No Arabic abstract
By measuring the angles at which the Landau levels overlap in tilted magnetic fields (the coincidence method), we determine the splitting of the conduction-band valleys in high-mobility two-dimensional (2D) electrons confined to AlAs quantum wells. The data reveal that, while the valleys are nearly degenerate in the absence of magnetic field, they split as a function of perpendicular magnetic field. The splitting appears to depend primarily on the magnitude of the perpendicular component of the magnetic field, suggesting electron-electron interaction as its origin.
Two-dimensional electrons in AlAs quantum wells occupy multiple conduction-band minima at the X- points of the Brillouin zone. These valleys have large effective mass and g-factor compared to the stan-dard GaAs electrons, and are also highly anisotropic. With proper choice of well width and by applying symmetry-breaking strain in the plane, one can control the occupation of different valleys thus rendering a system with tuneable effective mass, g-factor, Fermi contour anisotropy, and valley degeneracy. Here we review some of the rich physics that this system has allowed us to explore.
We report the observation of commensurability oscillations in an AlAs two-dimensional electron system where two conduction-band valleys with elliptical in-plane Fermi contours are occupied. The Fourier power spectrum of the oscillations shows two frequency components consistent with those expected for the Fermi contours of the two valleys. From an analysis of the spectra we deduce $m_l/m_t=5.2pm0.5$ for the ratio of the longitudinal and transverse electron effective masses.
We evaluate the effective interactions in a fluid of electrons moving in a plane, on the approach to the quantum phase transition from the paramagnetic to the fully spin-polarized phase that has been reported from Quantum Monte Carlo runs. We use the approach of Kukkonen and Overhauser to treat exchange and correlations under close constraints imposed by sum rules. We show that, as the paramagnetic fluid approaches the phase transition, the effective interactions at low momenta develop an attractive region between parallel-spin electrons and a corresponding repulsive region for antiparallel-spin electron pairs. A connection with the Hubbard model is made and used to estimate the magnetic energy gap and hence the temperature at which the phase transition may become observable with varying electron density in a semiconductor quantum well.
We study a two-dimensional electron system where the electrons occupy two conduction band valleys with anisotropic Fermi contours and strain-tunable occupation. We observe persistent quantum Hall states at filling factors $ u = 1/3$ and 5/3 even at zero strain when the two valleys are degenerate. This is reminiscent of the quantum Hall ferromagnet formed at $ u = 1$ in the same system at zero strain. In the absence of a theory for a system with anisotropic valleys, we compare the energy gaps measured at $ u = 1/3$ and 5/3 to the available theory developed for single-valley, two-spin systems, and find that the gaps and their rates of rise with strain are much smaller than predicted.
Electrons in artificial lattices enable explorations of the impact of repulsive Coulomb interactions in a tunable system. We have trapped two-dimensional electrons belonging to a gallium arsenide quantum well in a nanofabricated lattice with honeycomb geometry. We probe the excitation spectrum in a magnetic field identifying novel collective modes that emerge from the Coulomb interaction in the artificial lattice as predicted by the Mott-Hubbard model. These observations allow us to determine the Hubbard gap and suggest the existence of a novel Coulomb-driven ground state. This approach offers new venues for the study of quantum phenomena in a controllable solid-state system.