Massive skyrmions in quantum Hall ferromagnets

We apply the theory of elasticity to study the effects of skyrmion mass on lattice dynamics in quantum Hall systems. We find that massive Skyrme lattices behave like a Wigner crystal in the presence of a uniform perpendicular magnetic field. We make a comparison with the microscopic Hartree-Fock results to characterize the mass of quantum Hall skyrmions at $\nu=1$ and investigate how the low temperature phase of Skyrme lattices may be affected by the skyrmion mass.Comment: 6 pages and 2 figure

Electronic States of Magnetic Quantum Dots

We study quantum states of electrons in magnetically doped quantum dots as a function of exchange coupling between electron and impurity spins, the strength of Coulomb interaction, confining potential, and the number of electrons. The magnetic phase diagram of quantum dots, doped with a large number of magnetic Mn impurities, can be described by the energy gap in the spectrum of electrons and the mean field electron-Mn exchange coupling. A competition between these two parameters leads to a transition between spin-unpolarized and spin-polarized states, in the absence of applied magnetic field. Tuning the energy gap by electrostatic control of nonparabolicity of the confining potential can enable control of magnetization even at the fixed number of electrons. We illustrate our findings by directly comparing Mn-doped quantum dots with parabolic and Gaussian confining potential.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, Part of Focus on Spintronics in Reduced Dimension

Quantum fluctuations of classical skyrmions in quantum Hall Ferromagnets

In this article, we discuss the effect of the zero point quantum fluctuations to improve the results of the minimal field theory which has been applied to study %SMG the skyrmions in the quantum Hall systems. Our calculation which is based on the semiclassical treatment of the quantum fluctuations, shows that the one-loop quantum correction provides more accurate results for the minimal field theory.Comment: A few errors are corrected. Accepted for publication in Rapid Communication, Phys. Rev.

Finite Temperature Behavior of the ν=1\nu=1 Quantum Hall Effect in Bilayer Electron Systems

An effective field theoretic description of $\nu=1$ bilayer electron systems stabilized by Coulomb repulsion in a single wide quantum well is examined using renormalization group techniques. The system is found to undergo a crossover from a low temperature strongly correlated quantum Hall state to a high temperature compressible state. This picture is used to account for the recent experimental observation of an anomalous transition in bilayer electron systems (T. S. Lay, {\em et al.} Phys. Rev. B {\bf 50}, 17725 (1994)). An estimate for the crossover temperature is provided, and it is shown that its dependence on electron density is in reasonable agreement with i the experiment.Comment: Corrected typos, and changed content, 5 pages and 2 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev.

The field theory of Skyrme lattices in quantum Hall ferromagnets

We report the application of the nonlinear $\sigma$ model to study the multi-skyrmion problem in the quantum Hall ferromagnet system. We show that the ground state of the system can be described by a ferromagnet triangular Skyrme lattice near $\nu=1$ where skyrmions are extremely dilute. We find a transition into antiferromagnet square lattice by increasing the skyrmion density and therefore $|\nu-1|$. We investigate the possibility that the square Skyrme lattice deforms to a single skyrmion with the same topological charge when the Zeeman energy is extremely smaller than the Coulomb energy. We explicitly show that the energy of a skyrmion with charge two is less than the energy of two skyrmions each with charge one when $g \leq g_c$. By taking the quantum fluctuations into account, we also argue the possibility of the existence of a non-zero temperature Kosterlitz-Thouless and a superconductor-insulator phase transition.Comment: 17 page

Ratchet-Like Solitonic Transport in Quantum Hall Bilayers

The pseudo-spin model for double layer quantum Hall system with total landau level filling factor $\nu=1$ is discussed. Unlike the "traditional" one where interlayer voltage enters as static magnetic field along pseudo- spin hard axis, in our model we consider applied interlayer voltage as a frequency of precessing pseudo-magnetic field lying into the easy plane. It is shown that a Landau-Lifshitz equation for the considered pseudo magnetic system well describes existing experimental data. Besides that, the mentioned model predicts novel directed intra-layer transport phenomenon in the system: unidirectional intra-layer energy transport is realized due to interlayer voltage induced motion of topological kinks. This effect could be observed experimentally detecting counter-propagating intra-layer inhomogeneous charge currents which are proportional to the interlayer voltage and total topological charge of the pseudo-spin system.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Hole concentration in a diluted ferromagnetic semiconductor

We consider a mean-field approach to the hole-mediated ferromagnetism in III-V Mn-based semiconductor compounds to discuss the dependence of the hole density on that of Mn sites in Ga_{1-x}Mn_xAs. The hole concentration, p, as a function of the fraction of Mn sites, x, is parametrized in terms of the product m*J_{pd}^2 (where m* is the hole effective mass and J_{pd} is the Kondo-like hole/local-moment coupling), and the critical temperature Tc. By using experimental data for these quantities, we have established the dependence of the hole concentration with x, which can be associated with the occurrence of a reentrant metal-insulator transition taking place in the hole gas. We also calculate the dependence of the Mn magnetization with x, for different temperatures (T), and found that as T increases, the width of the composition-dependent magnetization decreases drammatically, and that the magnetization maxima also decreases, indicating the need for quality-control of Mn-doping composition in diluted magnetic semiconductor devices.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, RevTeX 3; Fig. 1 changed, new references adde

Charge Sensing of an Artificial H2+ Molecule

We report charge detection studies of a lateral double quantum dot with controllable charge states and tunable tunnel coupling. Using an integrated electrometer, we characterize the equilibrium state of a single electron trapped in the doubled-dot (artificial H2+ molecule) by measuring the average occupation of one dot. We present a model where the electrostatic coupling between the molecule and the sensor is taken into account explicitly. From the measurements, we extract the temperature of the isolated electron and the tunnel coupling energy. It is found that this coupling can be tuned between 0 and 60 micro electron-volt in our device.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Revised version with added material. To be published in Physical Review

Charge and spin distributions in GaMnAs/GaAs Ferromagnetic Multilayers

A self-consistent electronic structure calculation based on the Luttinger-Kohn model is performed on GaMnAs/GaAs multilayers. The Diluted Magnetic Semiconductor layers are assumed to be metallic and ferromagnetic. The high Mn concentration (considered as 5% in our calculation) makes it possible to assume the density of magnetic moments as a continuous distribution, when treating the magnetic interaction between holes and the localized moment on the Mn(++) sites. Our calculation shows the distribution of heavy holes and light holes in the structure. A strong spin-polarization is observed, and the charge is concentrated mostly on the GaMnAs layers, due to heavy and light holes with their total angular momentum aligned anti-parallel to the average magnetization. The charge and spin distributions are analyzed in terms of their dependence on the number of multilayers, the widths of the GaMnAs and GaAs layers, and the width of lateral GaAs layers at the borders of the structure.Comment: 12 pages,7 figure