No Arabic abstract
Because of the bulk gap, low energy physics in the quantum Hall effect is confined to the edges of the 2D electron liquid. The velocities of edge modes are key parameters of edge physics. They were determined in several quantum Hall systems from time-resolved measurements and high-frequency ac transport. We propose a way to extract edge velocities from dc transport in a point contact geometry defined by narrow gates. The width of the gates assumes two different sizes at small and large distances from the point contact. The Coulomb interaction across the gates depends on the gate width and affects the conductance of the contact. The conductance exhibits two different temperature dependencies at high and low temperatures. The transition between the two regimes is determined by the edge velocity. An interesting feature of the low-temperature I-V curve is current oscillations as a function of the voltage. The oscillations emerge due to charge reflection from the interface of the regions defined by the narrow and wide sections of the gates.
An antiphased magnetoplasma (MP) mode in a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) has been studied by means of inelastic light scattering (ILS) spectroscopy. Unlike the cophased MP mode it is purely quantum excitation which has no classic plasma analogue. It is found that zero momentum degeneracy for the antiphased and cophased modes predicted by the first-order perturbation approach in terms of the {it e-e} interaction is lifted. The zero momentum energy gap is determined by a negative correlation shift of the antiphased mode. This shift, observed experimentally and calculated theoretically within the second-order perturbation approach, is proportional to the effective Rydberg constant in a semiconductor material.
The electronic excitations at the edges of a Hall bar not much wider than a few magnetic lengths are studied theoretically at filling $ u = 2$. Both mean-field theory and Luttinger liquid theory techniques are employed for the case of a null Zeeman energy splitting. The first calculation yields a stable spin-density wave state along the bar, while the second one predicts dominant Wigner-crystal correlations along the edges of the bar. We propose an antiferromagnetic Wigner-crystal groundstate for the edge electrons that reconciles the two results. A net Zeeman splitting is found to produce canting of the antiferromagnetic order.
Electron correlation and topology are two central threads of modern condensed matter physics. Semiconductor moire materials provide a highly tunable platform for studies of electron correlation. Correlation-driven phenomena, including the Mott insulator, generalized Wigner crystals, stripe phases and continuous Mott transition, have been demonstrated. However, nontrivial band topology has remained elusive. Here we report the observation of a quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect in AB-stacked MoTe2/WSe2 moire heterobilayers. Unlike in the AA-stacked structures, an out-of-plane electric field controls not only the bandwidth but also the band topology by intertwining moire bands centered at different high-symmetry stacking sites. At half band filling, corresponding to one particle per moire unit cell, we observe quantized Hall resistance, h/e2 (with h and e denoting the Plancks constant and electron charge, respectively), and vanishing longitudinal resistance at zero magnetic field. The electric-field-induced topological phase transition from a Mott insulator to a QAH insulator precedes an insulator-to-metal transition; contrary to most known topological phase transitions, it is not accompanied by a bulk charge gap closure. Our study paves the path for discovery of a wealth of emergent phenomena arising from the combined influence of strong correlation and topology in semiconductor moire materials.
Protected edge modes are the cornerstone of topological states of matter. The simplest example is provided by the integer quantum Hall state at Landau level filling unity, which should feature a single chiral mode carrying electronic excitations. In the presence of a smooth confining potential it was hitherto believed that this picture may only be partially modified by the appearance of additional counterpropagating integer-charge modes. Here, we demonstrate the breakdown of this paradigm: The system favors the formation of edge modes supporting fractional excitations. This accounts for previous observations, and leads to additional predictions amenable to experimental tests.
The dichotomy between fermions and bosons is at the root of many physical phenomena, from metallic conduction of electricity to super-fluidity, and from the periodic table to coherent propagation of light. The dichotomy originates from the symmetry of the quantum mechanical wave function to the interchange of two identical particles. In systems that are confined to two spatial dimensions particles that are neither fermions nor bosons, coined anyons, may exist. The fractional quantum Hall effect offers an experimental system where this possibility is realized. In this paper we present the concept of anyons, we explain why the observation of the fractional quantum Hall effect almost forces the notion of anyons upon us, and we review several possible ways for a direct observation of the physics of anyons. Furthermore, we devote a large part of the paper to non-abelian anyons, motivating their existence from the point of view of trial wave functions, giving a simple exposition of their relation to conformal field theories, and reviewing several proposals for their direct observation.