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arXiv:0709.3164 · Physical Review B

Transport through constricted quantum Hall edge systems: Beyond the quantum point contact

Siddhartha Lal

Published Jan 29, 2008• 9 citations
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Abstract

Motivated by surprises in recent experimental findings, we study transport in a model of a quantum Hall edge system with a gate-voltage controlled constriction. A finite backscattered current at finite edge bias is explained from a Landauer-Buttiker analysis as arising from the splitting of edge current caused by the difference in the filling fractions of the bulk $({\ensuremath{\nu}}_{1})$ and constriction $({\ensuremath{\nu}}_{2})$ quantum Hall fluid regions. We develop a hydrodynamic theory for bosonic edge modes inspired by this model. The constriction region splits the incident long-wavelength chiral edge density-wave excitations among the transmitting and reflecting edge states encircling it. The competition between two interedge tunneling processes taking place inside the constriction, related by a quasiparticle-quasihole (qp-qh) symmetry, is accounted for by computing the boundary theories of the system. This competition is found to determine the strong coupling configuration of the system. A separatrix of qp-qh symmetric gapless critical states is found to lie between the relevant renormalization group (RG) flows to a metallic and an insulating configuration of the constriction system. This constitutes an interesting generalization of the Kane-Fisher quantum impurity model. The features of the RG phase diagram are also confirmed by computing various correlators and chiral linear conductances of the system. In this way, our results find excellent agreement with many recent puzzling experimental results for the cases of ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{1}=1∕3$ and 1. We also discuss and make predictions for the case of a constriction system with ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{2}=5∕2$.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.77.035331

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Motivated by surprises in recent experimental findings, we study transport in a model of a quantum Hall edge system with a gate-voltage controlled constriction. A finite backscattered current at finite edge bias is explained from a Landauer-Buttiker analysis as arising from the splitting of edge current caused by the difference in the filling fractions of the bulk (\ensuremathν1)({\ensuremath{\nu}}_{1})(\ensuremathν1​) and constriction (\ensuremathν2)({\ensuremath{\nu}}_{2})(\ensuremathν2​) quantum Hall fluid regions. We develop a hydrodynamic theory for bosonic edge modes inspired by this model. The constriction region splits the incident long-wavelength chiral edge density-wave excitations among the transmitting and reflecting edge states encircling it. The competition between two interedge tunneling processes taking place inside the constriction, related by a quasiparticle-quasihole (qp-qh) symmetry, is accounted for by computing the boundary theories of the system. This competition is found to determine the strong coupling configuration of the system. A separatrix of qp-qh symmetric gapless critical states is found to lie between the relevant renormalization group (RG) flows to a metallic and an insulating configuration of the constriction system. This constitutes an interesting generalization of the Kane-Fisher quantum impurity model. The features of the RG phase diagram are also confirmed by computing various correlators and chiral linear conductances of the system. In this way, our results find excellent agreement with many recent puzzling experimental results for the cases of \ensuremathν1=1∕3{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{1}=1∕3\ensuremathν1​=1∕3 and 1. We also discuss and make predictions for the case of a constriction system with \ensuremathν2=5∕2{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{2}=5∕2\ensuremathν2​=5∕2.
Motivated by surprises in recent experimental findings, we study transport in a model of a quantum Hall edge system with a gate-voltage controlled constriction. A finite backscattered current at finite edge-bias is explained as arising from the splitting of edge current caused by the difference in the filling fractions of the bulk (�1) and constriction (�2) quantum Hall fluid regions. We develop a hydrodynamic theory for bosonic edge modes inspired by this model. The constriction region splits the incident long-wavelength chiral edge density-wave excitations among the transmitting and reflecting edge states encircling it. The competition between two interedge tunneling processes taking place inside the constriction, related by a quasiparticlequasihole (qp-qh) symmetry, is accounted for by computing the boundary theories of the system. This competition is found to determine the strong coupling configuration of the system. A separatrix of qp-qh symmetric gapless critical states is found to lie between the relevant RG flows to a metallic and an insulating configuration of the constriction system. This constitutes an interesting generalisation of the Kane-Fisher quantum impurity model. The features of the RG phase diagram are also confirmed by computing various correlators and chiral linear conductances of the system. In this way, our results find excellent agreement with many recent puzzling experimental results for the cases of �1 = 1/3, 1. We also discuss and make predictions for the case of a constriction system with �2 = 5/2.
The elementary low energy excitations in the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) regime are known to be fractionally charged quasiparticles and quasiholes. This work focusses on quasiholes in a finite system of a few electrons treated by exact numerical diagonalization. Recent experimental [Chung et al., PRB 67, 201104 (2003)] and theoretical [Kane, Fisher, PRB 67, 045307 (2003)] work on quantum point contacts in the FQH regime showed strong evidence for single quasiparticle tunneling to be forbidden at low temperature. We want to gain insight into such constricted FQH systems by a numerical approach. Initially the basics of numerically treating a system in rectangular geometry and procedures to insert a quasihole excitation are presented. The excitations' stability and fractional charge is confirmed for different interactions. The question of quasihole tunneling is approached in two different systems: 1. A system posessing bound, localized states of a quasihole shows evidence for tunnel coupling between these states to exist. 2. Different potential forms to model a quantum point contact are investigated and the injection of a single quasihole near the constriction is surveyed in the system's time evolution.
Quantum point contacts (QPC) are a key instrument in investigating the physics of edge excitations in the quantum Hall effect. However, at not-so-high bias voltage values, the predictions of the conventional point QPC model often deviate from the experimental data both in the integer and (more prominently) in the fractional quantum Hall regime. One of the possible explanations for such behaviors is the dependence of the tunneling between the edges on energy, an effect not present in the conventional model. Here we introduce two models that take QPC spatial extension into account: wide-QPC model that accounts for the distance along which the edges are in contact; long-QPC model accounts for the fact that the tunneling amplitude originates from a finite bulk gap and a finite distance between the two edges. We investigate the predictions of these two models in the integer quantum Hall regime for the energy dependence of the tunneling amplitude. We find that these two models predict opposite dependences: the amplitude decreasing or increasing away from the Fermi level. We thus elucidate the effect of the QPC geometry on the energy dependence of the tunneling amplitude and investigate its implications for transport observables.
In fractional quantum Hall systems, quasiparticles of fractional charge can tunnel between the edges at a quantum point contact. Such tunneling (or backscattering) processes contribute to charge transport and provide information on both the charge and statistics of the quasiparticles involved. Here, we study quasiparticle tunneling in the Moore-Read state, in which quasiparticles of charges e/4e/4e/4 (non-Abelian) and e/2e/2e/2 (Abelian) may coexist and both contribute to edge transport. On a disk geometry, we calculate the matrix elements for e/2e/2e/2 and e/4e/4e/4 quasiholes to tunnel through the bulk of the Moore-Read state, in an attempt to understand their relative importance. We find that the tunneling amplitude for charge e/2e/2e/2 quasihole is exponentially smaller than that for charge e/4e/4e/4 quasihole, and the ratio between them can be (partially) attributed to their charge difference. We find that including long-range Coulomb interaction only has a weak effect on the ratio. We discuss briefly the relevance of these results to recent tunneling and interferometry experiments at filling factor $\ensuremath{\nu}=5/2$.
We have recently calculated exact nonequilibrium quantum transport properties through a point contact in a Luttinger liquid. Using a particular quasiparticle basis of the Hilbert space dictated by integrability, we here compute explicitly the exact I(V) characteristic and conductance out of equilibrium as a function of driving voltage V and temperature T. These are described by universal scaling functions of two variables, the scaled point-contact interaction strength, and V/T. The differential-conductance curve as a function of the interaction strength broadens significantly as V/T is increased, and develops a pronounced maximum at a (universal) critical value (eV/kB{\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{B}}kB​T)=7.188 68. . .. In addition, we derive an exact duality between strong and weak backscattering. The theory presented here has recently been realized experimentally in resonant tunneling-transport experiments between edge states in fractional quantum Hall effect devices. In this context the exact duality is between electron tunneling and Laughlin-quasiparticle tunneling.
In this dissertation, we investigate the edge spin excitations and reconstructions of quantum Hall (QH) liquids. Edge spin reconstructions reflect the interplay of confining potential, electron-electron interaction, and Zeeman splitting at the edges of QH liquids. The main method used in this dissertation is the exact diagonalization calculation for finite size systems. The QH liquids studied in this dissertation are classified into three kinds, based on their topological properties and statistics of quasiparticles (quasiholes). The first kind of QH liquids is spin-polarized QH liquids. The QH liquids with filling factors ν = 1 and 1/3 are studied in this kind. We find the low-energy excitations of the ν = 1 and 1/3 are bosonic edge spin waves. Instabilities of these ferromagnetic state with altering confinement strength result from the softening of these spin waves and formation of edge spin textures. A microscopic trial wave function is used to study the edge instabilities of larger systems with particle number up to 40, and the obtained results are consistent to the ones calculated by exact diagonalization. The second kind of QH liquids is spin-unpolarized QH liquids. The liquids with ν = 2, 2/5 and 2/3 are studied in this kind. When ν = 2, exact diagonalization on edge electron systems indicates that compact Hartree-Fock states with different total spin always become ground states in some regions of parameter space, and the ground states appearing between two compact states are their edge spin waves. The initial ν = 2 instability is toward the compact state with total spin 1. At ν = 2/5, the edge instabilities is also triggered by softening of the edge spin waves with smoother confinement. The situation of ν = 2/3 unpolarized QH liquids is a little different, because it has one backward-moving edge spin wave mode and one forward-moving magnetoplasmon mode. There is no mystery about what kind of instability would occur with stronger or smoother confinement. The exact diagonalization calculation of finite systems can reproduce the instability induced by edge spin wave at the stronger confinement side and gives an estimate about the critical value of confining potential. But instability due to edge magnetoplasmon mode can not be realized in small size systems because of the high velocity of this mode. The last kind is the non-Abelian QH liquid (at ν = 5/2). Its edge instability triggered by softening of edge magnetoplasmon excitations with smoother confinement. Three different confinements are compared in the study of integer QH liquids in finite size systems. And some quantitative predictions on the edge instabilities for a certain type of confining potential are reached in the thermodynamic limit. The effect of Zeeman splitting to the edge instabilities is also considered in this dissertation.