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Lian Zheng

Publications and source records attributed to Lian Zheng.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv1998

Canted antiferromagnetic and spin singlet quantum Hall states in double-layer systems

We present details of earlier studies (Zheng et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 310 (1997) and Das Sarma et al, ibid 79, 917 (1997)) and additional new results on double-layer quantum Hall systems at a total filling ν= 2 ν_1, where a single layer at filling ν_1 forms a ferromagnetic, fully spin-polarized, gapped incompressible quantum Hall state. For the case ν_1 = 1, a detailed Hartree-Fock analysis is carried out on a realistic, microscopic Hamiltonian. Apart from the state continuously connected to the ground state of two well separated layers, we find two double-layer quantum Hall phases: one with a finite interlayer antiferromagnetic spin ordering in the plane orthogonal to the applied field (the `canted' state), and the other a spin singlet. The quantum transitions between the various quantum Hall states are continuous, and are signaled by the softening of collective intersubband spin density excitations. For the case of general ν_1, closely related results are obtained by a semi-phenomenological continuum quantum field theory description of the low-lying spin excitations using a non-linear sigma model. Because of its broken symmetry, the canted phase supports a linearly dispersing Goldstone mode and has a finite temperature Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. We present results on the form of the phase diagram, the magnitude of the canted order parameter, the collective excitation dispersions, the specific heat, the form of the dynamic light scattering spectrum at finite temperature, and the Kosterlitz-Thouless critical temperature. Our findings are consistent with recent experimental results.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv1997

Quantum and classical phase transitions in double-layer quantum Hall ferromagnets

We consider the problem of quantum and classical phase transitions in double-layer quantum Hall systems at $ν=1/m$ (m odd integers) from a long-wavelength statistical mechanics viewpoint. We derive an explicit mapping of the long-wavelength Lagrangian of the quantum Hall system into that of a three-dimensional isotropic classical XY model whose coupling constant depends on the quantum fluctuation in the original quantum Hall Hamiltonian. Universal properties of the quantum phase transition at the critical layer separation are completely determined by this mapping. The dependence of the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature on layer separation, including quantum fluctuation effects, is approximately obtained by simple finite-size scaling analyses.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv1997

Spin-Excitation-Instability-Induced Quantum Phase Transitions in Double-Layer Quantum Hall Systems

We study intersubband spin density collective modes in double-layer quantum Hall systems at $ν=2$ within the time-dependent Hartree-Fock approximation. We find that these intersubband spin density excitations may soften under experimentally accessible conditions, signaling a phase transition to a new quantum Hall state with interlayer inplane antiferromagnetic spin correlations. We show that this novel canted antiferromagnetic phase is energetically stable and that the phase transition is continuous.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv1997

Double-layer quantum Hall antiferromagnetism at filling fraction nu=2/(odd integer)

A low energy action for double-layer quantum Hall systems at filling fractions $ν= 2/m$ ($m$ an odd integer) is introduced. Interlayer antiferromagnetic exchange induces a phase with canted spin order, and also a spin-singlet phase. Universal properties of zero and finite temperature transitions are obtained. We compute the critical temperature at which the canted order vanishes in a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. Implications for recent light scattering experiments at $ν= 2$ are noted.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv1996

Exchange Instabilities in Semiconductor Double Quantum Well Systems

We consider various exchange-driven electronic instabilities in semiconductor double-layer systems in the absence of any external magnetic field. We establish that there is no exchange-driven bilayer to monolayer charge transfer instability in the double-layer systems. We show that, within the unrestricted Hartree-Fock approximation, the low density stable phase (even in the absence of any interlayer tunneling) is a quantum ``pseudospin rotated'' spontaneous interlayer phase coherent spin-polarized symmetric state rather than the classical Ising-like charge-transfer phase. The U(1) symmetry of the double quantum well system is broken spontaneously at this low density quantum phase transition, and the layer density develops quantum fluctuations even in the absence of any interlayer tunneling. The phase diagram for the double quantum well system is calculated in the carrier density--layer separation space, and the possibility of experimentally observing various quantum phases is discussed. The situation in the presence of an external electric field is investigated in some detail using the spin-polarized-local-density-approximation-based self-consistent technique and good agreement with existing experimental results is obtained.

cond-mat↗
arXiv1996

Inelastic lifetimes of confined two-component electron systems in semiconductor quantum wire and quantum well structures

We calculate Coulomb scattering lifetimes of electrons in two-subband quantum wires and in double-layer quantum wells by obtaining the quasiparticle self-energy within the framework of the random-phase approximation for the dynamical dielectric function. We show that, in contrast to a single-subband quantum wire, the scattering rate in a two-subband quantum wire contains contributions from both particle-hole excitations and plasmon excitations. For double-layer quantum well structures, we examine individual contributions to the scattering rate from quasiparticle as well as acoustic and optical plasmon excitations at different electron densities and layer separations. We find that the acoustic plasmon contribution in the two-component electron system does not introduce any qualitatively new correction to the low energy inelastic lifetime, and, in particular, does not produce the linear energy dependence of carrier scattering rate as observed in the normal state of high-$T_c$ superconductors.

cond-mat↗
arXiv1996

Plasmon-pole approximation for semiconductor quantum wire electrons

We develop the plasmon-pole approximation for an interacting electron gas confined in a semiconductor quantum wire. We argue that the plasmon-pole approximation becomes a more accurate approach in quantum wire systems than in higher dimensional systems because of severe phase-space restrictions on particle-hole excitations in one dimension. As examples, we use the plasmon-pole approximation to calculate the electron self-energy due to the Coulomb interaction and the hot-electron energy relaxation rate due to LO-phonon emission in GaAs quantum wires. We find that the plasmon-pole approximation works extremely well as compared with more complete many-body calculations.

cond-mat↗
arXiv1996

Coulomb scattering lifetime of a two-dimensional electron gas

Motivated by a recent tunneling experiment in a double quantum-well system, which reports an anomalously enhanced electronic scattering rate in a clean two-dimensional electron gas, we calculate the inelastic quasiparticle lifetime due to electron-electron interaction in a single loop dynamically screened Coulomb interaction within the random-phase-approximation. We obtain excellent quantitative agreement with the inelastic scattering rates in the tunneling experiment without any adjustable parameter, finding that the reported large ($\geq$ a factor of six) disagreement between theory and experiment arises from quantitative errors in the existing theoretical work and from the off-shell energy dependence of the electron self-energy.

cond-mat↗
arXiv1996

Energy relaxation of an excited electron gas in quantum wires: many-body electron LO-phonon coupling

We theoretically study energy relaxation via LO-phonon emission in an excited one-dimensional electron gas confined in a GaAs quantum wire structure. We find that the inclusion of phonon renormalization effects in the theory extends the LO-phonon dominated loss regime down to substantially lower temperatures. We show that a simple plasmon-pole approximation works well for this problem, and discuss implications of our results for low temperature electron heating experiments in quantum wires.

cond-mat↗
arXiv1996

Unusual temperature dependent resistivity of a semiconductor quantum wire

We calculate the electronic resistivity of a GaAs-based semiconductor quantum wire in the presence of acoustic phonon scattering. We find that the usual Drude-Boltzmann transport theory leads to a low temperature activated behavior instead of the well-known Bloch-Grüneisen power law. Many-body electron-phonon renormalization, which is entirely negligible in higher dimensional systems, has a dramatic effect on the low temperature quantum wire transport properties as it qualitatively modifies the temperature dependence of the resistivity from the exponentially activated behavior to an approximate power law behavior at sufficiently low temperatures.

cond-mat↗
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

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

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

Coulomb drag between disordered two-dimensional electron gas layers

We derive and evaluate expressions for the frictional Coulomb drag between disordered two-dimensional electron gas layers. Our derivation is based on the memory-function formalism and the expression for the drag reduces to previously known results in the ballistic limit. We find that Coulomb drag is appreciably enhanced by disorder at low temperatures when the mean-free-path within a layer is comparable to or shorter than the layer separation. In high mobility two-dimensional electron gas systems, where the drag has been studied experimentally, the effect of disorder on the drag is negligible at attainable temperatures. We predict that an enhancement due to disorder and a crossover in the temperature-dependence and layer-separation dependence will be observable at low temperatures in moderate and low mobility samples.

cond-mat↗
arXiv1992

Tunneling Conductance Between Parallel Two Dimensional Electron Systems

We derive and evaluate expressions for the low temperature {\it dc} equilibrium tunneling conductance between parallel two-dimensional electron systems. Our theory is based on a linear-response formalism and on impurity-averaged perturbation theory. The disorder broadening of features in the dependence of tunneling conductance on sheet densities and in-plane magnetic field strengths is influenced both by the finite lifetime of electrons within the wells and by non-momentum-conserving tunneling events. Disorder vertex corrections are important only for weak in-plane magnetic fields and strong interwell impurity-potential correlations. We comment on the basis of our results on the possibility of using tunneling measurements to determine the lifetime of electrons in the quantum wells.

cond-mat↗