Quantum Hall ferromagnetic transitions are typically achieved by increasing the Zeeman energy through in-situ sample rotation, while transitions in systems with pseudo-spin indices can be induced by gate control. We report here a gate-controlled quan
tum Hall ferromagnetic transition between two real spin states in a conventional two-dimensional system without any in-plane magnetic field. We show that the ratio of the Zeeman splitting to the cyclotron gap in a Ge two-dimensional hole system increases with decreasing density owing to inter-carrier interactions. Below a critical density of $sim2.4times 10^{10}$ cm$^{-2}$, this ratio grows greater than $1$, resulting in a ferromagnetic ground state at filling factor $ u=2$. At the critical density, a resistance peak due to the formation of microscopic domains of opposite spin orientations is observed. Such gate-controlled spin-polarizations in the quantum Hall regime opens the door to realizing Majorana modes using two-dimensional systems in conventional, low-spin-orbit-coupling semiconductors.
We report Coulomb drag measurements between vertically-integrated quantum wires separated by a barrier only 15 nm wide. The temperature dependence of the drag resistance is measured in the true one-dimensional (1D) regime where both wires have less t
han one 1D subband occupied. As a function of temperature, an upturn in the drag resistance is observed in three distinct devices at a temperature $T^* sim 1.6$ K. This crossover in Coulomb drag behaviour is consistent with Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid models for the 1D-1D drag between quantum wires.
Electron interactions in and between wires become increasingly complex and important as circuits are scaled to nanometre sizes, or employ reduced-dimensional conductors like carbon nanotubes, nanowires and gated high mobility 2D electron systems. Thi
s is because the screening of the long-range Coulomb potential of individual carriers is weakened in these systems, which can lead to phenomenon such as Coulomb drag: a current in one wire induces a voltage in a second wire through Coulomb interactions alone. Previous experiments have observed electron drag in wires separated by a soft electrostatic barrier $gtrsim$ 80 nm. Here, we measure both positive and negative drag between adjacent vertical quantum wires that are separated by $sim$ 15 nm and have independent contacts, which allows their electron densities to be tuned independently. We map out the drag signal versus the number of electron subbands occupied in each wire, and interpret the results in terms of momentum-transfer and charge-fluctuation induced transport models. For wires of significantly different subband occupancies, the positive drag effect can be as large as 25%.
We report on a systematic investigation of the dominant scattering mechanism in shallow two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) formed in modulation-doped GaAs/Al_{x}Ga_{1-x}As heterostructures. The power-law exponent of the electron mobility versus d
ensity, mu propto n^{alpha}, is extracted as a function of the 2DEGs depth. When shallower than 130 nm from the surface, the power-law exponent of the 2DEG, as well as the mobility, drops from alpha simeq 1.65 (130 nm deep) to alpha simeq 1.3 (60 nm deep). Our results for shallow 2DEGs are consistent with theoretical expectations for scattering by remote dopants, in contrast to the mobility-limiting background charged impurities of deeper heterostructures.
