No Arabic abstract
In a recent paper [B. A. Piot et al., Phys. Rev. B 72, 245325 (2005)], we have shown that the lifting of the electron spin degeneracy in the integer quantum Hall effect at high filling factors should be interpreted as a magnetic-field-induced Stoner transition. In this work, we extend the analysis to investigate the influence of the single-particle Zeeman energy on the quantum Hall ferromagnet at high filling factors. The single-particle Zeeman energy is tuned through the application of an additional in-plane magnetic field. Both the evolution of the spin polarization of the system and the critical magnetic field for spin splitting are well described as a function of the tilt angle of the sample in the magnetic field.
Spin splitting in the integer quantum Hall effect is investigated for a series of Al$_{x}$Ga$_{1-x}$As/GaAs heterojunctions and quantum wells. Magnetoresistance measurements are performed at mK temperature to characterize the electronic density of states and estimate the strength of many body interactions. A simple model with no free parameters correctly predicts the magnetic field required to observe spin splitting confirming that the appearance of spin splitting is a result of a competition between the disorder induced energy cost of flipping spins and the exchange energy gain associated with the polarized state. In this model, the single particle Zeeman energy plays no role, so that the appearance of this quantum Hall ferromagnet in the highest occupied Landau level can also be thought of as a magnetic field induced Stoner transition.
Fractional quantum Hall states at half-integer filling factors have been observed in many systems beyond the $5/2$ and $7/2$ plateaus in GaAs quantum wells. This includes bilayer states in GaAs, several half-integer plateaus in ZnO-based heterostructures, and quantum Hall liquids in graphene. In all cases, Cooper pairing of composite fermions is believed to explain the plateaus. The nature of Cooper pairing and the topological order on those plateaus are hotly debated. Different orders are believed to be present in different systems. This makes it important to understand experimental signatures of all proposed orders. We review the expected experimental signatures for all possible composite-fermion states at half-integer filling. We address Mach-Zehnder interferometry, thermal transport, tunneling experiments, and Fabry-P{e}rot interferometry. For this end, we introduce a uniform description of the topological orders of Kitaevs sixteenfold way in terms of their wave-functions, effective Hamiltonians, and edge theories.
Optical absorption measurements are used to probe the spin polarization in the integer and fractional quantum Hall effect regimes. The system is fully spin polarized only at filling factor $ u=1$ and at very low temperatures($sim40$ mK). A small change in filling factor ($delta uapproxpm0.01$) leads to a significant depolarization. This suggests that the itinerant quantum Hall ferromagnet at $ u=1$ is surprisingly fragile against increasing temperature, or against small changes in filling factor.
We experimentally study equilibration across the sample edge at high fractional filling factors 4/3, 5/3 under experimental conditions, which allow us to obtain high imbalance conditions. We find a lack of the full equilibration across the edge even in the flat-band situation, where no potential barrier survives at the sample edge. We interpret this result as the manifestation of complicated edge excitation structure at high fractional filling factors 4/3, 5/3. Also, a mobility gap in the $ u_c=1$ incompressible strip is determined in normal and tilted magnetic fields.
We report on magneto-transport measurements of a two-dimensional electron gas confined in a Cd$_{0.997}$Mn$_{0.003}$Te quantum well structure under conditions of vanishing Zeeman energy. The electron Zeeman energy has been tuned via the $s-d$ exchange interaction in order to probe different quantum Hall states associated with metallic and insulating phases. We have observed that reducing Zeeman energy to zero does not necessary imply the disappearing of quantum Hall states, i.e. a closing of the spin gap. The spin gap value under vanishing Zeeman energy conditions is shown to be dependent on the filling factor. Numerical simulations support a qualitative description of the experimental data presented in terms of a crossing or an avoided-crossing of spin split Landau levels with same orbital quantum number $N$.