently large that Coulomb blockade effects are absent, a checkerboard-like pattern of conductance oscillations as a function of dc bias and perpendicular magnetic field is observed. Edge-state velocities extracted from the checkerboard data are compared to model calculations and found to be consistent with a crossover from skipping orbits at low fields to E x B drift at high fields. Suppression of visibility as a function of bias and magnetic field is accounted for by including energy- and field-dependent dephasing of edge electrons.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Phonon-induced Resistance Oscillations in Very-high Mobility 2D Electron Systems

We report on temperature dependence of acoustic phonon-induced resistance oscillations in very high mobility two-dimensional electron systems. We observe that the temperature dependence is non-monotonic and that higher order oscillations are best developed at progressively lower temperatures. Our analysis shows that, in contrast to Shubnikov-de Haas effect, phonon-induced resistance oscillations are sensitive to electron-electron interactions modifying the single particle lifetime.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Temperature Dependence of Microwave Photoresistance in 2D Electron Systems

We report on the temperature dependence of microwave-induced resistance oscillations in high-mobility two-dimensional electron systems. We find that the oscillation amplitude decays exponentially with increasing temperature, as $\exp(-αT^2)$, where $α$ scales with the inverse magnetic field. This observation indicates that the temperature dependence originates primarily from the modification of the single particle lifetime, which we attribute to electron-electron interaction effects.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Distinct Signatures For Coulomb Blockade and Aharonov-Bohm Interference in Electronic Fabry-Perot Interferometers

Two distinct types of magnetoresistance oscillations are observed in two electronic Fabry-Perot interferometers of different sizes in the integer quantum Hall regime. Measuring these oscillations as a function of magnetic field and gate voltages, we observe three signatures that distinguish the two types. The oscillations observed in a 2.0 square micron device are understood to arise from the Coulomb blockade mechanism, and those observed in an 18 square micron device from the Aharonov-Bohm mechanism. This work clarifies, provides ways to distinguish, and demonstrates control over, these distinct physical origins of resistance oscillations seen in electronic Fabry-Perot interferometers.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Charge Imbalance and Bilayer 2D Electron Systems at $ν_T = 1$

We use interlayer tunneling to study bilayer 2D electron systems at $ν_T = 1$ over a wide range of charge density imbalance, $Δν=ν_1-ν_2$, between the two layers. We find that the strongly enhanced tunneling associated with the coherent excitonic $ν_T = 1$ phase at small layer separation can survive at least up to an imbalance of $Δν$ = 0.5, i.e $(ν_1, ν_2)$ = (3/4, 1/4). Phase transitions between the excitonic $ν_T = 1$ state and bilayer states which lack significant interlayer correlations can be induced in three different ways: by increasing the effective interlayer spacing $d/\ell$, the temperature $T$, or the charge imbalance, $Δν$. We observe that close to the phase boundary the coherent $ν_T = 1$ phase can be absent at $Δν$ = 0, present at intermediate $Δν$, but then absent again at large $Δν$, thus indicating an intricate phase competition between it and incoherent quasi-independent layer states. At zero imbalance, the critical $d/\ell$ shifts linearly with temperature, while at $Δν$ = 1/3 the critical $d/\ell$ is only weakly dependent on $T$. At $Δν$ = 1/3 we report the first observation of a direct phase transition between the coherent excitonic $ν_T = 1$ bilayer integer quantum Hall phase and the pair of single layer fractional quantized Hall states at $ν_1$ = 2/3 and $ν_2=1/3$.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Local magnetization fluctuations in superconducting glasses resolved by Hall sensors

We report on magnetization measurements performed on a series of Fe$_{x}$Ni$_{1-x}$Zr$_{2}$ superconducting metallic glasses with $0\leq x\leq0.5$ using the Hall effect of a nearby 2-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in a GaAs/Al$_{0.33}$Ga$_{0.67}$As heterostructure as a local probe. The great sensitivity of the Hall effect of the 2DEG in such heterostructure is exploited to determine the magnetization of the superconductor due to the Meissner effect and flux trapping. The data is used to determine the lower critical field B$_{c1}$ of the superconductors as a function of temperature. Surprisingly large fluctuations in the magnetization are also observed and attributed to the presence of large flux clusters in the superconductor.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Pinning mode resonances of 2D electron stripe phases: Effect of in-plane magnetic field

We study the anisotropic pinning-mode resonances in the rf conductivity spectra of the stripe phase of 2D electron systems (2DES) around Landau level filling 9/2, in the presence of an in-plane magnetic field, B_ip. The polarization along which the resonance is observed switches as B_ip is applied, consistent with the reorientation of the stripes. The resonance frequency, a measure of the pinning interaction between the 2DES and disorder, increases with B_ip. The magnitude of this increase indicates that disorder interaction is playing an important role in determining the stripe orientation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Microwave Photoresistance in dc-driven 2D Systems at Cyclotron Resonance Subharmonics

We study microwave photoresistivity oscillations in a high mobility two-dimensional electron system subject to strong dc electric fields. We find that near the second subharmonic of the cyclotron resonance the frequency of the resistivity oscillations with dc electric field is twice the frequency of the oscillations at the cyclotron resonance, its harmonics, or in the absence of microwave radiation. This observation is discussed in terms of the microwave-induced sidebands in the density of states and the interplay between different scattering processes in the separated Landau level regime.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Observation of a Fractional Quantum Hall State at $ν=1/4$ in a Wide GaAs Quantum Well

We report the observation of an even-denominator fractional quantum Hall (FQH) state at $ν=1/4$ in a high quality, wide GaAs quantum well. The sample has a quantum well width of 50 nm and an electron density of $n_e=2.55\times10^{11}$ cm$^{-2}$. We have performed transport measurements at $T\sim35$ mK in magnetic fields up to 45 T. When the sample is perpendicular to the applied magnetic field, the diagonal resistance displays a kink at $ν=1/4$. Upon tilting the sample to an angle of $θ=20.3^o$ a clear FQH state at emerges at $ν=1/4$ with a plateau in the Hall resistance and a strong minimum in the diagonal resistance.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Contrasting Behavior of the 5/2 and 7/3 Fractional Quantum Hall Effect in a Tilted Field

Using a tilted field geometry, the effect of an in-plane magnetic field on the even denominator nu = 5/2 fractional quantum Hall state is studied. The energy gap of the nu = 5/2 state is found to collapse linearly with the in-plane magnetic field above ~0.5 T. In contrast, a strong enhancement of the gap is observed for the nu = 7/3 state. The radically distinct tilted-field behaviour between the two states is discussed in terms of Zeeman and magneto-orbital coupling within the context of the proposed Moore-Read pfaffian wavefunction for the 5/2 fractional quantum Hall effect.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Photo-current and photo-voltage oscillations in the two-dimensional electron system: screening and "anti-screening" of a potential profile

We observe in state-of-the-art GaAs based 2D electron systems microwave induced photo-current and photo-voltage oscillations around zero as a function of the applied magnetic field. The photo-signals pass zero whenever the microwave frequency is close to a multiple of the cyclotron resonance frequency. They originate from built-in electric fields due to for instance band bending at contacts. The oscillations correspond to a suppression (screening) or an enhancement ("anti-screening") of these fields by the photo-excited electrons.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Non-linear magnetotransport in microwave-illuminated two-dimensional electron systems

We study magnetoresistivity oscillations in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron system subject to both microwave and dc electric fields. First, we observe that the oscillation amplitude is a periodic function of the inverse magnetic field and is strongly suppressed at microwave frequencies near half-integers of the cyclotron frequency. Second, we obtain a complete set of conditions for the differential resistivity extrema and saddle points. These findings indicate the importance of scattering without microwave absorption and a special role played by microwave-induced scattering events antiparallel to the electric field.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗