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Magnetotransport Studies of Diverse Electron Solids in a Two-Dimensional Electron GasVidhi Shingla (7023347) 15 August 2019 (has links)
The two dimensional electron gas subjected to a perpendicular magnetic field
is a model system that supports a variety of electronic phases. Perhaps the most
well-known are the fractional quantum Hall states, but in recent years there has
been an upsurge of interest in the charge ordered phases commonly referred to as
electron solids. These solids are a consequence of electron-electron interactions in a
magnetic field. While some solid phases form in the lowest Landau level, the charged
ordered phases are most abundant in the higher Landau levels. Examples of such
phases include the Wigner solids, electronic bubble phases and stripe or nematic
phases. Open questions surround the exact role of disorder, confinement potential,
temperature and the Landau level index in determining the stability and competition
of these phases with other ground states. <div>The interface of GaAs/AlGaAs remains the cleanest host for the two-dimensional
electron gas due to the extremely high quality of materials available and the advancement in molecular beam epitaxy growth techniques. As a result, exceptionally high
electron mobilities in this system have been instrumental in the discovery of numerous
electron solids. </div><div>In this Thesis, I discuss the discovery and properties of several electron solids
that develop in such state-of-the-art two dimensional electron gases. These electron
solids often develop at ultra low temperatures, in the milliKelvin temperature range.
After an introduction to the physics of the quantum Hall effect in two dimensions, in
chapter 3, I discuss electron solids developing in the N=1 Landau level. While these
solids have been known for some time, details of the competition of these phases
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with the nearby fractional quantum Hall states remains elusive. A number of reports
observe new fractional quantum Hall states at filling factors where electron solids
are found in other experiments. We undertook a systematic study to answer some
of these unsettled questions. We see evidence for incipient fractional quantum Hall
states at 2+2/7 and 2+5/7 at intermediate temperatures which are overtaken by
the electronic bubble phases at lower temperatures. Several missing fractional states
including those at filling factors 2+3/5, 2+3/7, 2+4/9 highlight the relative stability
of the electronic solids called the bubble phases in the vicinity in our sample. </div><div>In chapter 4, I discuss a newly seen electron crystal which manifests itself in
transport measurements as a reentrant integer quantum Hall state. Reentrant integer
behavior is common in high Landau levels, but so far it was not observed in the
lowest Landau level in narrow quantum well samples. In contrast to high Landau
levels, where such reentrant integer behavior was associated with electronic bubbles,
we believe that the same signature in the N=0 Landau level is due to an electronic
Wigner crystal. The filling factors at which we observe such reentrance reveal that
it is a crystal of holes, rather than electrons. The discovery of this reentrant integer
state paints a complex picture of the interplay of the Wigner crystal and fractional
quantum Hall states. </div><div>Finally, in chapter 5, I discuss the observation of a novel phenomenon, that of
reentrant fractional quantum Hall effect. In the lowest Landau level, we observe a
fractional quantum Hall state, but as the field is increased, we see a deviation and
then a return to quantization in the Hall resistance. Such a behavior indicates a novel
electron solid. In contrast to the collective localization of electrons evidenced by the
reentrant integer quantum Hall effect, such reentrance to a fractional Hall resistance
clearly points to the involvement of composite fermion quasiparticles. This property thus distinguishes the ground state we observed as a solid formed of composite
fermions. Such a solid phase is evidence for exotic electron-electron correlations at
play which are clearly different from those in the traditional Wigner solid of electrons.<br></div>
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MULTI-ELECTRON BUBBLE PHASESDohyung Ro (9142649) 05 August 2020 (has links)
<div>Strong electronic correlations in many-body systems are cradles of new physics. They give birth to novel collective states hosting emergent quasiparticles as well as intriguing geometrical charge patterns. Two-dimensional electron gas in GaAs/AlGaAs under perpendicular magnetic field is one of the most well-known hosts in condensed matter physics where a plethora of the collective states appear. In the strong magnetic field regime, strong Coulomb interactions among the electrons create emergent quasiparticles, i.e. composite fermions and Cooper-paired composite fermions. In the weak magnetic field regime, modified Coulomb interactions drive electron solid phases having geometrical charge patterns in the shape of stripes and bubbles and lower the spatial symmetry of the states.</div><div><br></div><div>The fascinating charge order in bubble geometry is the electron bubble phase predicted first by the Hartree-Fock theory. In a bubble phase, certain number of electrons cluster as an entity called bubble and the bubbles order into a crystal of triangular lattice. In addition to the Hartree-Fock theory, the density matrix renormalization group and the exact diagonalization methods further support the formation of electronic bubbles.</div><div><br></div><div>Reentrant integer quantum Hall states are commonly accepted as the manifestations of the bubble phases in transport experiment. Soon after the first prediction of the Hartree-Fock theory, the reentrant integer quantum Hall states were observed in the third and higher Landau levels. Since then, the association to the bubble phases has been tested with different experimental techniques for decades.</div><div><br></div><div>Although the experimental results from different methods support the bubble phase picture of the reentrant integer quantum Hall states, the electron confinement under the quantum well structure hindered direct scanning of bubble morphology. Thus none of the experiments could showcase the bubble morphology of the reentrant integer quantum Hall states. Meanwhile, a significant discrepancy still remained in between the bubble theories and the experiments. Even though the bubble theories predict the proliferation of bubble phases with increasing orbital index, none of the experiments could observe multiple reentrant integer quantum Hall states in a high Landau level, which signify the multiple bubble formation. Therefore, the proliferation of bubble phases with increasing Landau level index was pessimistic. </div><div><br></div><div>In this Dissertation, I present my research on solving this discrepancy. In chapter 4, we performed a magnetotransport measurement of reentrant integer quantum Hall states in the third and higher Landau levels at various different temperatures. Then, we scrutinized how each of the reentrant integer quantum Hall states develops with the gradual increase of the temperature. As a result, we observed multiple reentrant integer quantum Hall states in the fourth Landau level which are associated with the two- and three-electron bubble phases. This result strongly supports the bubble phase picture of the reentrant integer quantum Hall states by confirming the possibility of the proliferation of bubble phases in high Landau levels.</div><div><br></div><div>In chapter 5, I analyzed the energetics of newly resolved two- and three-electron bubble phases in the fourth Landau level as well as those of two-electron bubble phases in the third Landau level. Here, I first found, in the fourth Landau level, the three-electron bubbles are more stable than the two-electron bubbles indicating that the multi-electron bubbles with higher electron number are more stable within a Landau level. Secondly, I found distinct energetic features of two- and three-electron bubble phases which are independent of Landau level index throughout the third and the fourth Landau levels. These results highlight the effect of the number of electrons per bubble on the energetics of multi-electron bubble phases and are expected to contribute on improving the existing Hartree-Fock theories.</div>
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