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APhO2015 Theo Prob1

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40 views4 pages

APhO2015 Theo Prob1

Uploaded by

Abhi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Question 1

The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) was discovered by D. C. Tsui and H.
Stormer at Bell Labs in 1981. In the experiment electrons were confined in two
dimensions on the GaAs side by the interface potential of a GaAs/AlGaAs
heterojunction fabricated by A. C. Gossard (here we neglect the thickness of the
two-dimensional electron layer). A strong uniform magnetic field 𝐵𝐵 was applied
perpendicular to the two-dimensional electron system. As illustrated in Figure 1, when
a current 𝐼𝐼 was passing through the sample, the voltage 𝑉𝑉H across the current path
exhibited an unexpected quantized plateau (corresponding to a Hall resistance 𝑅𝑅H =
3ℎ/𝑒𝑒 2 ) at sufficiently low temperatures. The appearance of the plateau would imply
the presence of fractionally charged quasiparticles in the system, which we analyze
below. For simplicity, we neglect the scattering of the electrons by random potential,
as well as the electron spin.

(a) In a classical model, two-dimensional electrons behave like charged billiard balls
on a table. In the GaAs/AlGaAs sample, however, the mass of the electrons is
reduced to an effective mass 𝑚𝑚∗ due to their interaction with ions.
(i) (2 point) Write down the equation of motion of an electron in perpendicular
electric field 𝐸𝐸�⃗ = −𝐸𝐸𝑦𝑦 𝑦𝑦� and magnetic field 𝐵𝐵
�⃗ = 𝐵𝐵𝑧𝑧̂ .

(ii) (1 point) Determine the velocity 𝑣𝑣s of the electrons in the stationary case.
(iii) (1 point) Which direction is the velocity pointing at?

(b) (2 points) The Hall resistance is defined as 𝑅𝑅H = 𝑉𝑉H /𝐼𝐼. In the classical model,
find 𝑅𝑅H as a function of the number of the electrons 𝑁𝑁 and the magnetic flux
𝜙𝜙 = 𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵 = 𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵 , where 𝐴𝐴 is the area of the sample, and 𝑊𝑊 and 𝐿𝐿 the
effective width and length of the sample, respectively.

(c) (2 points) We know that electrons move in circular orbits in the magnetic field. In
the quantum mechanical picture, the impinging magnetic field 𝐵𝐵 could be
viewed as creating tiny whirlpools, so-called vortices, in the sea of
electrons—one whirlpool for each flux quantum ℎ/𝑒𝑒 of the magnetic field,
where ℎ is the Planck's constant and 𝑒𝑒 the elementary charge of an electron.
For the case of 𝑅𝑅H = 3ℎ/𝑒𝑒 2 , which was discovered by Tsui and Stormer, derive
the ratio of the number of the electrons 𝑁𝑁 to the number of the flux quanta 𝑁𝑁𝜙𝜙 ,

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known as the filling factor ν.

Figure 1: (a) Sketch of the experimental setup for the observation of the FQHE. As indicated, a
current 𝐼𝐼 is passing through a two-dimensional electron system in the longitudinal direction with
an effective length 𝐿𝐿. The Hall voltage 𝑉𝑉H is measured in the transverse direction with an effective
width 𝑊𝑊. In addition, a uniform magnetic field 𝐵𝐵 is applied perpendicular to the plane. The
direction of the current is given for illustrative purpose only, which may not be correct. (b) Hall
resistance 𝑅𝑅H versus 𝐵𝐵 at four different temperatures (curves shifted for clarity) in the original
publication on the FQHE. The features at 𝑅𝑅H = 3ℎ/𝑒𝑒 2 are due to the FQHE.

(d) (2 points) It turns out that binding an integer number of vortices (𝑛𝑛 > 1) with
each electron generates a bigger surrounding whirlpool, hence pushes away all
other electrons. Therefore, the system can considerably reduce its electrostatic

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Coulomb energy at the corresponding filling factor. Determine the scaling
exponent 𝛼𝛼 of the amount of energy gain for each electron Δ𝑈𝑈(𝐵𝐵) ∝ 𝐵𝐵 α .

(e) (2 points) As the magnetic field deviates from the exact filling ν = 1/𝑛𝑛 to a
higher field, more vortices (whirlpools in the electron sea) are being created.
They are not bound to electrons and behave like particles carrying effectively
positive charges, hence known as quasiholes, compared to the negatively charged
electrons. The amount of charge deficit in any of these quasiholes amounts to
exactly 1/𝑛𝑛 of an electronic charge. An analogous argument can be made for
magnetic fields slightly below ν and the creation of quasielectrons of negative
charge 𝑒𝑒 ∗ = −𝑒𝑒/𝑛𝑛. At the quantized Hall plateau of 𝑅𝑅H = 3ℎ/𝑒𝑒 2 , calculate the
amount of change in 𝐵𝐵 that corresponds to the introduction of exactly one
fractionally charged quasihole. (When their density is low, the quasiparticles are
confined by the random potential generated by impurities and imperfections,
hence the Hall resistance remains quantized for a finite range of 𝐵𝐵.)

(f) In Tsui et al. experiment,


the magnetic field corresponding to the center of the quantized Hall plateau
𝑅𝑅H = 3ℎ/𝑒𝑒 2 , 𝐵𝐵1/3 = 15 Tesla,

the effective mass of an electron in GaAs, 𝑚𝑚∗ = 0.067 𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑒 ,


the electron mass, 𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑒 = 9.1 × 10−31 kg,
Coulomb's constant, 𝑘𝑘 = 9.0 × 109 N ∙ m2 /C2 ,
the vacuum permittivity, ε0 = 1/4π𝑘𝑘 = 8.854 × 10−12 F/m,
the relative permittivity (the ratio of the permittivity of a substance to the vacuum
permittivity) of GaAs, ε𝑟𝑟 = 13,
the elementary charge, 𝑒𝑒 = 1.6 × 10−19 C,
Planck's constant, ℎ = 6.626 × 10−34 J ∙ s, and
Boltzmann's constant, 𝑘𝑘B = 1.38 × 10−23 J/K.
In our analysis, we have neglected several factors, whose corresponding energy
scales, compared to Δ𝑈𝑈(𝐵𝐵) discussed in (d), are either too large to excite or too
small to be relevant.
(i) (1 point) Calculate the thermal energy 𝐸𝐸th at temperature 𝑇𝑇 = 1.0 K.
(ii) (2 point) The electrons spatially confined in the whirlpools (or vortices) have
a large kinetic energy. Using the uncertainty relation, estimate the order of
magnitude of the kinetic energy. (This amount would also be the additional
energy penalty if we put two electrons in the same whirlpool, instead of in
two separate whirlpools, due to Pauli exclusion principle.)

(g) There are also a series of plateaus at 𝑅𝑅H = ℎ/𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 2 , where 𝑖𝑖 = 1, 2, 3, … in Tsui et
al. experiment, as shown in Figure 1(b). These plateaus, known as the integer
quantum Hall effect (IQHE), were reported previously by K. von Klitzing in 1980.
Repeating (c)-(f) for the integer plateaus, one realizes that the novelty of the
FQHE lies critically in the existence of fractionally charged quasiparticles. R.

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de-Picciotto et al. and L. Saminadayar et al. independently reported the
observation of fractional charges at the ν = 1/3 filling in 1997. In the
experiments, they measured the noise in the charge current across a narrow
constriction, the so-called quantum point contact (QPC). In a simple statistical
model, carriers with discrete charge 𝑒𝑒 ∗ tunnel across the QPC and generate
charge current IB (on top of a trivial background). The number of the carriers 𝑛𝑛τ
arriving at the electrode during a sufficiently small time interval τ obeys Poisson
probability distribution with parameter λ

λ𝑘𝑘 e−λ
P(𝑛𝑛τ = 𝑘𝑘) =
𝑘𝑘!

where 𝑘𝑘! is the factorial of 𝑘𝑘. You may need the following summation
∞
λ
λ𝑘𝑘
e =�
𝑘𝑘!
k=0

(i) (2 point) Determine the charge current 𝐼𝐼B , which measures total charge per
unit of time, in terms of λ and τ.
(ii) (2 points) Current noise is defined as the charge fluctuations per unit of time.
One can analyze the noise by measuring the mean square deviation of the
number of current-carrying charges. Determine the current noise 𝑆𝑆𝐼𝐼 due to
the discreteness of the current-carrying charges in terms of λ and τ.
(iii) (1 point) Calculate the noise-to-current ratio 𝑆𝑆𝐼𝐼 /𝐼𝐼B , which was verified by R.
de-Picciotto et al. and L. Saminadayar et al. in 1997. (One year later, Tsui
and Stormer shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with R. B. Laughlin, who
proposed an elegant ansatz for the ground state wave function at ν = 1/3.)

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