Sign Reversal of the Quantum Hall Number in (TMTSF)2PF6

Quasi-quantized Hall response in bulk InAs

The quasi-quantized Hall effect (QQHE) is the three-dimensional (3D) counterpart of the integer quantum Hall effect (QHE), exhibited only by two-dimensional (2D) electron systems. It has recently been observed in layered materials, consisting of stacks of weakly coupled 2D platelets that are yet characterized by a 3D anisotropic Fermi surface. However, it is predicted that the quasi-quantized 3D version of the 2D QHE should occur in a much broader class of bulk materials, regardless of the underlying crystal structure. Here, we compare the observation of quasi-quantized plateau-like features in the Hall conductivity of the n-type bulk semiconductor InAs with the predictions for the 3D QQHE in presence of parabolic electron bands. InAs takes form of a cubic crystal without any low-dimensional substructure. The onset of the plateau-like feature in the Hall conductivity scales with \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\sqrt{2/3}k_{\text {F}}^{z}/\pi$$\end{document}2/3kFz/π in units of the conductance quantum and is accompanied by a Shubnikov–de Haas minimum in the longitudinal resistivity, consistent wit the results of calculations. This confirms the suggestion that the 3D QQHE may be a generic effect directly observable in materials with small Fermi surfaces, placed in sufficiently strong magnetic fields.

Evidence for Layered Quantized Transport in Dirac Semimetal ZrTe5

ZrTe₅ is an important semiconductor thermoelectric material and a candidate topological insulator. Here we report the observation of Shubnikov-de Hass (SdH) oscillations accompanied by quantized Hall resistance in bulk ZrTe₅ crystal, with a mobility of 41,000 cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹. We have found that the quantum oscillations does not originate from the surface states, but from the bulk states. Each single layer ZrTe₅ acted like an independent 2D electron system in the quantum Hall regime having the same carrier density and mobilities, while the bulk of the sample exhibits a multilayered quantum Hall effect.

High-temperature quantum oscillations of the Hall resistance in bulk Bi2Se3

Helically spin-polarized Dirac fermions (HSDF) in protected topological surface states (TSS) are of high interest as a new state of quantum matter. In three-dimensional (3D) materials with TSS, electronic bulk states often mask the transport properties of HSDF. Recently, the high-field Hall resistance and low-field magnetoresistance indicate that the TSS may coexist with a layered two-dimensional electronic system (2DES). Here, we demonstrate quantum oscillations of the Hall resistance at temperatures up to 50 K in nominally undoped bulk Bi₂Se₃ with a high electron density n of about 2·10¹⁹ cm⁻³. From the angular and temperature dependence of the Hall resistance and the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations we identify 3D and 2D contributions to transport. Angular resolved photoemission spectroscopy proves the existence of TSS. We present a model for Bi₂Se₃ and suggest that the coexistence of TSS and 2D layered transport stabilizes the quantum oscillations of the Hall resistance.

Zeeman splitting and dynamical mass generation in Dirac semimetal ZrTe5

Dirac semimetals have attracted extensive attentions in recent years. It has been theoretically suggested that many-body interactions may drive exotic phase transitions, spontaneously generating a Dirac mass for the nominally massless Dirac electrons. So far, signature of interaction-driven transition has been lacking. In this work, we report high-magnetic-field transport measurements of the Dirac semimetal candidate ZrTe5. Owing to the large g factor in ZrTe5, the Zeeman splitting can be observed at magnetic field as low as 3 T. Most prominently, high pulsed magnetic field up to 60 T drives the system into the ultra-quantum limit, where we observe abrupt changes in the magnetoresistance, indicating field-induced phase transitions. This is interpreted as an interaction-induced spontaneous mass generation of the Dirac fermions, which bears resemblance to the dynamical mass generation of nucleons in high-energy physics. Our work establishes Dirac semimetals as ideal platforms for investigating emerging correlation effects in topological matters.

Quantized Hall effect and Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in highly doped Bi2Se3: evidence for layered transport of bulk carriers

Bi2Se3 is an important semiconductor thermoelectric material and a prototype topological insulator. Here we report observation of Shubnikov-de Hass oscillations accompanied by quantized Hall resistances (R(xy)) in highly doped n-type Bi2Se3 with bulk carrier concentrations of few 10(19) cm(-3). Measurements under tilted magnetic fields show that the magnetotransport is 2D-like, where only the c-axis component of the magnetic field controls the Landau level formation. The quantized step size in 1/R(xy) is found to scale with the sample thickness, and average ~e(2)/h per quintuple layer. We show that the observed magnetotransport features do not come from the sample surface, but arise from the bulk of the sample acting as many parallel 2D electron systems to give a multilayered quantum Hall effect. In addition to revealing a new electronic property of Bi2Se3, our finding also has important implications for electronic transport studies of topological insulator materials.

Signatures of surface states in bismuth at high magnetic fields

Electrons in a metal subject to a magnetic field commonly exhibit oscillatory behavior as the field strength varies, with a period set by the area of quantized electronic orbits. Recent experiments on elemental bismuth have revealed oscillations for fields above 9 T that do not follow this simple dependence and have been interpreted as a signature of electron fractionalization in the bulk. We argue instead that a simple explanation in terms of the surface states of bismuth exists when additional features of the experiment are included. These surface electrons are known to have significant spin-orbit interaction. We show the observed oscillations are in quantitative agreement with the surface theory, which we propose to test by studying the effect of the Zeeman coupling in higher fields, dependence on the field orientation, and the thickness of the samples.

Theory of the three-dimensional quantum Hall effect in graphite

We predict the existence of a three-dimensional quantum Hall effect plateau in a graphite crystal subject to a magnetic field. The plateau has a Hall conductivity quantized at 4e2/variant Planck's over 2pi 1/c0 with c0 the c-axis lattice constant. We analyze the three-dimensional Hofstadter problem of a realistic tight-binding Hamiltonian for graphite, find the gaps in the spectrum, and estimate the critical value of the magnetic field above which the Hall plateau appears. When the Fermi level is in the bulk Landau gap, Hall transport occurs through the appearance of chiral surface states. We estimate the magnetic field necessary for the appearance of the effect to be 15.4 T for electron carriers and 7.0 T for holes.

Effect of noise on a quantum bound state

The evolution of a quantum wave function on a lattice with time-dependent random disorder is studied. It is found that the bound state wave function of a quantum system exhibits intrinsic instability with respect to noisy disorder in the statistical sense. Under the general scheme of time coarse graining, we show nonperturbatively that the stationary attractive potential is completely washed out at large time scales by the existence of the noisy disorder to any order of density correlations.