Critical resistance in the AlAs quantum Hall ferromagnet

Pseudospin Quantum Hall Ferromagnetism Probed by Electron Spin Resonance

We study the effect of the pseudospin ferromagnetism with the aid of an electrically detected electron spin resonance in a wide AlAs quantum well containing a high quality two-dimensional electron system. Here, pseudospin emerges as a two-component degree of freedom, that labels degenerate energy minima in momentum space populated by electrons. The built-in mechanical strain in the sample studied imposes a finite "Zeeman" splitting between the pseudospin "up" and "down" states. Because of the anisotropy of the electron spin splitting we were able to independently measure the electron spin resonances originating from the two in-plane valleys. By analyzing the relative resonance amplitudes, we were able to investigate the ferromagnetic phase transitions taking place at integer filling factors of the quantum Hall effect when the magnetic field is tilted. The pseudospin nature of these transitions is demonstrated.

Density-controlled quantum Hall ferromagnetic transition in a two-dimensional hole system

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 quantum 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 ~2.4 × 10¹⁰ cm⁻², this ratio grows greater than 1, resulting in a ferromagnetic ground state at filling factor ν = 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.

Electronic transport properties of the Ising quantum Hall ferromagnet in a Si quantum well

Magnetotransport properties are investigated for a high mobility Si two-dimensional electron system in the vicinity of a Landau level crossing point. At low temperatures, the resistance peak having a strong anisotropy shows large hysteresis which is attributed to Ising quantum Hall ferromagnetism. The peak is split into two peaks in the paramagnetic regime. A mean field calculation for the peak positions indicates that electron scattering is strong when the pseudospin is partially polarized. We also study the current-voltage characteristics which exhibit a wide voltage plateau.

Ballistic electron transport in AlAs quantum wells

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)=5.2+/-0.5 for the ratio of the longitudinal and transverse electron effective masses, a fundamental parameter that cannot be directly measured from other transport experiments.