Interplay among spin, orbital effects and localization in a GaAs two-dimensional electron gas in a strong in-plane magnetic field

The magnetoresistance of a low carrier density, disordered GaAs based two-dimensional (2D) electron gas has been measured in parallel magnetic fields up to 32 T. The feature in the resistance associated with the complete spin polarization of the carriers shifts down by more than 20 T as the electron density is reduced, consistent with recent theories taking into account the enhancement of the electron-electron interactions at low densities. Nevertheless, the magnetic field for complete polarization, Bp, remains 2-3 times smaller than predicted for a disorder free system. We show, in particular by studying the temperature dependance of Bp to probe the effective size of the Fermi sea, that localization plays an important role in determining the spin polarization of a 2D electron gas.Comment: Published in the Physical Review

Tuning Energy Relaxation along Quantum Hall Channels

The chiral edge channels in the quantum Hall regime are considered ideal ballistic quantum channels, and have quantum information processing potentialities. Here, we demonstrate experimentally, at filling factor 2, the efficient tuning of the energy relaxation that limits quantum coherence and permits the return toward equilibrium. Energy relaxation along an edge channel is controllably enhanced by increasing its transmission toward a floating ohmic contact, in quantitative agreement with predictions. Moreover, by forming a closed inner edge channel loop, we freeze energy exchanges in the outer channel. This result also elucidates the inelastic mechanisms at work at filling factor 2, informing us in particular that those within the outer edge channel are negligible.Comment: 8 pages including supplementary materia

Photovoltaic Probe of Cavity Polaritons in a Quantum Cascade Structure

The strong coupling between an intersubband excitation in a quantum cascade structure and a photonic mode of a planar microcavity has been detected by angle-resolved photovoltaic measurements. A typical anticrossing behavior, with a vacuum-field Rabi splitting of 16 meV at 78K, has been measured, for an intersubband transition at 163 meV. These results show that the strong coupling regime between photons and intersubband excitations can be engineered in a quantum cascade opto-electronic device. They also demonstrate the possibility to perform angle-resolved mid-infrared photodetection and to develop active devices based on intersubband cavity polaritons.Comment: submitted to Applied Physics Letter

Noise dephasing in the edge states of the Integer Quantum Hall regime

An electronic Mach Zehnder interferometer is used in the integer quantum hall regime at filling factor 2, to study the dephasing of the interferences. This is found to be induced by the electrical noise existing in the edge states capacitively coupled to each others. Electrical shot noise created in one channel leads to phase randomization in the other, which destroys the interference pattern. These findings are extended to the dephasing induced by thermal noise instead of shot noise: it explains the underlying mechanism responsible for the finite temperature coherence time $\tau_\phi(T)$ of the edge states at filling factor 2, measured in a recent experiment. Finally, we present here a theory of the dephasing based on Gaussian noise, which is found in excellent agreement with our experimental results.Comment: ~4 pages, 4 figure